Why is Piracy Considered a Crime
In 2007, the entertainment movies industry generated a surplus of .6 billion. However, imagine how much higher than number could have been if people didn't illegally download films, says Academy Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh. In the past, the pirated movies were grainy and of poor quality, taped with hidden cameras tucked inside a person's coat. Today, more and more pristine copies of top movies are emerging before they're released to theaters or within hours from inside sources. While authorities scramble to figure out how to nip this trend in the bud, the impact of illegal downloading is still being assessed.
The Dark Knight was the biggest hit at the box office in 2008 and also the most pirated movie, according to data collected by www.torrentfreak.com. The movie raked in $1 billion at theaters worldwide but was also downloaded 7.03 million times. According to TorrentFreak, "Comments on various BitTorrent sites reveal that many downloaders obtained an illegal copy after they had already watched the movie in the movie theater." Perhaps the window of time with films is interfering with the consumers' desire to have immediate access. Thomas Rubin, chief counsel for Intellectual Property Strategy at Microsoft, suggests that many people download new movies and music not because they want to steal it for free, but because they want access and more flexible ways to consume it.
Yet even more prevalent than download sites are peer-to-peer sharing networks, which allow people access to other people's downloaded films. File sharing networks like Pirate Bay and Mininova were responsible for 17 million shared copies of Watchmen, 13 million copies of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and an astounding number of shared TV shows like Heroes (54.5 million) and Lost (51 million). Authorities around the world are looking at new ways to curb illegal file sharing, going so far as to block internet users' access if they're caught downloading or issuing prison sentences for top offenders. Yet it seems that a little piracy does little damage to top movies like "Wolverine," which grossed an easy million in one weekend.
In April of 2009, The Pirate Bay, a popular source for pirated movies online, was shut down. Its administrators were forced to pay million in fines and spend a year in a Swedish prison. In the meantime, the websites www.mininova.org and www.isohunt.com picked up many of The Pirate Bay's followers and continued to be a source of on-demand films content. Perhaps in the future, film distributors will experiment with alternate distribution models that appeal to consumers' desire to have the movies they want, when they want and how they want; but, for now, the battle rages on.
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