I bet you’ve heard this: “You wouldn’t steal a car, you
shouldn’t steal a movie. Piracy is stealing.”
Ring a bell? This is something
that typically shows before you can watch your favorite DVD. The MPAA (Motion
Picture Association of America) is responsible for bringing you that message.
They are the trade association that represents the biggest six movie studios
that make practically every Hollywood movie: Viacom, Time Warner, Sony, Walt
Disney Company, Comcast, and News Corp. In the past decade, the MPAA has made
its presence extremely known, being one of the strongest advocates and loudest
voices against piracy. Piracy is a loosely defined term that generally refers
to the illegal downloading and sharing of copyrighted material. While it is
illegal, it is almost impossible to enforce, since the Internet allows for the
rapid and private sharing of such material. The most present forms of piracy
today are the illegal downloading of movies and music. However, unlike the MPAA
likes to believe, piracy is not the problem. Instead, piracy is the symptom of
an outdated business model.
Since we keep mentioning the MPAA, let’s talk about movies.
The average movie ticket in the United States is $8 (GOOD). Most people don’t
go to movies alone, so that price for an hour and a half of entertainment is
typically higher. The price of a monthly Netflix subscription: $8. See the
issue here? As of 2006, the average cost of a movie was $66 million, adding
marking costs: $106 million. Another fact: (adding for inflation) The Hangover
II cost more than twice to make than The Godfather did. The Godfather is widely
accepted as one of the best movies of the last fifty years. (For more data:GOOD )
The problem is clear: movies cost way more than they need
to, and that outrageous price is being passed on to the movie theaters, and
then on to the consumers. The result? People pirate movies. It’s a very simple
cost-benefit analysis. The cost: free. The benefit: the same
entertainment as going out. What the MPAA is trying to do is demonize pirating
movies, where the piracy is instead a result of their poor business model.
Netflix and other services have become a great, legal avenue for consuming
movies, but as many know, the selection is pitiful. That is because the
companies that the MPAA represent produce a majority of today’s hit movies, but
they refuse to strike a good deal with streaming services, so new movies take
months to get onto streaming services. Why? Because streaming services do not
produce the same kind of revenue that DVD and movie ticket sales do. Even after
the movie is released to purchase, the price is still too high. $20 for a DVD,
and in some cases, $20 for the same download? People want to consume large amounts of a variety of content, and don’t care to keep a copy for themselves.
Piracy just seems like the easiest avenue for that desire.
The solution is clear: support streaming services like
Netflix that are even easier than
pirating, and make the amount of content available on these services equivalent
to piracy. Many users would be more than willing to fork out $8-$10 a month for
a service that allows them to consume endless amounts of content. More
importantly: the movie industry need to spend less on producing the same
generic movies, and instead work with smaller budgets and better scripts. The
generic romantic comedy does not need to cost as much as Inception. The movie industry needs to change the way they do
business if they want to stop piracy. The scary alternative is that they will
continue to influence our government, and something like SOPA or PIPPA will
soon become a reality.
Another, very similar form of piracy is that of music. The symptom
represents the same general problem: an outdated business model. People pirate
music for the simple reason that it is far easier to click a button to have an
entire discography of a newly discovered artist than to hunt for a place that
would host the same amount of content. Remember when it was a huge deal that
iTunes finally got The Beatles? It represents the problem perfectly. The
Beatles are long gone, (most of them) so who cares about the profits from the
music, or how it is distributed? The agents and producers, that’s who. It is
the problem that kills good talent and praises generic fell-good-songs. The
current model: make and produce music that will quickly hit #1, let it die, the
go do it again. It focuses on the quick sell for the generic pop song, rather
than meaningful and good music.
When
an album goes platinum, while it is great for the artist, they don’t actually
receive much profit. Instead, they have to make their profit from concerts and
tours. That is why piracy is a symptom, and far from a problem. Most artists
don’t even put up much of a fret when their music is pirated. That means people
like it, and that their name is getting out there. Jeremy Messersmith (out of
Minnesota), uses a pay-what-you-want model. You can go to his site, and
download all of his songs for free if you want. That is how I started listening
to him, because his music was so readily available. I then wound up going to
two of his concerts, and gladly forking out some money to do so. Many music-enthusiasts share the same experience: they love discovering and listening to new music, and as a result, attend more concerts and listen to more music.
Once
again – the answer is pretty simple. Make music so infinitely and readily
available in an affordable manner that people would rather do that then pirate.
However, the music industry is adapting much quicker than the movie industry.
Spotify is a great example – people pay a monthly subscription and get to
listen to and download as much music as they desire. Artists want to get on Spotify. Their name
spreads as easy as any other.
“You
wouldn’t steal a car..” so don’t pirate. Well – if I could make a copy of a car
at no cost to me or the original car, well, yeah I would “steal a car.” Piracy
is not a problem in today’s society. It is a symptom of a greater problem: an
outdated and ignorant business model. Working to change the way the
entertainment industry makes money according to today’s Internet society, will
not stop piracy (people will still be cheap), but it will definitely bring media
consumers back to a legal form of doing so.
Example of good music, and an artist who supports the new model of business:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RwW6ERgpvo
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