Movie Piracy: Good for the Consumer, Bad for the Film Industry

Unless you have lived under a rock for the previous decade, then you know of how easy it is to watch newly released films online. Watching pirated films online is as easy as turning the internet on and doing a quick search, many films of which are still currently in theaters. To the consumer the ability to watch nearly any film, even films currently in theaters, seems like a great deal, but who does it actually hurt? This article will examine the pros and cons of movie piracy from the perspective of the average consumer and the film industry.

Movie Piracy: Good for the consumer

As a college student, I see movie piracy in nearly every dorm room, whether that is a bootleg DVD or a student watching a newly released movie on the internet. My college towns' movie theater is relatively small; therefore, newly released movies that are not anticipated blockbusters are rarely available. Pirated movies are attractive because they are free, can be watched anywhere, and are readily convenient from any place with internet access.

The pirated versions of the movies are often lacking in quality when first released, but improve almost instantly when DVD versions are released. The quality is some cases are near DVD quality, which allows the consumer to have no aversion to the pirated copy vs. the legal copy besides moral conscience.

What has the film industry done to ease piracy for the consumer?

Let us start by examining Netflix and Hulu. Both sites offer quality movies and TV shows within in the rights of the film and TV industry. I am currently a Netflix subscriber and use the "watch instantly" service every week. The" watch instantly" section of Netflix offers many new and past released movies as well as popular TV show sessions such as Prison Break and Dexter. This service is great because the cost of my Netflix subscription in under $20/month, but I often find myself scrounging for new releases. Of course, I have the ability to mail away for new movies, but with my subscription, I can only access one movie rental at a time.

Would consumers benefit from the movie industry offering a feasible solution to piracy?

Pirating movies off the internet is dangerous to the consumer in terms of viruses and malware, which can cause identity theft, computer failure, and lots of other trouble. As a consumer, I would be willing to watch a newly released movie on a subscription based service, such as Netflix, with advertisement if it meant availability. The movie industry makes a large portion of their profit in DVD sales, however, consumers often do not purchase a DVD to watch it once, but purchase it if the movie was worth owning.

Movie Piracy: Bad for the film industry

According to mpaa.org, we should all care about movie piracy because declining DVD and box-office sales will result in fewer high budget movies and limited releases. Consumers agree with this statement, but it does not stop the masses from turning to piracy instead of legal copies.

As an economist, I can sympathize with the argument that piracy hurts the movie industry, which in turn cannot thrive without additional sales and investment. The biggest challenge for the movie industry is to find a delicate balance between increasing sales and fighting piracy. Pirated DVD quality is poor, and often a struggle to watch, but increasing technologies have internet movie piracy more sophisticated. The industry enforces the law, which states that camcording (practice of taping movies in theaters) for financial or commercial gain could result in 5-years prison time and fines up to $250,000. However, with a slew of movie pirates, stopping the practice entirely is virtually impossible.

Overall: Possible solutions?

As consumers, we have the responsibility to purchase our movie rentals from legal sources in order to help the film industry grow. The argument for purchasing movies legally is sound, without consumers purchasing movies legally there would be little room for investment in high priced new releases. Piracy is virtually unstoppable as demonstrated in the past decade with the expansion of the internet. However, would it be plausible for the film and TV industry to make newer releases available on subscription-based sites as Netflix with advertisement or a small additional fee? If profit is the bottom line then the film industry has to meet consumers halfway and offer more accessibility to content, otherwise piracy will remain popular.

Sources:

http://www.mpaa.org/contentprotection/faq