Piracy 101

Very good arguments. Piracy as defined by the RIAA, MPAA, etc is a far more complex matter than they understand. They’re hurting their own business by not figuring out how to exploit the spread of media through piracy instead of pointlessly trying to stop it.

Some companies are figuring out that free is the new way to make money. Those companies will survive and the dinosaurs will fall.

When the public decides it wants something, all the propaganda and laws you can create will not stop the tide. Media businesses need to get smart and adapt to the changing times. Sooner or later, they will have to. 

There are so many films I would love to see but can’t afford or just aren’t available on home video.  There’s such a small sliver of the films made that still exist available on home video.  Thousands of hours of film that aren’t making anybody money by sitting in vaults!

Ad-supported downloads or even ad-streaming watching would be the way to go.  The companies would earn money but at the same time fans and non-paying schlubs could get the films, too.

A modest fee of maybe half a rental price ($2-$3) would be fair a feature-length movie (80 minutes or more), and perhaps 50cents-75cents for each half hour of TV or 30-45 minute short?  I think 15-25 cents would be fair for 7-minute theatrical shorts like Looney Tunes.  I’m talking downloads to own, of course.  (Ain’t gonna happen though at those prices...)

They don’t have to hi-def downloads since most of us don’t have hi-def monitors and frankly could do with a smaller download size to watch on iPod or burn on a standard DVD.  Anything above 600MB is a chore to download for sure!

It seems like an obvious conclusion but the companies still haven’t realized this.

This is something also discussed for anime producers since they are having a huge problem—worse than Hollywood—with bootlegs and downloads. 

Seriously, the current business models are working even less for them and the download is hurting them worse since they’re a much smaller industry and have an even smaller paying base of fans in the US and Japan.

Posted by  on  07/01  at  08:36 AM

Most people, including myself, use things like Bittorrent to download TV shows, which are free anyway. I don’t download movies since the quality usually sucks. I just rent them. I have downloaded some anime, but its stuff from the 80s I have already seen before (and again were free TV shows I used to have on VHS).

However, the bottom line is, the old business models for media sales are changing and companies have to get with the times, like it or not. Fair or not. The public will do what it wants. Times change.

Posted by  on  07/01  at  11:33 AM
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