Piracy is defined as the unauthorized reproduction or use of a copyrighted book, recording, television program, patented invention, trademarked product, etc. and in recent years it has become a major problem for the film industry to control.
Most pirated films are recorded in early cinema screenings of the film, therefore the quality is usually extremely low and can include things such as people walking across the frame, background noises and a very shaky camera. Compared to the quality of watching a film in the cinema or on DVD, the quality of a pirated video is very poor. However apart from this there are no other real cons for the audience, as the main losers in this situation are the institutions. This includes the cinemas showing the movie to the production/distribution companies as the box office sales are reduced so the film is making less money overall. In 2009 an article was published in The Telegraph newspaper stating that if film piracy was tackled in the UK it would generate £614m for the UK economy, showing the extent of how much money is being illegally “taken” from different institutions all across the country and going towards criminal operations.
There are 3 factors to the business of film and how the film is managed and distributed to maximize profits for each film, and these are time, geography and technology:
TIME - this is essentially when and how the film becomes available to everyone, therefore this means that the earlier piracy occurs from when the film is initially released, or even beforehand if the pirated copy is filmed at an early screening of the film, the greater the loss of revenue is across even more markets within the production of the film.
GEOGRAPHY - this is where the film becomes available at different times based on the nature of copyright. For example most film are released earlier in the US because it is the largest single revenue generating country for film. Current technology means that first a film is released in the cinema then DVD before reaching television, even then the film will only be available on pay-per-view before free-air television. This sequence is designed to maximize profits in every way possible by making sure the film is only available to watch for free at the last possible moment. The huge range of different businesses and production costs put into the making of the one film means that if piracy occurs the loss of money is felt in all markets involved.
In 2002 the actual revenue loss for the UK film industry due to physical film piracy was estimated to be around £400 million, £70 million more than the previous year. This along with many other different and more recent statistics show us that film piracy in the UK is massively on the the rise and this will become an increasingly big problem for film industries all around the world.
However, though so many industries and people are suffering from film piracy, millions of people all over the world are benefitting from it too. In terms of physical piracy the DVDs, videos, etc are being sold to people at a lower price that one would pay if they were to purchase the hard copy from a legal store or off the internet meaning that less affluent people have more access to hard copies of films than would otherwise be the case. The audience also benefits in that they are able to watch almost any film or program ever made anywhere in the world in the comfort of their own home. Without the internet, access to digital media that was released any time before around a few years ago would be almost impossible to watch as it would be no longer being made on DVD, no longer in cinema, and very rarely being shown on television. Copied films and programs on the internet provides people all around the world with a huge library of resources which can be used to there advantage at any time in almost any place.
Some people also argue that film piracy also is a greater benefit to the film industry than people realise because new releases of films on the internet builds up excitement for the the movie, and when people watch the movie online and like it but do not get the full experience of the film because of poor quality, lack of 3D technology, etc they will be more inclined to go the the cinema to watch it or buy the DVD. The argument is still up for debate on digital film piracy as there are clearly many pros and cons for numbers of different groups of people, however the issue does seem impossible to control as the way that any film is distributed is no longer just in the film industry’s hands.
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