EFA Dismantles AFACT Study

First, I have no vested interests in either camp. If anything I am one of the common people for whom the idea of being able to download for free movies, music, books, programs, artwork, photos etc is very tempting. After all its like a victim-less crime. No body is directly being hurt so its not that big a deal. With the power of journalism comes great responsibility. This very important truth has lost respect in todays times of blog sites that anyone can set up or you tube followings etc. Anyone can now for little effort broadcast their opinions to the world – literally and the mechanisms that once existed to attempt to uphold the ideals of integrity in journalism have become ineffectual. It now falls on the individual writers more than it ever did to keep their ethical integrity intact. Whats my point? Well it is illegal to steal stuff that is not rightfully yours. It always has been and all ways will be. If your going to post blogs that undermine the what is the law because you disagree with it then don’t do so in a sneaky almost unaccountable way by throwing a few comments in regarding the above that only serve to promote the idea that stamping out piracy is a bad thing.

I don’t have any allegiance to or affection for the movie and music studios, especially when you take into account the possibly unjustifiable sums of money they make but I do know that you don’t start breaking laws or decide they are wrong because you suddenly can get away with breaking them easily, as is the case with piracy.
What prompted me to bring this up? Because you have taken an article that talks about the economic costs of piracy and chosen to comment on the probability of renewed action against piracy as “scary” and stated “different governments around the world continue to change legislation to make it easier for individuals to be sued by massive corporations for copyright theft, this is a troublesome thought”. I don’t believe I am taking these words out of context. Don’t get me wrong. I fully support a “push for movie studios to offer more and more legal, easy and affordable ways to access content” But there are many ways to skin a cat and while stealing from the studios makes them feel our desire for cheaper content with more convenience of access the act of the theft and piracy is still wrong in any language and anyone who says they believe in their heart of heats that its not is either blatantly lying or a sociopath (but Im no psychologist/psychiatrist). I am yet to read any blogger or commenter’s attempt to justify the act of piracy without them loosing their credibility the more the attempt to justify it.

If i decided to write some fiction stories in the hope of publishing them (lets hope I don’t because they would probably by be very bad) I would feel very angry frustrated and let down by all the people who sort and acquired illegal copies of my work (yes my time and effort that i personally did from which they now get enjoyment) with out paying me which would have encouraged me to try to produce more their enjoyment.

If you are going to infer that tackling piracy is a bad thing then lets hear it! Show some balls and tell us all why it is bad. But do it in a balanced, researched and as much as possible impartial way. Even better come up with a well thought out constructive alternative that still upholds what at least for the moment in our society is a basic cornerstone rule that allows us all to live together – Thou shalt not steal. – I’m not religious either, its just common sense.

In order to claim a loss the report would need to provide their year on year profit growth – if thier profit grows in line or ahead of cpi and average wage increases (i.e. assuming there are more people with more money to spend on movies this year than 10 years ago say) then it would indicate we are only prepared to spend roughly the same proportion of our household income on movies as in the past and that downloads in reality only account for people watching movies they otherwise would not have spent cash on ==> no real loss.

I still buy the same number of movies I always have – basically the stuff that grabs me. Most people are the same for whatever their key tastes are for the rest of the plethora of released *bleh* it’s take it or leave it – at best we would rent it maybe once, maybe buy it when it’s on sale if we like it.

Alternative distribution channels and rental do tend to lead themselves to exploration – people are prepared to watch as the risk of wasted money is lower and as a result may discover new genre’s/actors/directors that in turn lead them to consdering purchase for similar future releases.

Movie distributers wake up : if the 1.3 billion was real then you are insane for not figuring out how to cash in on it .. here’s some tips :

- Make it faster and simpler than the competition (p2p) .. if joe average can get the movie faster without the mess of needing seeds etc. you are winning

- keep the price low – make it the same as an average rental for ad free or include adds in the movie file. Sure you like the full price but that’s not competitive and use a little calculus here – aim for the price that is reasonable by the majority and the majority will spend it ==> money you don’t make now (not lose you just don’t make it)

- above all make it as useable as DVD or dowloaded pirate files are now . Face facts DVD plays in any room on pretty much any equipment, priate files play on a smaller but still large % of different types of equipment.. Distro models like iTune$ just don’t match up – I won’t spend more than the price of a DVD for something that is less flexible and usable, so stop punishing legitimate purchasers with arbitrary restrictions that don’t actually stop piracy !

Accept that pirating will happen but probably not by the majority if you make it flexible, simple and attractively priced ==> more money for you, better outcome for consumers