Tuesday, April 29, 2008

What is Piracy?

What is Piracy? Piracy is the unauthorized reproduction or use of a copyrighted book, recording, television program, patented invention, trademarked product, etc. Today, billions of people download music from the internet onto their mp3 players and download movies onto burned CD's. Even though piracy is illegal many people choose to rebel against the law and provide the public with access to the world of entertainment for free.

In the United States, the movie studios have lost a total of $6.1 billion dollars worldwide, and $1.3 billion dollars due to piracy in the US alone. What do people download the most of the internet? Well according to a study in 2006, 60% of video files downloaded was adult-based, 20% were TV shows, and 5% were mainstream movies.

A survey in 2007 wanted to found out how many people choose to buy CD's vs how many people download music. Findings suggest that 43% of people download tracks without paying for them, an increase from 36% last year and 40% in 2005.

I believe that piracy will eventually destroy the movie and music industry. If movies and music cannot make money, then no more movies and music albums will be created. However, that's not entirely true. Harry Potter fans wait eagerly for the next movie to premier. After watching the movie fans may want to buy the pirated version to watch it over again. However, when the actual movie comes out onto DVD, fans will definitely run to the stores to buy the movie. As well, die-hard fans buy concert tickets to watch their favourite artist perform on stage. From one concert an artist can make millions of dollars.

"Piracy can be reversed if there's a will to do so," Mr. Hart said. But honestly, who's willing to pay for music and movies, when you can get them for free off of the internet?




This shows the loss of millions of dollars from software piracy around the world.

Sources

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070730.wgtpiracy30/BNStory/Technology/home

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_infringement_of_audio-visual_works

http://www.havocscope.com/wiki/Movie_Piracy

www.aic.gov.au/stats/crime/piracy/

No comments: