Movie piracy is the unlawful copying and circulation of movies in print, videos, DVDs or electronic files; it is also the illegitimate accessing, showing, and selling of copyright guarded material such as movies and TV shows. Recent developments in digital machinery make server-based or peer-to-peer (P2P) folder sharing on the Internet suitable and comparatively quick (Johns 350). A pessimistic result of this new technology, though, is online larceny of copyrighted substance. This paper seeks to establish the predicaments of movie piracy, centring particularly the consequences of movie piracy, both negative and positive, on all the stakeholders, and the counter measures to effect on its reduction (movie piracy).
The effects of movie piracy are extensive and felt throughout the whole film industry. Some violators frequently feel that, through acting individually, they could not considerably affect the film industry because of the absolute size and financial accomplishment of the industry. However, the charges of piracy are frequently reproduced back upon customers in the shape of elevated prices. If the preponderance of movie lovers pirated movies the encouragement for persons to be innovative and to generate new and better movies would be significantly decreased since they might correctly fear that their labour would not be shielded. Without this protection, the profit-motive, the underpinning of our market-based society, can be tremendously diluted. The movie corporations may feel diminutive enticement to use up the essential resources to expand o new and innovative films.
In addition, when movies are pirated, the customers, movie makers, and resellers are affected. Those who provide faulty and unlawful movies are not likely to provide sales and technological support to the customers. Pirated movies habitually have insufficient certification and are mainly substandard which thwarts customers from benefit from the intended advantages of the movie package. The movie developers, on the other hand, lose proceeds from pirated films, from present merchandises in addition to future ones. When a movie is sold most stakeholders put in a fraction of the proceeds into future expansion and better movies. So when pirated, they lose proceeds from the sale of their products, which hinders development of new movies and throttles the expansion of the movie industry.
Another effect of movie piracy is the anticipation of Piracy. The anticipation of unlawful copying may cause some movies not to be advertised, because the producers do not suppose that legal sales would be adequate to recover the expenditures of production and circulation. In this scenario the loss to rights holders is the profits and royalties that would have been received had the product been produced and brought to market. Customers also endure a charge in these circumstances, equivalent to the difference between the values they would have placed on this product less the price they would have paid for it. Besides, there are also losses from piracy that do not directly concern revenues. Imitated copies of movies, for example, can disgrace the status of the movie makers in the eyes of audiences who see those imperfectly made copies.
Conversely, though minimal, there are some advantages of movie piracy. Most movie downloaders are teens, who have both the time to download mass collection of movies, but also do not have the money necessitated to buy them. However, Movie downloading does craft a love of movies, which might carry over when they become adults. And when this occurs, they won’t have the time to download the movies, in addition to them having the required money to buy movies with, thereby mounting movie sales in the long term.
All said the effects of piracy on the stakeholders including is much more harmful than beneficial. As movie piracy is unprincipled and unlawful against Copyright Protection Laws, movie reproducers are supposed to respect anti-piracy laws by not coddling in illegal imitation, downloading, selling, and circulation of movies in digital disc configurations. That is why The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) together with the Motion Picture Association (MPA) is vigorously engaged in fighting movie piracy. In addition, Criminal laws against piracy and counterfeiting are getting harsher day by day; the movie pirates are also legally responsible to pay heavy fines and are bound sentenced to jail if found guilty.
Great movies are produced by imaginative artists and technicians. Talents are displayed at tremendous costs which are exchanged when the movie is issued for viewing in theatres, viewing via DVD and mass media. Sometimes the circulation engages thorough marketing. Movies add significantly to the economy of a country. For instance, a key Hollywood movie production gives around 200, 000 per day to local financial systems when the actors use dozens of other businesses like hotels, and transportation (Johns 344). Once a movie is made, the distributors buy rights from creators and choose the number of copies to be hired out to theatres. In turn, the theatre owners coddle in a bid to buy the copy before showing in theatres for an approved time. If any reproduced accounts of the movie leaks out during this time it may cause enormous monetary damages to the producers, distributors and theatres. The harms will be even harsher, if the movie has to be discharged globally.
The movie industry must expend significant time and resources in combating piracy and filing lawsuits against violators and copyright infringers. Piracy end results in major losses of proceeds to the industry, the MPAA has approximated to be around $12.2 billion worldwide (MPAA 23).
To conclude, movie piracy is not only immoral but also hazardous to the economy. It is more harmful than beneficial as illustrated above. As much as the pirates benefit in the short run they are deemed to lose in the long run. So why indulge in such a practise while the movie industry and law enforcement officials are cracking down on them around the world. It does make no sense to be an activity which in the long run will be detrimental to oneself. The consumers are not spared either. This is because the shortcut savings enjoyed by downloading music increase the costs of legitimate product for everyone including honest retailers. The Honest retailers lose because they cannot battle with the prices proffered by illegal vendors, or free illegal downloads, thus less business meaning fewer jobs, jobs habitually filled by young adults. Finally, and possibly most significantly, the creative artists lose. Practically all artists (95%) depend on these fees to make a living (Rosen 23). The artists in addition depend on their reputes, which are harmed by the substandard quality of pirated copies sold to the public.
Movie Piracy should be shunned and avoided at all cost.
Work Cited
MPAA: Movie Piracy Is the New Plague,, 2009
Johns, A. Piracy; the Intellectual Property Wars. Chicago; the University of Chicago Press, 2009
Rosen, R., Movie and Copyright. Oxford Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2008
