The movie and music industry are among the biggest and most profitable industries in current times. These industries are best known for their entertainment value but entertainment is not the bottom line as far as these two massive industries are concerned. The industries are also delved deep in informing the public and education. These two industries are well involved in disseminating information to the masses and informing the public about mainstream issues affecting mainstream life “music is the shorthand of emotion” (leo Nikolayevich). Due to the profit and sheer size of these two industries they have attracted a lot of piracy. Piracy is the process by which people steal either music or movies from their producers. After stealing these music and movies these people flood the market with their pirated product and sell them for their own profit. Piracy is wrong. The following essay delved deep into the world of piracy. It examines exactly what piracy entails and exactly how it affects the music and the movie industry. The essay also examines how piracy affects the producers of music and movies who invest a lot of time as well as a lot of energy into the production of music and movies. The essay also examines the effects that music and movie piracy have on the greater society as a whole and especially the younger generations.
The music industry is an industry that involves a lot of hard work. It takes no less than several months to record an album and even longer to compile and produce it and market it to the public. Music composition is also a very strenuous venture and is near impossible if the composer lacks talent. It takes a lot of time and critical thought to compose a song that society will indeed consider to be an artistic masterpiece and an expression of artistic genius. Recording in the studio also takes a lot of time. To say the least the production of quality music that can even rise to the status of critical acclaim is by all means a long process that is indeed very tedious and very involving. After all this hard work and many hours working on the music the artists finally get to put their work out. They do this not just as a means of entertaining the masses but also as a means of earning an honest living using their natural talent “music is a way of thinking with sound.” (Jules combarieu). The only way the artists can benefit from the reduction of this music is through sale of the music, piracy however ensures that this promising venture never comes into fruition. This is because they pirate the music and to make matters worse they proceed to sell it at a much cheaper rate than the artist would (the Washington times, 23 dec 2002, p.3). By the time the artists produce their music for sale the markets are already flooded with the cheaper pirated versions of the song. This process costs artists a lot in terms of revenue and earnings. In the worst case scenario the artist ends up barely making any money while the pirates make a killing literally in terms of profits for work that is not theirs and that they did not work for. The fact remains that through piracy artists are getting literally robbed of their hard earnings and the fruits of their hard labor “music is what feelings sound like” (Bo bennet).
Movie stars are the most hardworking people in the entertainment industry in terms of time investment. Movie makers spend months or even years on set and on location shooting movies. These people spend months away from the comfort and warmth of their homes in order to shoot movies and give people the best quality as far as entertainment is concerned (post tribune, 12 July 2004, p.9). This means hundreds or even thousands of hours on end with people working in order to make movies. Movies are also not cheap to make. A lot of money goes into movie making in terms of the movie set and camerawork and lighting and many more aspects of movie making. To say the least movie making is not a cheap venture at all. Movie maki9ng is a very entrepreneurial venture. It is very profitable in terms of the dividends and deservedly so because it involves a lot of hard work and investments. Movie piracy however ruins this seemingly fairytale story. As a result of piracy movie makes barely make any money at all in terms of profits. This is because the movie pirates sell the movies at a cheaper rate and some even sell the movies before their official release dates. As a result when the movies are released they do not get the critical acclaim that was previously expected. Theater owners are also feeling the pinch because very few people go to movie theaters to watch movies while they can get the movies at a much cheaper rate (screen digest, 1 June 2005, p.5).
Movie and music piracy is in one word theft. It’s tantamount to high robbery of the artists and movie makers who work hard to produce music and movies. The movie and music makers are being robbed of profits as a result of piracy which involves their work being stolen and sold cheaply.
Works Cited
"Movie piracy in Asia-Pacific: most countries are stepping up efforts to fight theft. (Focus)." Screen Digest [new york] 1 June 2007: 5. Print.
"New York Seizure in Music Piracy Is Largest.."Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News [New York] 12 Dec. 2002: 2. Print.
"Recent movie piracies."Post-Tribune [Washington] 12 July 2004: 9. Print.
"Seizure in Music Piracy Is largest.(BUSINESS)." The Washington Times 12 Dec. 2002: 3. Print.
