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The Avengers: Why Pirates Failed To Prevent a Box Office Record
TheGift73 sends this excerpt from TorrentFreak:
"Despite the widespread availability of pirated releases, The Avengers just scored a record-breaking $200 million opening weekend at the box office. While some are baffled to see that piracy failed to crush the movie's profits, it's really not that surprising. Claiming a camcorded copy of a movie seriously impacts box office attendance is the same as arguing that concert bootlegs stop people from seeing artists on stage. ... Of all the people who downloaded a pirate copy of the film about 20% came from the U.S. This means that roughly 100,000 Americans have downloaded a copy online through BitTorrent. Now, IF all these people bought a movie ticket instead then box office revenue would be just 0.5% higher. Not much of an impact, and even less when you consider that these 'pirates' do not all count as a lost sale."
Well, according to the article, and the summary too, actually, about 0.5%, maximum. But the article goes on to say this is in the U.S.
But does this mean that piracy is not an issue for the movie industry at all? Well not so fast.
A recent study showed that the US box office is not suffering from movie piracy, but that there is a detrimental effect on international box office figures. The researchers attribute this impact to the wide release gaps, which sometimes result in a high quality DVD copy being available on pirate sites while a movie is still showing in theaters.
The midnight show here was sold out, and they had it running on EVERY screen in the place for the midnight show, and then went to sell out for the rest of the weekend.
They're not arguing that there's no loss associated with piracy.
They're showing real-world numbers that point out that the losses aren't the billions of dollars that the RIAA and MPAA keep associating with piracy.
It doesn't matter what you call it. Copyright infringement is just the legalese. It's theft.
No, it isn't, which is why there is a distinction in terms.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Stealing access that you don't have
You are misusing the word stealing.
Taking or forcing access to something without permission is trespassing, not theft. ( hence the computer trespass laws )
Stealing is the removal of property without permission.
Making a copy of something is not stealing it, as no property is removed.
Pirating may be wrong or illegal, but it's not stealing.
And no, pirates are not "stealing the profit from the lost sales".
Just because the pirate felt that a movie was worth clicking a mouse button, doesn't mean that it would have been worth $20 if the mouse clicking was not an option.
De-facto; because the supreme court says so. I share your skepticism; but IANAL...