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Piracy Rates Plummet As Legal Alternatives Come To Norway
jones_supa writes "Entertainment industry groups in Norway have spent years lobbying for tougher anti-piracy laws, finally getting their way earlier this month. But with fines and site-blocking now on the agenda, an interesting trend has been developing. According to a new report published by Ipsos, between 2008 and 2012 piracy of movies and TV shows collapsed in Norway, along with music seeing a massive drop to less than one fifth of the original level. Olav Torvund, former law professor at the University of Oslo, attributes this to good legal alternatives which are available today (Google translation of Norwegian original). Of those questioned for the survey, 47% (representing around 1.7 million people) said they use a streaming music service such as Spotify. And of those, just over half said that they pay for the premium option."
I couldn't help but notice that you check for a free pirated version before checking legitimate sources.
Honestly, if they'd set up for-pay streaming / downloading music for money back in 1999, I doubt I've have ever pirated any movies or music. I used to buy a lot of CDs, sometimes stuff just to see what it sounded like.
It's still easier to pirate in some countries (e.g. Canada) than just buy stuff. I've started buying more movies now because my home theater shows the limits of the ripped movies (mostly sound, there's not much ranger in the ripped versions)
And most (90%) of my music is legit indie rock lists.
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ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
You can only charge what the market will bear.
There is nothing "naive" about that. No what's naive is the assumption that any pirate represents a paying customer. A pirate is someone willing to "buy" your product for $0. That represents the value of "infinity" on your price/demand curve for an inelastic luxury item.
Some people will alway pirate. On the other hand, there is likely some price at which more people will pay you. It may even be to your advantage to price your good at that level.
It's all about making money.
Crime and punishment and artistic megalomania are nothing but red herrings.
It's not that the entertainment industry owes us something. It that the entertainment industry is not owed something. They don't have a right to make money. If they price themselves out of the market or abandon it entirely, then that's no one else's fault but theirs.
Degenerate moochers are just something to distract you from your own failure as an artist or businessman.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Availability can be a bitch... Shows can disappear from a streaming service, probably because of licensing.