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DVD Release Delays Boost Piracy and Hurt Sales, Study Shows (torrentfreak.com)
One of the reasons that drive people to piracy is the delay in the release of a title's DVD or Blu-Ray in their local market. According to a new academic paper from Carnegie Mellon University, movie fans are finding it increasingly difficult to wait for the official DVD or Blu-Ray to come out. From a TorrentFreak report: Due to artificial delays which vary across different parts of the world, pirates can often get their hands on a high-quality rip of a movie before the DVD is officially released in their country. Researchers have looked into this piracy "window of opportunity," and found that release delays are actually hurting DVD and Blu-Ray sales. "Our results suggest that an additional 10-day delay between the availability of digital piracy and the legitimate DVD release date in a particular country is correlated with a 2-3% reduction in DVD sales in that country," the researchers write.
No shit, Sherlock.
Next, are they going to tell us water is wet?
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
Duh!
How about releasing legal copies for purchase and download worldwide simultaneously? Stop the price discrimination nonsense. Offer censored versions if you must for places like China and Europe that restrict some types of speech and geolocate IPs to enforce the restrictions.
It may seem common sense, but that's not a reason to not get empirical data illustrating the assumption.
It's sometimes bewildering to watch companies with a responsibility to shareholders behave in ways that appear counterproductive to their own bottom line. If the study from Carnegie Mellon passes peer review *and* the movie industry does not respond in a way that actually curbs piracy, then one has to wonder what exactly drives their behavior. This is not a rhetorical question. If anybody here on /. has insight into this, please share.
Listen, if they released movies digitally the day of with the option to stream / buy they'd make a shit ton of money immediately.
It may wipe out the theatre experience as we currently know it but, really, who cares? If you want I'll come over to your house, make you some soggy popcorn with "not-quite-butter" topping and kick the back of your seat after spilling 7-up on your floor
"But the pirates!" fucking... people already risk a lot to produce shitty CAM vids should say everything that needs to be said, where somebody like that takes the risk there's money to be made you dumb fucks.
Figure it out
This research shows that piracy negatively correlates with sales and pirates aren't buying legal copies. I've been told for so long on here that piracy helps sales. Can we finally stop repeating that nonsense, which has been disproved many times? Piracy is bad for sales because pirates aren't buying legal copies. Let's finally be intellectually honest in discussions about piracy and admit that it's harmful to sales.
The "artificial delays" are simply a specific form of artificial scarcity, and we humans always do our damnedest to route around them.
We also *really* don't want to be lectured to about piracy when we're watching a legally purchased DVD, nor do we want to watch ads, (except for movie trailers), in a DVD we've already fscking paid for. But media producers and distributors seem positively addicted to the practice of strapping on a pair of cleats and stepping on their own dicks.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
What the heck is a "DVD"? Is that Russian or something?
N/T
Quit crying. Learn some self control and patience. It used to take years to get a VHS release after a movie had been pulled from the theatre.
Having staggered release dates is pretty much the dumbest idea ever now that anyone can get your movie the day it is released over the internet.
I wonder how they get a rip before the DVD comes out? I'm going to guess that the theaters now get digital copies and those get rippped. I wonder why they can't control that effectively. E.g. watermark every theater's version differently.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
I'm pretty sure the curve between maximizing movie-in-theatre revenue and then DVD-before-everyone-forgets-about-it revenue is already well-understood by the entertainment industry.
But, I still don't understand NEW MOVIE piracy in developed countries. Sure, I pirate every new GoT episode within hours of the official air date, but it's TV that I watch on a 23-inch monitor where quality doesn't really matter. Same thing with a 10+ year-old movie or cartoons that I watch with my kids. However, when I want to watch something with cutting-edge special effects and sound on my home theater (or any 32"+ TV with separate sound system), dropping the $3 to rent a high-quality edition that is guaranteed not to crap out halfway through (which tends to drive off my wife if she's watching) suddenly becomes worth it.
Right, I'm sure the africans are so worse off now than in 1900 where they had been living in huts hunting EACH OTHER with spears and after over a 100.000 years still had not invented things like "the wheel". Europe singlehandedly brought modern civilization as we know it to the entire world. Of course, along the way it brought a lot of war and death, but so has every single other region of the globe. Furthermore, through civilization and maturity, Europe now brings peace while every other continent (except perhaps Oceania?) has war and oppression. We still have a long way to go, but can you cite a single better place to live in the world today when it comes to standard of living, education, health, freedom, tolerance or anything else that matters?
In Capitalist US, the commerce controls the Government.
I don't understand the delays. Just sell it HIGH right out of the gate.
Make movies something crazy like $60-$80 on opening weekend. Grab all that extra profit while the hype is high and plenty of families with great home theater and 2.5 kids that they don't want to pay concessions for consider it a win-win.
Drop it by $10 or so every month or so, until they're $20 at the same time they're available now.
Why do they hate money so much?
Grammer Nazis - I mod you "troll" unless you actually add something on-topic. Yes, I know I have mispellings in my sig.
are you suggesting that Europe is responsible for delayed DVD releases?
I'm god, but it's a bit of a drag really...
I am not going to buy a disc that I have to transcode and upload to my NAS when I can download a DRM free copy of it in less than 10 minutes. My movie collection is massive and organized but physically less than 1 cubic foot. You can't have that with optical discs.
The Movie Industry biggest competition are pirates and if they want to beat their competition they will not do it on price, so they need to work on convenience. Adding DRM, Disabling Fast Forward/Next Chapter on previews are all things that are annoying paying customers
"release delays are actually hurting DVD and Blu-Ray sales."
No shit, Sherlock! Who couldn't have worked that out at the beginning of all this, when the idiots in charge decided to make DVDs have different regions?
You don't need a study to know this will happen.
Yes, please LEAVE white people's countries, and let the evil white 'racists' suffer by having to live among our own kind. LOL. How will we manage without you all...
Sell the DVD/blu-ray on cinema exit - Charge more for that special only cinema only special special version for the true collector.
Having to wait months for it, I've forgotten about it or just can't be bothered. Plus you can't get the cinema only version.
i can watch and re-watch Deadpool AND learn Korean from the subtitles... win/win
Africans had civilisation well before most Europeans unless you subscribe to the idea that aliens built the pyramids, Timbuktu and Greater Zimbabwe.
The vast majority of people feel entitled to something someone else produced. That is what it comes down to.
It doesn't matter that the person or company has taken the time and effort to produce something other people want, everyone else demands it as an inherent right to have it instantly completely ignoring the fact they haven't lifted a finger to produce the product.
Nope, it's all about them and what they want. The fact they're not even going to pay for the product doesn't matter. They'll keep stealing because it's their right to take what they want from someone else. No attribution, no thanks, no payment for the use and enjoyment of the product. Just steal it because it's all about them.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Did you forget about Benin City? It was "discovered", in Nigeria, by the Portuguese in 1485. It could have been of interest to anyone curious about fractals, if only Europeans had known what fractals were at the time.
The following is from The Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/18/story-of-cities-5-benin-city-edo-nigeria-mighty-medieval-capital-lost-without-trace
Not sure how all of this relates to release date delays.
And I will never go back. To lowly grainy DVD format. It has outlived its usefulness, since launched in 1995, and made for SD resolution of yesteryear's CTR tubes...
Actually it was the Africans such as the Egyptians, with things like their wheeled chariots, irrigation and other things that came from civilization, but don't let that ruin your petty little racist rant.
Better off than what? Also being enslaved? You do know that the African people were enslaved by other African people?
Look, I don't necessarily agree with the GP, but your point is just as stupid. Don't pretend that just because Europe has had its shit together for a few decades gives it the right to lord it over the rest of the world. History didn't begin yesterday.
The only reason Europe is at peace now is because it fought a war so unbelievably terrible that it all but destroyed itself. And it had to happen twice in less than a few decades, because they couldn't learn their lesson the first time. WWII might have been avoided if the European Allies had followed Wilson's 14 Points during the peace negotiations following WWI, and during the founding of the League of Nations. Instead, they did exactly the opposite and sowed the seeds of the next conflict with the Treaty of Versailles. Not to mention all the other terrible things that came as a result of the League, such as the Mandate system, which is at least partially responsible for the state the Middle East is in today.
The kind of nonsense you're spouting is basically the "white man's burden", the bullshit justification used by Europe for colonizing and subjugating people around the world. It's fine to uphold the virtues of modern Europe, but don't do so by repeating the rhetoric of the 19th Century.
Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
Release the Blu Ray and DVD, along with online distribution like netflix, at the same time, around the world, within 2 months of the theatrical release. Instead of the current 4 to 6 months for no reason.
While it is absolutely true that African people were (and still are today) slaves of other African people, it does not excuse the purchase of those people by Whites. That said, going back through my family history I've found no evidence that anyone in my family ever owned slaves, yet I still get shit from time to time for what "my ancestors" did to "their ancestors". How about a big fuck you to anyone who subscribes to that logic? Regardless of race.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
Soderbergh/Cuban did it.
http://www.cnet.com/news/soder...
There's no word on what the outcome was.
I do agree that there are so many logistical difficulties to seeing movies in the theaters that a large swath of the potential market is excluded by the Hollywood practices.
For two adults you're basically talking about $70+ to see movie if they have to get a sitter for the kids.
On the other hand, family movies are cleaning up on this. Make a movie the adults can see with the kids and the family saves money by just sending 2 kids to the theater for $20 instead of getting a sitter. And it goes into the theater and studios' pockets.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Or why do they even sell DVDs at all? Why aren't these media companies providing timely streaming or download options?
They are. Availability for purchase on iTunes Store on the same day as DVD release has been around for years. See Apple's eight-year-old press release. DVDs are still made available in the first place because parts of the United States still have satellite or cellular at $5 to $10 per GB as the cheapest home Internet option.
why bother buying a movie where the plot matters (i.e. not directed by Michael Bay) when I know beforehand how it's going to end?
I thought spoilers increased enjoyment as well as aerodynamics.
What this is about is making the cinema releases worldwide for the same day
A lot of films lack budget to get cinema releases across one country for the same calendar year. Think of all the art films that play for a week in Los Angeles County, California, in December in order to qualify for that year's Academy Awards, with intent to open to a wide release the following January.
Why not release the damned DVD of a film immediately after it has stopped circulating in the theaters? I presume the people that make these decisions have their reasons, but to me, every moment of delay just means that it's fading from the public consciousness and any "buzz" it generated is going silent.
"Citizen Four" was released in Sept/Oct of 2014, but wasn't available on DVD until freakin' August 2015. I wanted to see it again as soon as I left the theater, but by August of the following year, I'd lost my initial excitement. Still haven't seen it for the second time.
My economics question is why back catalog movies which have been released on disc can't be purchased as downloads.
A lot of film producers' hands are tied by contracts with upstream licensors (such as the author and publisher of a novel adapted into a film or the performer, record label, songwriter, and music publisher of music used in the film) or with cast and crew unions whose members work on a residual basis rather than a "work made for hire" basis. Not all such contracts that provide for a home video release also provide for selling downloads. DVD early on had a similar problem with older films whose home video contracts were written for particular formats ("VHS and Beta" or "videotape") rather than generically enough to include DVD.
I'm guessing these titles aren't exactly burning up the sales charts and that a budget licensing deal for streaming on back catalog title to a streaming provider would be revenue they mostly wouldn't expect to get from a DVD.
For one thing, it can be expensive to gather all stakeholders (again, upstream licensors and any cast or crew promised residuals) for a contract negotiation. For another, old movies compete with the same studio's newer products.
The DVD-Video standard requires players to implement UOP, which allows discs to specify that a certain control shall cause the player to display the letter Ø in the corner of the screen for five seconds instead of performing the requested action. It was intended to make copyright notices unskippable, but distributors have abused it to make advertisements unskippable.
Press "Top Menu": Ø. Press "Title Menu": Ø. Press "next chapter": Ø (arrrgh). What's left?
Actually it was the Africans such as the Egyptians, with things like their wheeled chariots, irrigation and other things that came from civilization
Granted. But nowadays northern Africa is more closely associated with the "Middle East" brand than with the "Africa" brand. So that narrows the question going forward: What impressive tech or philosophy came out of sub-Saharan Africa before European contact?
are you suggesting that Europe is responsible for delayed DVD releases?
In some cases yes. Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea is the English dub of a French animated series. The original series has been released on French DVD around 2000, but the English dub has never been released on North American DVD.
most dvd sales now includes digital copy which adds a couple of dollars to the purchase. It is near impossible to find dvds without digital copies. This means the customers are giving them money for nothing since most do not get their digital download. Why is the movie industry griping since they are basically getting paid twice for every dvd sales whether the digital copy is downloaded or not???
Fact is you won't manage. Menial jobs are handled by non white people. This is true for both US and western Europe.
It doesn't excuse enslaving and selling those people by Blacks either.
Piracy involves hijacking, kidnapping, murder and other crimes on the seas.
Conflating Piracy with Copyright Infringement is akin to comparing Cancer to Constipation.
Anyone who frames Copyright Infringement as Piracy is a shill of the MPAA and RIAA.
play globally or gtfo. also, if you can use cheap labor to make the players, i shoul;d be able to use cheap imports to play in said player. anything else is anti-consumer.
Yeah. Sure. Art films are what are hit so incredibly severely by this.
Please.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Was not another study, but a fucking clue.
Yeah, totally. We'll be so fucked. Like, you can totally screw us by leaving. No please don't.
DVD delays aren't about increasing DVD sales, it's to increase theatrical profits. Studios have a stranglehold on theater negotiations, often taking 100% of admissions the first few weeks of popular releases. Also, box office numbers are used as proxy for a film's success. Doesn't matter if steroids have health risks...
And does anyone know of a leaked copy of The Force Awakens in 3d?
Deadpool - one of the most popular movies of the year - was released on DVD here last Wednesday, meaning it came out 3 weeks after the US DVD release. If I hadn't already seen it (twice) in the theatre, I can guarantee I would have pirated it. (I do buy movies I like on DVD, so I would have eventually bought it.) Waiting nearly a month after it becomes available elsewhere is just ridiculous.