DVD Release Delays Boost Piracy and Hurt Sales, Study Shows (torrentfreak.com)

Posted by msmash on Friday June 3, 2016 @02:05AM from the why-do-we-pirate-stuff,-Mr.-Wayne? dept.

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.

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Re:how do they get a rip? by lordbeejee · 2016-06-03 02:39 · Score: 5, Insightful

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.
The DVD from another region is used for the rip. It's a study about the delays between regions, not between theater and home release.