Digital piracy not harming entertainment industries

[meekon5]

British researchers say music, movie industries have been helped by file sharing.

A new study by researchers at the London School of Economics suggests the music and movie industries have been exaggerating the impact digital file sharing has had on their bottom line and found that for some creative industries, copyright infringement might actually be helping boost revenues.

CBCNews

and

Study

See I knew it was just them trying to grab at money they never would have got any way (just because you download something doesn't mean you'd buy it at the asking price if you couldn't download it).

[Havazhyol]

Glad to help them ^^.

[BikerDude]

If the record companies had not had their heads in the sand they would have developed online distribution before there was any significant amount of piracy.
Instead you had an industry working to keeps it's product off of the internet in the late 90's early 2000's. Get your head around that bit of genius.
So now the record industry hasn't been hurt.
Hmmm. Depends where you draw the boundary.  Record stores have certainly been hurt but that's inevitable.
And I do think artists have been hurt (not necessarily inevitable)
I just don't think you are likely to see artists having a mansion on the french riviera and flying around in a 747 with the band logo on it like the stones and zep did back in the day.
Look at the list of top 50 riches rock stars.
http://www.celebritynetworth.com/list/top-50-rock-stars/
Personally I miss the days of excess when new albums and tours were big big news.
Where have all the rock stars gone?
http://www.forbes.com/sites/michelecatalano/2013/02/28/where-have-all-the-rock-stars-gone/

[meekon5]

I think the artists are getting caught in the middle of the problem.

Personally I'm thinking of publishing directly to e-book through Kindle.

Cut out the middle man (the printer, the promoter, the distributor, the shippers). More money to the author.

Apple were still insisting you buy "The Album" when they started the "i-store", they had no clue that what people were looking for was just that one track, the album is dead :-(

[Masked Dude]

I once posted (not here) some facts from various sources, including RIAA and book distributors, that showed that since piracy was deemed a huge problem, sales went up. It showed that as broadband speeds and bandwith use increase, so do sales of movies, music, books, and other digital (or digitally copied) media.

A singer I know who has won gold records said that all of that was false. She insisted that the data was wrong, and that we artists are losing money at an alarming rate, and blasted me some more.

I'm not saying that no one has ever lost money by online piracy and p2p filesharing. Of course they have. My point to her was that we can't stop it, so don't get an ulcer trying to fight it. I used to fansub movies for an anime group, and when the official release was out, they didn't offer it anymore. Are any of those still out there and being shared? Of course they are. Have I had artwork yoinked and used? Of course.

My other point to her was that if the people against it are reporting increases in sales but musicians aren't earning more, they're getting angry at the wrong ones. I admit that I've download some songs to hear the entire CD and then bought it. I've looked at a DVD, bought it, and then erased my copy.

I agree with meekon that self-publishing is a good path. I plan to do the same thing. We as creators should get the most out of it, and sometimes we have to take matters into our own hands and do it ourselves. Yes, we don't create solely as monkey feed, but that monkey won't starve, either.

[DigitalBuddha]

British researchers say music, movie industries have been helped by file sharing.

A new study by researchers at the London School of Economics suggests the music and movie industries have been exaggerating the impact digital file sharing has had on their bottom line and found that for some creative industries, copyright infringement might actually be helping boost revenues.

CBCNews

and

Study

See I knew it was just them trying to grab at money they never would have got any way (just because you download something doesn't mean you'd buy it at the asking price if you couldn't download it).

 

[LotsaBadKarma]

I always notice the FBI/Interpol blurb at the beginning of movies, too, where it says that "Pirating Movies is not a Victimless Crime". Fuckin' A, the rich people that own the production companies are probably losing enough money over the course of a year that they could pay cash for a Yugo if not for the fuckin' pirates.

[BikerDude]

If record companies had been "ahead of the curve" and offered a way to buy their product online digital piracy never would have become as prevalent as it has.
When napster happened the ONLY way to get music digitally WAS through piracy since the companies offer no alternative.
That is the unfathomable stupidity of the record companies. There simply is no other companies that stood to benefit more from selling direct to customers than media companies and yet somehow we are told that the record companies "didn't see this coming".
And it's amazing how even after the cat was out of the bag they remained amazingly ignorant. They honestly thought that if they could eliminate napster the problem would be gone.
This movie is pretty cool.
http://news.moviefone.com/2013/09/12/downloaded-napster-documentary/

[meekon5]

If film companies released the Blu-Ray/DVD at the same time as the theater release there wouldn't be any opportunity for most of the "Piracy" though there is still the problem oft eh price they charge

[BikerDude]

If film companies released the Blu-Ray/DVD at the same time as the theater release there wouldn't be any opportunity for most of the "Piracy" though there is still the problem oft eh price they charge

It's about packaging.
I can guarantee that I spend more money on movies now because I can buy or rent them using my remote on the TV.
In fact I feel guilty often for it cause it's just so easy that I end up wasting money. I just bring up Amazon on the TV and bing there are the latest movie releases and in a couple clicks I'm watching a flick that I didn't feel particularly strong about watching in the first place.
It's just so easy.
This is why this sort of thing SHOULD be an absolute gold mine for movie and record companies. If you package it up right and make it convenient all of the piracy in the world won't offset the windfall of people wasting time and money a buck or 5 bucks at a time.

[High Priest Allen]

the fuckin' pirates.

The main reason why I still pirate shit. I can call myself a pirate.

[Havazhyol]

Aaarrhhhhh.
Yo  ho ho and a bottl'o'rum