One in four people online has illegally downloaded a feature film -- and it's cutting into box-office and DVD sales, the Motion Picture Association of America said in a study released on Thursday.
A survey of 3,600 Internet users in eight countries, including the UK, showed that as many as 50 percent had downloaded copyrighted content in the last year. Of those people who have downloaded films, 17 percent said they are going to the movies less often, and 26 percent said they bought fewer DVDs, according to online researcher OTX, which conducted the study in partnership with the MPAA.
The trade group did not have box-office sales figures for 2004. But global movie admissions were down by 4 percent in 2003 to about 1.57 billion, compared with 1.64 billion in 2002, according to research provided by the MPAA.
Still, from 1993 to 2004, admissions have gone up 27 percent, by 330 million, and DVD sales and rentals have shot up by 50 percent from 2002 to 2003, the research showed.
The primary concern, the MPAA said, is as broadband Internet connections spread faster to countries around the world, more people will take to illegal downloading. For example, an estimated 98 percent of South Korea's population uses broadband. Nearly 60 percent of the population has reportedly downloaded movies, and one in three say they go to the box office less often, according to the survey.
"It's not hard to imagine as other countries become increasingly broadband-based we'll see more of this happen," said Matthew Grossman, a spokesman for the MPAA.
There are approximately 29.2 million broadband households in the United States, according to market researcher The Yankee Group.
Also of concern to the MPAA is consumers' attitudes. The study found that 69 percent of those surveyed don't believe downloading movies is a major concern in today's society. Little more than half of people who have already downloaded films online expect to continue to do so, and 17 percent who don't already do it, plan to. Also, 38 percent of those surveyed said it was OK to download a film before it's released in theatres.
For this reason, the MPAA has launched a worldwide campaign to monitor online film downloading more closely and educate people on the implications of pirating movies. It has created movie trailers to warn people against illegal downloading and making pirated copies of films, among other tactics.
The study was conducted with residents of Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Talkback
This is stupid, the movie industry (escpecailly in the US, which means it will all prob happen here in a couple of years) are sighting the threat of illegal downloads as reason why we should all give up control over our own computers and films we buy to prevent the industry collapsing...
...while at the same time (two days ago) reporting record profits and turnover levels reaching the billions $ a day level whenever a decent movie comes out.
Doesn't sound to me like file-swapping and downloading is killing the industry!
Absolute claptrap! What an outrageous claim!
Whomever at the MPAA made the claim that 1 in 4 people on the internet have downloaded a movie clearly had no understanding of the piracy problem.
Firstly, movies are huge and downloading them isn't an easy task, even on broadband. I accept that US broadband speeds are much higher than we get in the UK, but even then, I can't for one minute imagine that a quarter of people could be bothered to do this.
Secondly, movies downloaded from the net are usually encoded with a very lossy codec, like DIVX (there *are* free movies you can download) and are nothing like the visual or audio quality you get with a commercial DVD. What's the point in downloading a third-rate copy?
Thirdly, a lot of the copied movies I've come across have been pre-release stuff. Pre-US release. So where's that coming from? The only answer is sources inside the movie business, either copying screeners or copying the digital masters prior to film duplication.
Finally, they never seem to look at the real problem. The piracy threat does not come from the average home user downloading a movie.
It comes from organised criminal gangs and to a slightly lesser extent, terrorist networks (yes, that happens here in Blighty - the next time you're offered a copied DVD remember that it could be funding the next terrorist attack).
There are numerous groups in Eastern Europe, the Far East and even closer to home that are making a fortune from this illicit industry. It's much easier than selling drugs or smuggling alcohol or tobacco and the punishment if they get caught is much lower.
These guys have the money to buy professional duplication equipment and they run off DVDs by the tens of thousands. These are then sold through various channels, including market stalls and small shops. Sometimes it's not just the movie itself that gets pirated... some groups have set up very sophisticated networks to duplicate the cases and promotional material also, so that it looks just like the legitimate article, including the security holograms - even the professionals at FACT have a hard time telling them apart. This is the real problem.
What's actually happening is that FACT et al. are having a hard time catching the real crooks, so they're going after the soft targets - the people who can be influenced by legal threats, unlike the criminal gangs.
The MPAA and the movie studios, which drive groups like FACT, have reduced the amount of funding for anti-piracy continually but expect more prosecutions - clearly this isn't working, so they need to be seen to be doing something.
There has been a crackdown in many countries on the sale of multi-region DVD players, ostensibly 'to prevent piracy'. Now, if I buy a Region 1 DVD in the US, the studio are still making their money, I'm not ripping anyone off. The only loser is the UK retailer - but I buy plenty of R2 DVDs here, so they're not losing out by much. So why clamp down on this otherwise legal activity? So they can milk us for money - the aim is to make each global market pay as much as possible.
Personally, I go to the movies less often for these reasons:
- It's expensive
- I can legitimately *buy* the DVD within six months for less than the price of two cinema tickets and a few drinks
- There aren't that many films I really really want to see anymore
- I have a better sound system than many cinemas, probably because it's set up correctly
- My sofa is more comfortable than cinema seats
- I don't have to put up with other people (generally kids) talking through the movie or selling drugs from the back of the room (have you been to a London cinema lately?)
You can prove anything with statistics. There is absolutley no evidence whatsoever that links reduced movie going and film downloading - I'm sure with the right figures you could prove that illegally downloading movies happens *because* of reduced movie going.