From the moment consumers were able to use the internet to get music, software, and movies, piracy has had serious financial implications on the motion picture industry. Copyright protection presents some difficulty in illegally obtaining movies but there are many avenues around most of these systems. The RIAA, or Recording Industry Association of America, has tried several legal ploys to prevent people from accessing this material but many consumers continue to access it with little concern. Much like the music industry, which was challenged to reinvent its distribution model, the movie industry has to do the same thing. To counter the amount of piracy the movie studios must develop new systems for content delivery including streaming new release movies at home. First, the current system of forcing consumers to go to a movie theater is no longer desirable for many. Entertainment seekers can now get almost instantaneous access to desired content whether it’s music or movies via streaming services like Netflix. These services exist due to the demand for them and to satiate the desire for content when and where the customer wants it. While my generation patiently grew up waiting for Thursday night for The Cosby Show the current generation is not oriented around content on a television or at a specific date and time. As this younger generation becomes paying customers their desires will have to be considered with all delivery based decisions. To decrease the desire
There are basically six technology-driven threats to the traditional rental model: (1) Cable companies offering Video on Demand (VOD), (2) online movie downloads, (3) online movie rentals, (4) disposable DVDs, (5) illegal movie downloads and DVD copying, and (6) Digital (or Personal) video recorders (DVR). (Jackson) One could also consider traditional pay-per-view (PPV) as and additional substitute. Only one of these seven, online movie rentals has proven to be a major competitive substitute for traditional movie rentals. All other areas, except traditional pay-per-view are expanding rapidly, but some face significant challenges.
Occasionally, people use to go out and rent DVD’s to watch a specific movie from rental stores. Advancement in technology has brought a sufficient change in customer’s behaviors, today DVD rental stores have almost gone. Moreover, by time we saw enormous increase in channels being provided by cable providers, but today even that has been replaced by streaming media devices, thus my time, role of cable providers might also disappear due to the introduction of devices such as Netflix, Apple TV etc. “DVD sales have also been hit. The Los Angeles-based Digital Entertainment Group estimates DVD sales in 2008 fell 8% to $21.6 billion from a year earlier, while DVD rentals were flat.” Charny, Ben. "Viewers Tap Free Web Content." Wall Street Journal, Eastern
Redbox is typically low in overhead due to the use of kiosks to deliver their product to the consumer. The challenge lies in being able to infiltrate a new market such as the digital subscriber world of Netflix and Hulu and being able to market in a way that would appeal to the masses to draw in subscribers. In addition, increasing cost of partnerships with movie studios and the reliance of distribution agreements with distribution companies can have a significant impact on Redbox. Therefore, the unfamiliarity of this market space poses the challenge of not being able to predict future cost. Adding on to some of the turmoil that may arise is the copyright infringement that may occur. Although systems have been
Piracy especially in the case of films are an ever-growing concern. Whilst major film studios like Universal Pictures
Since the 1990’s, the world has experienced boundless improvements and expansion with information systems, technology and the Internet, and as a result, laws have had to evolve as well. Such laws have been up against some very complex and sensitive issues such as how to control piracy of copyrights. In response to such complex issues, Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998.
Moreover, with these streaming services being so successful, studies have shown that piracy has dropped by 29% in 2015 for the Australian film industry (). Hastings sees Netflix as a solution to piracy by saying:
We all know that downloading pirated music and films is illegal, but what exactly is it? The term piracy refers to the copying and selling of music, films and other media illegally; in other words you are copying and selling copyrighted media without the permission of the original owner (NiDirect, n.d.). With the massive growth of the internet and its ability to store and capture vast amounts of data, we have become much more reliable on information systems in all aspects of life, but it does not come without the risk of information technology being used unethically. With the number of IT breakthroughs in recent years “the importance of ethics and human values has been underemphasised” often resulting in various consequences. Not surprisingly one of the many public concerns about the ethical use of IT is that “millions of people have downloaded music and movies at no charge and in apparent violation of copyright laws at tremendous expense to the owners of those copyrights” (Reynolds, Ethics in Information Technology, 2015). This essay covers the ethical issues of downloading pirated music and films and the impact it has on music corporations and recording and film companies.
As the success of services like Hulu and Netflix suggests, consumers are only too happy to pay for content that 's made available in a convenient form, and at a reasonable price. If the content industries want a genuinely effective way to reduce global piracy, they should spend less time and money lobbying for new regulations, and focus on providing innovative services that make piracy unattractive. [5]
The rise of the Internet era opened the whole new market for traditional media full of opportunities as well as threats. Online piracy being one of them because the music and film industry loses £5.4bn in a year and if it was reduced by 10% it could have created up to 13 thousand jobs in the UK. There are various attempts taken to fight with online piracy; a case study of Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement will be considered as well as other legislations attempting to regulate copyrights in the Internet. This
Today, digital technology and the Internet are deeply reshaping the motion picture industry with a trend toward the digitalisation and disintermediation (Zhu, 2010). Media streaming services are an example of this current restructuration. Providing an access to a wide collection of entertainment online at a cheap price, they have penetrated the monopoly that cinema once enjoyed (Herberg, 2017). A significant example can be found in the US company ‘Netflix’, source of nearly a third of all North American downstream internet traffic at peak hours (Hallinan & Striphas, 2016). Once a small DVD subscription service created in 1997, it offers today to its subscribers to watch its own produced movies and shows as well as content of other
Pirated movies have grown over the last couple of years. You can see someone on any given weekend when you walk through the grocery store trying to sale you a movie. Piracy is defined by Dictionary.com as, “the unauthorized reproduction or use of a copyrighted book, recording, television program, patented invention, trademarked product, etc.” Therefore, a pirated movie is when a movie is released without the owner or person that got the material copy righted it knowing or consenting to the release. Movie piracy is unethical because it skews the box office financial numbers, decreases the chance for sequels, and hurts the theaters, even though it does provide a means for people that are less likely to go to the theaters.
When it comes to watching television shows and movies, streaming websites, such as: Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon, have virtually monopolized the market, and have exceedingly brought down cable and theater sales. The mere thought of cable is
The way the audience watches television has drastically changed since the birth of television. The viewer is “changing the rules” (Deign) of how we consume media and is no longer restricted to when they can access content. The company Netflix’s is a great example of this. Netflix is currently the dominant company in the on-demand media industry and “isn’t only changing the way that we watch television, but it’s also revolutionizing the way that it is made”(Page). Compared to old methods of television networks where the viewer is required to tune in weekly at a designated time for a television show, Netflix’s has allowed the viewer to watch
Starting off as a mail-only service in August of 1997, the service rapidly bloomed into an online, paid source for thousands of movies, series, and other TV shows. Although their streaming option is the most favored, Netflix still offers users the opportunity to order DVDs and other forms of tangible movies. All in all, Netflix holds a multitude of positive and negative effects on society, both which include instant accessibility, immediate forms of entertainment, binge-watching, and unproductivity. Lastly, Netflix may soon become an overwhelmingly large company that takes the television and video distribution industries by storm due to its growing popularity and its ability to be cheaper than regular cable
Companies like Apple, have decided that it is best to get in with the downloading business. However, an end to the illegal downloading conflict remains to be realized. The RIAA and associated artists continue to wage war against illegal downloaders while computer savvy audiences persist in sharing music files online every day. While it is undoubtedly true that downloading music is a crime, it remains to be proven that it is wrong. Without establishing this principle, most downloader's are likely to continue the activity. Even with new, inexpensive and available means of downloading files, they can still be shared for free online. The rift must be repaired between music lovers who feel that they have been taken advantage of in the past and recording companies and artists who worry about their future livelihood.