“…internet piracy is threatening local production…” says the Herald Sun. When a film is copied or made available online, the film’s value is reduced significantly. This revolution of downloading films illegally, is costing the film industry valued money. An article based on UK percentages states that “…cinemas are losing about £220m a year at the UK box office due to piracy…” (‘Movie Piracy: Threat To The Future Of Films Intensifies’).
An example of this is, a copy of ‘The Revenant’ was illegally posted “…on a publicly accessible website six days before the film opened in December…” (Robb) and it cost 20th Century Fox over $1 million in lost revenue. ‘The Peanuts Movie’ was also illegally posted on a“…publicly accessible website…” (‘Piracy Could ‘Grind Aussie Films To A Halt’) where it was download more than a million times. This also cost 20th Century Fox over $1 million in lost revenue. The issue with this is that film industries are constantly losing money to the digital world and if this illegal practice isn’t stopped the film industry could go under (‘Piracy Could ‘Grind Aussie Films To A Halt’).
These articles relate to the six business concepts in one way or another. The development of the pirate industry is creating change with in the online community, which then further develops into a culture. Ethics plays a huge role in this topic, the controversy of illegal material being shared online could either be dismissed or fought against. This new culture is growing evermore and strategies are being developed by film industries to eliminate piracy all together. Although, it is difficult to take action against piracy because it has expanded to a global scale. There will always be a form of piracy occurring somewhere in the world.
The innovation of creating a company such as Netflix or Spotify allows customers to watch movies, or listen to music, in the comfort of their own home while still funding the artists. This has only developed within the last few years after the huge growth in illegally downloaded material.
With the introduction of these companies, action still needs to be taken to prevent piracy from increasing anymore. The FBI has recently been involved in pursuing those who steal this property as it is a crime against the economy. Internet service providers have been forced to block downloading sites containing valued material such as films.
It is unfortunate that individuals have to resort to illegally downloading material because they either can not or will not pay for legal material on providers such as Netflix, Presto or Stan. The fight against piracy is currently underway but it is unsure that it will be completely stopped online.
