This is an event at this year’s Edinburgh Film Festival. From the event’s advertising blurb:
“Why should you care about film and video piracy if you can get a DVD cheaper than the retail price? Film piracy is theft. Black market DVDs are not just terrible quality but deprive the filmmakers of millions in income each year. And unauthorised downloading and file sharing of films is illegal. Last year the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) confiscated almost 3 million pirate DVDs. Why should you care? Come and talk with the industry experts about film piracy can and see a popular feature film which looks so much better on the big screen than on any pirate DVD or download!”
I have some comments about the many mistakes and faulty assumptions in this paragraph, but I really don’t like swearing in public.
5 Comments
Paul G · August 25, 2005 at 7:54 am
OK, so not all film makers are deprived of "millions in income each year" due to black market DVDs. And we can have an interesting public / private goods discussion on the use of the word "theft" (Note Justice Breyer in Grokster stated simply that piracy “is no less an unlawful taking of property than garden-variety theft” and he's the most thoughtful Supreme Court Justice on copyright issues). But there's not that much wrong with this paragraph. Us (yes, us) copyfighters would do well to remember that we're searching for a solution. A better way of managing and maintaining our informational ecosystem. Let's not enter a mindset that assumes that anyone who speaks out against piracy is against the future.
Kroy · August 25, 2005 at 7:56 am
Conspiracy! Against gamers!A quick tesco-analysis: 40 hours of entertainment via computergameplay costs £16 (play.com is great). 2 hours of entertainment at the cinema costs £16 cause you take the wife 'n' buy some pic'n'mix. I start off my conspiracy with the suggestion that the games industry is worth more than movie industry. So it stands to reason that they would want to weaken the industry that is causing them so much pain. Their tactic is to increase the cost of recordable media so that games on DVD's and CD-ROMs will be priced out of the market. No more PC, PS2 or X-Box, and suddenly everyone goes back to the cinema for their kicks.Ryoji Chubachi knowz it, so he not only wishes to control films, but also the recordable media (a la PSP and PS3). Very clever. But what Sony, and the rest of the film industry should realise is that rather than denting the fun of millions of gamers world-wide to increase box-office takings, they need to make it socially acceptable to go to the cinema by ones self and reducing the price of pic'n'mix wouldn't hurt either…
Andres Guadamuz · August 25, 2005 at 11:00 am
Paul,Good comment. My main problem is the fact that they keep equating your average "DVD burner" pirate to internet downloads, which I believe is completely wrong. Conflating different illegal practices to scare people into submission and maintains the public’s ignorance about IP.
Andres Guadamuz · August 25, 2005 at 11:01 am
I love a good conspiracy theory.
Andres Guadamuz · August 25, 2005 at 5:01 pm
I love a good conspiracy theory.