A Toronto-based company polled 2,600 Americans to find the majority of citizens view illegal downloading and distribution of Hollywood movies “on par with minor parking offenses.” A mere 40 percent of those polled by Solutions Research Group agreed that movie piracy was a “very serious offense,” compared to 78 percent who felt that way about shoplifting media from a local video store. According to the Digital Life America survey, 59 percent of Americans polled perceived “parking in a fire lane” as a more serious offense than illegal downloading.
Kaan Yigit, study director at Solutions Research Group remarked, “There is a Robin Hood effect. Most people perceive celebrities and studios to be rich already and as a result don’t think of movie downloading as a big deal.”
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) disagrees, estimating industry loses of $6.1 billion dollars annually due to global piracy. “People often steal movies on the Internet because they believe they are anonymous and will not be held responsible for their actions. They are wrong. Illegal distribution of digital movie files on the Internet is a serious crime, and individuals who engage in piracy via the Internet can easily be tracked. The movie industry has and is taking a firm stance against Internet thieves who steal millions of dollars in copyrighted material with complete disregard for the law.”
But despite Hollywood’s best efforts to curtail it, online movie piracy continues to grow. In a related survey by OTX Research, 58 percent of illegal downloaders had no plans to stop the practice, and 17 percent of those who hadn’t yet indulged expected to do so in the next year.
Over-priced movie tickets and ready availability because of widespread broadband and improving compression technologies, contribute to the increase.
Yigit advised that existing download-to-own movie services and newcomers to the industry will need to offer consumers more first-run content offerings and better pricing if they want to convince them to pay copyright holders for product.
“Otherwise file-sharing will continue to thrive.”