Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Monday September 02 2019, @07:08PM   Printer-friendly
from the dread-captain-obvious dept.

"Legal Options Are a Better Way to Beat Piracy Than Enforcement"

A new article, published in the American University International Law Review, suggests that affordability and availability are the key drivers to decrease piracy. Focusing on the supply-side is more effective than enforcement options such as lawsuits, infringement notices, and website blocking, the researchers conclude.

[...] One recent article, published by University of Amsterdam researchers João Pedro Quintais and Joost Poort, suggests that affordability and availability are key drivers.

The researchers analyzed a wealth of data and conducted surveys among 35,000 respondents, in thirteen countries. What they found was that, between 2014 and 2017, self-reported piracy rates have dropped in all the European countries that were surveyed, except Germany.

In a 70-page paper, published in American University International Law Review, the researchers try to pinpoint the most likely explanation for this decline, starting with enforcement. [...] This article doesn't have space for a full review of all the literature, but the conclusion from the report's authors is clear. Enforcement is not the silver bullet that will stop piracy. [...] Instead, the researchers believe that other factors are likely responsible for the decline in piracy rates. Specifically, they point to affordability and availability of legal content.

The Decline of Online Piracy: How Markets – Not Enforcement – Drive Down Copyright Infringement (open, no DOI)


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 02 2019, @07:14PM (12 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 02 2019, @07:14PM (#888925)

    If I want to watch a movie and it is available for $2 on amazon I will usually do that instead of torrent it. The higher the price and less I care about the movie the more likely it will get downloaded.

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +3  
       Insightful=3, Total=3
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by legont on Monday September 02 2019, @08:10PM (7 children)

    by legont (4179) on Monday September 02 2019, @08:10PM (#888949)

    I have amazon movie service as part of my prime but I am yet to watch any movie using it. To bloody inconvenient.

    --
    "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 02 2019, @08:27PM (5 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 02 2019, @08:27PM (#888959)

      How is it so inconvenient? I mean I started using it on the PS4, if I had always been using a pc to watch movies maybe I would have just stuck with torrents. But it is pretty convenient with a huge selection.

      • (Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Monday September 02 2019, @10:35PM (1 child)

        by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday September 02 2019, @10:35PM (#889007) Journal

        The Amazon selection, even with Prime, is not that great. And it's littered with rental/buy options, HBO/Netflix subscription needed, etc. There is a way to filter all that stuff out, but I have had trouble finding it on some platforms.

        So I end up just using Kodi + addons. Which can be a crapshoot, but will often work just fine, and has pretty much everything.

        --
        [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
        • (Score: 2) by Muad'Dave on Tuesday September 03 2019, @11:33AM

          by Muad'Dave (1413) on Tuesday September 03 2019, @11:33AM (#889164)

          Interesting. I use my Samsung TV's app to see Amazon Prime content, and it clearly shows what's included with prime and what's not by default.

      • (Score: 5, Informative) by legont on Monday September 02 2019, @11:33PM (2 children)

        by legont (4179) on Monday September 02 2019, @11:33PM (#889026)

        For the sake of the argument, I just tried it now. "Your web browser is missing a digital rights component."

         

        --
        "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 03 2019, @09:52AM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 03 2019, @09:52AM (#889153)

          For the sake of the argument, I just tried it now. "Your web browser is missing a digital rights component."

          DRM component is even available on Firefox in Debian.

          • (Score: 2) by https on Tuesday September 03 2019, @02:49PM

            by https (5248) on Tuesday September 03 2019, @02:49PM (#889197) Journal

            ...but you disable it immediately upon learning its impact on your and other people's rights.

            --
            Offended and laughing about it.
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday September 03 2019, @11:25AM

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Tuesday September 03 2019, @11:25AM (#889163)

      Also tremendously under-utilized are the free disc rental AND streaming options at your local library.

      --
      🌻🌻 [google.com]
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 02 2019, @08:54PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 02 2019, @08:54PM (#888972)

    It seems like every company has learned that consumers pay for convenience, except for the RIAA and MPAA. Somehow, they have managed to remain ignorant of this widely known fact. It probably has something to do with the fact that lawyers dominate these trade associations. If I were in the music and movie industry, I would try to figure out if there is any recourse for the obvious conflict of interest that their associations had. Or at lease, replace them with ones that give advice in their best interest, and not in their lawyer's best interest.

    • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 03 2019, @12:21AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 03 2019, @12:21AM (#889047)

      Thing is, cheaper product = less profit shown on the books. Which means poorer stock price. And stock price is ALL that counts.

      However, if you sell a movie at $10 and it gets pirated, you can write off enforcement, and piracy, as "loss". In other words, you get to write off your profit against that loss, saving loads of tax. So even WITH piracy, and enforcement, and security costs, you're still making money on that pirated portion.

      Now instead, you lower the price... and sell 10% more movie. Great. But you're actually making LESS, because lower movie prices means that the 10% doesn't make up for it along with you're paying more tax.

      This is sort of akin to min/max price theory. For a long time, pricing has been decoupled from cost of production. That's because, for example, widget A pricing might look like this:

      - sell 10 units at $100, production cost $10 = $900
      - sell 15 units at $70, production cost $10 = $900

      You might think, "hey, lower is better!". But there are additionals. One being post-sales support. Warranty support. All the logistics that go into selling more, rather than less.

      So there's a whole slew of formulae which are used to determine, what's the best price point? And 'less' is often not the best. For example, at scale, you're talking about 1M versus 1.5M units. Or it might be more dramatic, 10M versus 1M units. Just think of the additional support costs when 10x units are sold.

      So back to piracy... they may make more with a higher price, AND being to write off piracy, AND having fewer 'support issues'.

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 03 2019, @10:08AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 03 2019, @10:08AM (#889154)

        However, if you sell a movie at $10 and it gets pirated, you can write off enforcement, and piracy, as "loss". In other words, you get to write off your profit against that loss, saving loads of tax.

        Sorry, but no. But I guess you never actually run a business to say such bullshit.

        The only reason why they always whine about piracy has nothing to do with taxes. It has everything to do with blaming someone else if the sales are below projections and to make themselves look good to investors.

        "Write off" is something that is thrown around at random like it means something but you can immediately see that the person is clueless. It actually means something only in accounting and there are very specific rules of what you deduct from what and when and how fast. Deprecation tax laws are there for a reason. And it almost never makes you money (special difference would be in the fossil fuel subsidies (reserve depletion) and similar baloney)

        https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1743&context=sulr [seattleu.edu]

        Also, "write off" enforcement is not making more money. Businesses pay taxes after expenses and enforcement is an expense. Profits = Revenue - Expenses.

        Using "write off" wrong in a sentence is akin of using "hacking" in wrong context. It just makes you cringe.