The main cause of movie piracy, says Scientific American, is movie makers themselves. DVDs are dying primarily because phones, tablets, netbooks and many new laptops simply don’t have a DVD slot. But if that’s where people get their entertainment, then how are they to view movies? Streaming – which is perfect for our new broadband society.
“Hollywood movie studios should benefit, too. The easier it is to rent a movie, the more people will do it. And the more folks rent, the more money the studios make.” But, “none of that has occurred to the movie industry”, says SA. The studios, it contends, seem intent on making things hard. Examples cited by the magazine include: 24-hour rentals; online rentals that don’t provide the ‘free’ extras; staggered releases; and worse, says the report, “some movies never become available”.
If the movies are there and people aren’t allowed to pay for them – or are asked to pay over the top – they will obviously just take them. “The studios are trying to prevent a dam from bursting by putting up a picket fence”, the magazine asserts. The moral? “Make your wares available legally, cleanly and at a fair price – and only the outliers will resort to piracy.”