Digital Piracy

Summary of:
To Hollywood's dismay, digital piracy is the big ape in film
Author: Timothy O'Brien (New York Times Writer)
URL: http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/08/28/business/pirates.php

The article is started by talking about the remake of King Kong set to open in December. It explains how it is supposed to be this huge blockbuster, with awesome special effects. It then goes on to talk about the troubles that could be faced with the problems of digital piracy going on in today's world, where people steal copies of first-run movies and illegally distribute them, causing a lot of financial loss to the studio that produced the movie. Peter Jackson, the director of King Kong, is quoted as saying "if that (piracy) happens, they (films) will stop being made. No studio is going to finance a film if the point is reached where their possible profit margin goes straight into criminals' pockets." In addition to piracy, the new technology, such as DVD players and flat screen TV's, are causing more people to watch movies at home rather than in the theaters. The Motion Picture Association of America says that the lost profit just from bootleg DVDs being distributed is over $3 billion in just last year. That does not include illegal internet distributing. BigChampagne, which is a company that tracks online media use, is quoted as saying that for the week through August. 9, an average of 102,895 people a day downloaded the new "War of the Worlds" using BitTorrent, a file-sharing program. It is too bad that thinigs like digital piracy are happening, and not only criticizing the people that put it illegally on the internet or make bootleg DVDs, but the people that recieve them and watch them. I would not want a great movie not to be produced, if it gets bad enough that the movie studios stop making movies, like Peter Jackson said may happen. Hopefully, this issue is solved fully or at least partially.