731 words
Piracy: Not quite the sinkhole
The movie making industry today is trembling at the sight of the black-flag atop a deck of intelligent minds working away at the computer screen, diligently sharing file after file of intellectual property. After having almost completely wrecked the music industry, these geeks then turned to the world of motion pictures.
Online Piracy is the illegal distribution of motion pictures or television programs without the consent of the copyright owner. They pose the biggest threat to the industry today. These hackers and the people who download are the movie bigwigs fear that their arrival will bring the movie industry to a complete halt. The hackers on the other hand while, admitting they do know piracy is a form of stealing; they have been conditioned to not feel guilt of any sort over the act as a whole. Piracy cannot be justified because once it is stripped of its layers, what remains is an act of absolute physical thieving. Hackers steal unreleased prints and reels from the sets and movie databases of the movie makers. These are then illegally duplicated, packaged and prepared for sale on the black market. Online these files are shared on peer to peer software which allows them to share the information with people world over. The law deems most of these File sharing platforms as legal, leaving movie makers in a tizzy.
Hackers make use of advancing technology, which they have bent over to use to their own advantage. The murky prints that come from a handheld camcorder in a theatre are a thing of the past now. Today’s pirates have access to better quality goods, almost in par with the original print. This immediately points fingers at the lesser recognised talents, whose names shyly make their way up the end credits; One can only wonder which one of these is responsible for the thousands of copies floating around the internet weeks before the movie even premiers. “There is no way a reel can be physically taken off the sets without at least a Judas or two within the movie crew themselves” says Julianne Dsouza, a TV student
In a desperate bid to combat piracy, the industry has come up with a hasty idea of beating the hackers at their game. The movie companies hire individuals who upload videos that look like files of the movie but just bad files who refuse to play. They do this in multiples thinking it will take a long time for downdloaders to sift through and find the ones with decent print. Thereby discouraging them from indulging in online piracy. Pratamesh Desai, A PR executive comments, “This only goes on to add onto the spam already present on the internet, which will cause absolute chaos online.” And even studios' attempts at safeguarding their products - watermarks and other digital locks, have not been able to stand strong against the probing fingers of hackers. Digital Content cannot stay private for long. The overwhelming power these hackers weld over production houses only go to show how intellectual property, once online, loses its seal of privacy.
What the world needs to realise is how piracy is not the ravaging monster people assume it to be. Piracy takes these works of art and flings them out to far off places or into poorer hands that could not have even dreamed of watching these before. Piracy, online and physical takes the magical world of movies to places and people it wouldn’t go to otherwise. Mayank Ghatawat, an MBA student and a sworn downloader says, “Today piracy is like a virtual handover of material from one person to another. The world brings back its traditional values of sharing and hands out generous portions of intellectual property to everyone who asks.”
The panic over piracy is reminiscent of a distant past where movie studios were fretting about the advent of the VCR. It managed to supplement movie collections rather than prove detrimental to it. Piracy is here to stay. The only way to get people to stop downloading movies for free is to provide them with a reasonably priced legitimate alternative, one that is suited to their preferred media. The movie industry cannot afford to go the music industry way, as the amount of time and resources spent on trying to track down individual downloaders can be put to figure out how to use the internet more effectively.
Online Piracy is the illegal distribution of motion pictures or television programs without the consent of the copyright owner. They pose the biggest threat to the industry today. These hackers and the people who download are the movie bigwigs fear that their arrival will bring the movie industry to a complete halt. The hackers on the other hand while, admitting they do know piracy is a form of stealing; they have been conditioned to not feel guilt of any sort over the act as a whole. Piracy cannot be justified because once it is stripped of its layers, what remains is an act of absolute physical thieving. Hackers steal unreleased prints and reels from the sets and movie databases of the movie makers. These are then illegally duplicated, packaged and prepared for sale on the black market. Online these files are shared on peer to peer software which allows them to share the information with people world over. The law deems most of these File sharing platforms as legal, leaving movie makers in a tizzy.
Hackers make use of advancing technology, which they have bent over to use to their own advantage. The murky prints that come from a handheld camcorder in a theatre are a thing of the past now. Today’s pirates have access to better quality goods, almost in par with the original print. This immediately points fingers at the lesser recognised talents, whose names shyly make their way up the end credits; One can only wonder which one of these is responsible for the thousands of copies floating around the internet weeks before the movie even premiers. “There is no way a reel can be physically taken off the sets without at least a Judas or two within the movie crew themselves” says Julianne Dsouza, a TV student
In a desperate bid to combat piracy, the industry has come up with a hasty idea of beating the hackers at their game. The movie companies hire individuals who upload videos that look like files of the movie but just bad files who refuse to play. They do this in multiples thinking it will take a long time for downdloaders to sift through and find the ones with decent print. Thereby discouraging them from indulging in online piracy. Pratamesh Desai, A PR executive comments, “This only goes on to add onto the spam already present on the internet, which will cause absolute chaos online.” And even studios' attempts at safeguarding their products - watermarks and other digital locks, have not been able to stand strong against the probing fingers of hackers. Digital Content cannot stay private for long. The overwhelming power these hackers weld over production houses only go to show how intellectual property, once online, loses its seal of privacy.
What the world needs to realise is how piracy is not the ravaging monster people assume it to be. Piracy takes these works of art and flings them out to far off places or into poorer hands that could not have even dreamed of watching these before. Piracy, online and physical takes the magical world of movies to places and people it wouldn’t go to otherwise. Mayank Ghatawat, an MBA student and a sworn downloader says, “Today piracy is like a virtual handover of material from one person to another. The world brings back its traditional values of sharing and hands out generous portions of intellectual property to everyone who asks.”
The panic over piracy is reminiscent of a distant past where movie studios were fretting about the advent of the VCR. It managed to supplement movie collections rather than prove detrimental to it. Piracy is here to stay. The only way to get people to stop downloading movies for free is to provide them with a reasonably priced legitimate alternative, one that is suited to their preferred media. The movie industry cannot afford to go the music industry way, as the amount of time and resources spent on trying to track down individual downloaders can be put to figure out how to use the internet more effectively.
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