[NOTE: I’ve put a short update in the first section based on a few interesting pieces I ran across after publishing this.]
As I write this, the viral meme above — from the Condescending Wonka strain — has just under 1,600 shares and 2,800 likes from a single source on Facebook. I did not so much run across it as have it shoved down my throat by my news feed, which has been smattered with the image all week, since The Avengers closed its record-smashing, $207 million-goddamn-dollar domestic opening. Equally distressing was that a large proportion of those sharing the image were people my age, and ones that had graduated 
from film school or consider themselves filmmakers- more than one of which I know have not found it easy to land a job in the industry. Meanwhile on twitter I’ve sen it RT’d with annoying frequency from all kinds of people, and even some news outlet have taken the spirit of the image and turned it into dismissive news pieces with smarmy images of their own!
So while it’s not worth yet another 4k word rant about movie piracy, I do feel it could be useful to run down and reiterate a few useful points. None of these will mean much to the random assholes who just want free shit to watch in between WOW sessions, but for those of us who have some kind of investment (emotional, professional, or otherwise) in the robustness of the movie industry, perhaps they’ll resonate or start a fun dialogue. Most of these ideas also don’t relate to the idea of an individual download, nor do they account for the (stunning self-deceptive and retarded) idea of activist piracy, in which you only download thing’s that won’t hurt anybody. Consider this all aimed at the idea of piracy in general…
And from the very start let’s make something clear: A multi-point, emphatic condemnation of piracy is NOT an endorsement of the overly litigious nonsense studios and government agencies get up to in fighting it. So no, shitting on your stupid Wonka graphic doesn’t mean I think some 15 year old kid ripping off Avatar for his iPod should spend his twenties shaving his cellmate’s ass in Chino.
Event Films Are The Outliers…
First off — just to target the most recent specific example — outliers don’t mean shit in a moral/ethical debate like the one surrounding piracy. The Avengers is a once-or-twice a year event, and it took world-shifting effort to make it happen, much less while maintaining its (relative) high quality. Even when the film skates past a billion worldwide, consider that not only is it a joint effort between two giant corporations, but there’s an old studio that’s getting bonus points, theater splits, scattered worldwide deals, 
points for any producers or cast that managed to wrestle them from Marvel, and plenty of other hidden siphons attached to that giant pie ON TOP of the $200 – $250m they dropped just to get the damn thing in the can. Is everybody making tons of money? Of course? Does it all go in to one Scrooge McDuck style tower that couple of dudes are going to swim in? No.
You wonder why there aren’t jobs and that Hollywood workers are shitting their pants with glee when one major blockbuster sticks around LA? Well, there are a lot of reasons that piracy is only one among, but it sure as shit doesn’t help.
That massive conglomerate forces can come together and spend hundreds of millions to make billions by smashing half-a-dozen longstanding properties together is not, in any way shape or form, indicative of the overall health of the movie industry. In fact, it’s a sign of just the opposite as it reinforces the current line of thinking in Hollywood, which is antithetic to an environment of nuanced creative empowerment: the idea that you either have to make huge tentpole flicks or no-budget found footage flicks.
Addendum: Without making this near-unwieldy piece too much longer, I wanted to acknowledge a few things I ran across yesterday. It seems I wasn’t the only one who had piracy on the brain in relation to The Avengers release, as Forbes actually hosted a small piece with the news that The Avengers actually represents another broken record: the most quickly and widely torrented cam leak in film history. You see, a poor-quality handicam version of the film made its way onto the web a week before release and apparently sparked half-a-million downloads just that fast. I can only imagine that increased twofold before better quality files made it out there. The obvious point is made that this clearly didn’t make a dent in the box office returns of the film. I would posit that this only further pushes my points covered above and below- that things like this only serve to push Hollywood in the direction of blockbusters that are inherently insulated from piracy by scale and by gimmicks. A relatively smaller film like, say, Source Code (which was among the Top 10 most pirated films last year) might have found its numbers much more harshly dented with that many downloads.
Beyond that though, it’s important to note that piracy has a much greater affect on DVD sales, which is a market that continues to spin the drain, whereas only a few years ago it was true enough to say “most any movie will make money eventually on DVD.” That’s the kind of thing that empowers risk, or at least slightly more adventurous green-lighting, and it’s something that piracy, among many other factors, has helped to destroy.
And again, even if you parse all of this specific numeric data and find that piracy isn’t significantly damaging the bottom line, there are still several other good reasons to leave it alone…
Which brings us to the next few points.
Driving Studios To The Gimmicks…
This is a point that’s become even more convoluted as the home theatrical experience has improved and forced the studios into the arms of gimmicks you can’t replicate at home or 
in a 700mb download. Piracy has a lot to do with that as well. It’s tough to handicam a 3D flick, which gives the format (which I know is widely hated) a buffer against piracy. If you’ve ever wondered why it’s harder and harder to catch a 2D screening even when you keep hearing about 3D not bringing in huge extra profits, keep that in mind. It ain’t demon magic making it happen.
Afraid of 48fps? It’s unlikely the format is going to catch on particularly quick or that studios will force it on filmmakers without an obvious cost-benefit, but if there’s the slightest indication that it’s another layer of protection against- watch ’em roll with it. Or, if audiences do respond at all, watch them jump on it like lightning as another angle they can use to draw people in and away from their home systems and torrent files.
Hell, I’m intrigued by or outright like some of these “gimmicks”- doesn’t mean I want them rammed down our throats as a market imperative instead of dutifully explored by interested artists!
Empowering The Real Evil Shit…
No, this isn’t the “if you buy weed you’re funding terrorism” line of horseshit, but something scarier… the idea that the continuing, growing environment of casual piracy has provided a perfect Hollywood villain that the studios have and will continue to use as justification for rallying behind ever-more-draconian legislation. Remember the evil SOPA bill that inspired enough Facebook sharing and petition signing to actually get the thing tabled for the time being? Yep, piracy was a huge motivator, and the biggest shadowy evil they pointed to in lobbying for the legislation. And when they can point to 
the fact that just the top 10 torrented films on one torrenting service (granted, the most popular) counted for 75 million downloads in 2011 alone… well, their boogeyman still looks scary enough for old white dudes writing laws.
And lest you think we’ve won that battle, then you underestimate the shady shit conglomerates will do to force through their agenda. Follow-up bills like CISPA contain much of the same shady language, and even when such legislation isn’t as explicitly threatening towards internet freedom, that doesn’t mean it won’t have last-minute riders attached that effectively allow for the same frightening abuses of privacy and fair use freedom, right before it’s rammed through and passed in cover of darkness.
They pass shadier laws concerning more important things all the time, and while your Fast Five download may be an insignificant part of that storm, it still another statistic that helps them more than it helps you, considering the damn thing was available on iTunes for a couple bucks.
It’s Still Just Stealing, Asshole…
Ultimately the most compelling point should be the most obvious: it’s fucking stealing. It just is. I’ve watched a decade go by as people (especially ones my age) train for all kinds of philosophical gymnastics to justify downloading shit for free, but it all, invariably, rings hollow. Especially when such arguments that are clearly justifying entitled laziness so often reek of “punk” self-righteousness.
The fact is this: if a person or group makes a thing that would not otherwise exist, then they get to determine what one has to do to enjoy that thing. If that’s paying for a movie 
ticket or viewing it on a streaming service they’ve made a deal with or whatever, that’s the way it is. We all have our personal grey areas and varying degrees of sound sleep after borrowing a DVD, or sneaking into a second showing at a theater, or yanking something off Pirate Bay, and that’s just the way it is. Enforcing things with huge fines and jail time isn’t any more tenable than demanding people stop and expecting them to listen. That’s kind of the way it should be. Just never, ever mistake that for the moral high ground.
At the end of the day yeah, you can swipe what you want and the world will keep spinning. For now. But expecting everyone else to pick up the slack, will soon have us finding that things don’t work that way, and it won’t be clear until it’s already too late. The film industry is a business of resources and energy, and is slave to the same laws of sustainability that all of our other suffering systems have learned of all too harshly. Most of the stormy clouds on the horizon are the faults of executives, lazy filmmakers, and wider economic realities to be sure, but do you really want to lend even the tiniest hand to their efforts to push us off a cliff? If The Avengers and Paranormal Activity are the only movies you want to see from now on, then be my guest and send that message to Hollywood. They’re happy to have their jobs made that much simpler.
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21 comments
Legend
What about movies that aren’t available, anymore? Didn’t people make money off that before the internet? Nobody seems to be making money off the downloading. I don’t get it.
That starred Tim Curry. Yay!
I’m against piracy (as well as theft in general, including intellectual property theft), as I think people, companies, corporations, etc. shouldn’t have to expect to have their work stolen. I’m also frustrated at the escalating war between pirates and studios as it can affect those of us who believe in paying to see a movie, whether it’s at the theater, on cable through a subscription or through some service like Netflix. There are definitely things content creators/providers/whatever could do to help limit piracy. Accessibility is way up there — one of the big complaints I have is that it can be hard to get access to different kinds of content. That’s frustrating. But it still doesn’t justify piracy (though plenty of people use it as an excuse). I hope content creators relax a bit and experiment with ways to make content available (not for free, mind you) without placing tight restrictions on the user. And I hope people show a little restraint and stop pirating stuff, because it’s selfish and destructive beyond just cheating someone out of some cash.
Agree on all points Renn. What pisses me off the most is the hypocrisy. For me, more than the issue of stealing, or, to put in in a different light, how would anyone who downloads/torrents feel if they weren’t paid for the product/work/job/service they perform? It’s really as simple as that. Maybe I’m stating the obvious…
It really is embarrassing, to listen to both sides of the political coin bitch and whine…whatever the subject/cause, about getting/protecting “what’s their’s”, be it ideology, welfare, tax reform..whatever…yet never pause before hitting the DOWNLOAD button…
You might have a valid point, but I stopped reading at ” None of these will mean much to the random assholes who just want free shit to watch in between WOW sessions.”
it was humor, be insulted if you want but it still makes a very valid point
people have a constant stream of entertainment that people are convinced is their “right”, but it’s just masturbatory indulgence with no basis in reality
I go to the theater a lot every year. And I have Netflix, but I’m in Canada, so the selection is even worse than in the US. Still, I think it’s a killer deal. But this does not allow me to see everything I want to see. There is basically nowhere in my home town where you can rent movies.
Netflix doesn’t seem sustainable. It’s way too cheap and everybody freaks when they try to charge more. I don’t like to buy movies and I don’t like TV. I work evenings, which means I pretty much miss every show ever. I honestly don’t understand how anybody does the 20th century thing of, “oh, it’s 9pm, time to sit down and watch Justified.” If you watch a bunch of shows how can you even have a life? And I have a computer, so a TV seems redundant.
It almost seems like nobody wants my money. I feel like the studios are not doing everything they can to make things available. And the concept of “it’s available in USA, but not in Canada or other places” is kind of bullshit. It’s the 21st century, the national boundaries are invisible when you’re on the internet.
So I’d like to know why the studios don’t just put their movies online through a pay per view streaming service. Each studio should have its own website where you can go and you don’t have to get a satellite or sign up with a cable company or any of that. You just go to the site, pick your movie, pay five bucks or whatever and watch it as much as you want for the next 24 – 48 hours. I would absolutely do that.
So question for everybody: are there any good sites to watch movies and TV shows online legally (in Canada)? Is there a service I just don’t know about?
I have the Matt Salinger Captain America on VHS. I also bought it on DVD. If I now download it from a torrent site (just for shits and giggles), am I still stealing??
Well, this is a point of view from Germany…i d´ont know if you have the same problems like us..let´s see…
First i have to say that i own over 4000 “original” Movies on VHS, DVD or Blu. I have never ever downloaded a movie!
But sometimes i think that the “real” Filmfans who spend a lot of money in one year to buy movies are very disapointed about the Industry because you never get the “right” version FIRST.
I won´t shit on this “Star Wars neverending Story” because i quit thinking about that…as a fan i bought this f….g Series 5 Times now….
But what about this “Special Edition” and “Special Collectors Edition” and “Birthday Special Collectors Edition” Shit???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Nowadays its normal that, as a fan of a movie you HAVE to wait a few YEARS to get the right Version you always wanted.
In Germany you get 3 versions of “Jaws”, 4 versions of “Matrix”, 3 Versions of “E.T.” and it goes on and on.
sas the greatest bond dfan in the world i am happpy that i waited so many years for the new blu Bond Collection “50 Years”. Just imagine i would have bought the single Blu Rays???
It was hard for me not to buy these single Versions as a very big fan..it was a horror to think that you spend 250 Euros for the single Editions and now you get ALL Bond Blu Rays in ONE real good looking Package for 179 Euros…
The Filmindustrie should not waste so much time against piracy they won´t stop it. But HEAR the real Fans who bring the money.
For me its okay when i read moths before a blu ray starts that there will be a “Definite Collection” like “Avatar”! When i KNOW that i have to wait its not such a big Problem…but what happens to “Avatar” ?? The definite Collections isn´t even in 3 D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So i have to wait some years longer when it finally comes out REAL definite!!!!
Sometimes i´m so curious and disapointed that i think about downloading something…sorry!
The Industry has nearly broken my “good” intentions..think about that!
Sorry my poor english .-))
I wrote a blog post a while back on my site about how Hollywood can help fight piracy and benefit consumers. Some of the ideas I shared were: Making all DVDs and Blu-rays REGION FREE and charging offending downloaders the COST of a digital download or the price of a DVD or the price of a theatrical ticket, instead of thousands of dollars in fines. The person is punished (not severely) and the studio makes a buck and “makes an honest person” out of a would-be pirate. It’s an “everyone walks away happy” type of scenario. Also, current copyright laws should be given an overhaul; movies, music, and books should all enter the public domain a bit quicker methinks.
This is actually a very valid question. I’ve “illegally downloaded” films from torrent sites (for use in various web-projects, e.g. when I need screencaps, musical cues, or a few snippets of footage) but I own legal copies of them on DVD or Blu-ray. This is kind of a grey area… if I download something I own a legit physical copy of … is it really stealing?
This is an issue a buddy at work complains about all the time. He is a huge animation fan, and he can’t stand that studios keep putting out 4 episode volumes of cartoons when he just wants the damned season set. Then you have the “season 1 part 1” sets and all that bullshit. As an animation fan as well I agree. I don’t want to have to track down 4 volumes of a single season of a cartoon at 10 bucks a pop when I can get the season set for 25 and it takes up a quarter of the space on my shelf, but half the time they never release a season set or it comes out a year or more after all the volumes.
The problem with the studios putting out their own distribution, is it cuts out the deals they already have with their distributers. Everyone wants a piece of the pie, leaving the consumers hanging in the wind.
For example, I read an article today that Game of Thrones is the #1 most pirated show of this year amd that it’s limited distribution could have a affect on it. HBO will not let Netflix, Apple, or Hulu show it and you can only see it on the HBO Online account. However, to get that you need to a) already have cable TV, and b) have a HBO subscription. I travel a lot in Europe and I don’t always have places where I would even watch it, so I had to wait till after season 2 began airing to buy Season 1 on Bluray.
Sony Pictures was gonna put their content on a Sony site, but comcast cable in the states implements bandwidth caps to prevent distribution on their networks. Since the comcast/NBC merger went through, they have no problems distributing their own content though.
While I may or may have not torrented a movie or show because severe lack of options, I do admit to purchasing quite a bit of content.
I think the issue there is that when you torrent something you ‘re also making it available for upload to people who haven’t paid for it. Essentially you’re making yourself a conduit for illegal activity.
You can shut down the upload portion of your torrent, but then I think then the argument shifts to the idea that if you’re grabbing something off of a torrent in the first place, it must be a desirable product, so someone will continue to make it available. Basically a supply-and-demand type situation.
Also, the person who made it available for torrent in the first place is participating in “illegal distribution.”
I don’t know that charging a downloader just the cost of a single movie makes sense. It costs them a lot just to find and legally prove copyright infringement/piracy. They would be spending a whole bunch of money hiring the people to go after the pirates and then only getting a few bucks from each pirate.
If it costs the studios so much in resources just to nab a few people and slap ’em with a ridiculously high fine, then they obviously have to change their tactics. Maybe my idea isn’t the best, and may not make business sense, but it seems more reasonable. Hell, if I got caught downloading “The Avengers” or some other Hollywood film, and had to pay $15 – $20 bucks for a sh*tty camcordered copy, I’d reconsider pirating again later on down the road.
The fact of the matter is that whatever Hollywood comes up with the pirates will circumvent. How long was Bluray out before it was cracked?
The only real solution is to go back to VHS and dial-up internet access. But then you’re condemning everyone for the work of a few people.
Renn was that 75 million download stat from Pirate Bay itself or from a studio? Maybe I’m being naive but that number seems way too high.
I’m not doubting that piracy takes a bite out of profits but just remember all the BS that Hollywood said would come to fruition regarding the Video Cassette Player in the 70/80s. That didn’t spell doomsday for the industry and I don’t think that this will either.
How about if all movies are going to be 3D and cost a family of 4 50 bucks to see it in the theater you get a voucher for the bluray when it comes out in the stores or at least a 50% off coupon.
Or more importantly, they can make the theater experience more inviting by sharing more of the ticket profits with the theaters and then it wouldn’t cost 100 bucks to get popcorn and sodas for the family?
There is not enough time between WoW sessions to watch shit much less pirate it.
That’s why I don’t go to the theater. Every once in a while I do, but for the most part, I just wait till it’s out on DVD and rent it. Blockbuster and Netflix have really great deals so why should I pay for a movie ticket, popcorn, drinks and candy when I can have Netflix/Blockbuster for 3-4 months? That’s just me tho. I can wait cause I have other things I can do until it comes out.
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