Pirated Movies

The term piracy is used to refer to robbery or criminal violation of copyrights. Robbery in this case is viewed in terms of criminals benefiting from other people’s intellectual products. Such products include books, music, paintings and movies to mention but a few. This crime is commonly known as copyright infringement, which is the unauthorized use of works under copyright. These rights include exclusive rights also known as holder’s right such as, the right to reproduce, to distribute, and display or performing rights (Edwards & Waelde, 2005). This paper will discuss the impacts of piracy in the movie industry, the reason why piracy is on the rise and how the practice can be curbed. The entire world has become in one way or another victim of piracy. Movie piracy in particular accounts for almost 1/3 of the worlds pirated products (Ryan, 2012). Other products with a close margin include software and music piracy. Piracy can be penetrated depending on the person violating the copyright law through many ways. Although people feel that by reproducing other people’s work of art without legitimate authorization has dismal effects, the opposite is true. In the end, the entire market if flooded with the products that are pirated and illegally therefore robbing the original author his or her benefits.

A good example of the adverse impacts of the movie piracy practice is presented in a case in Canada where 12,600 full time equivalent jobs were lost This affected the entire economy and the movie industry as well which experienced a loss of 4,900 direct jobs (McDonald & Wasko, 2008). The movie industry is a very prestigious and fst growing market. Many other significant industries greatly depend on the movie industry including the software industry among others. Therefore, the collapsing of the industry can cause a lot harm than good for both the industry and the economy as a whole. America alone, the entertainment industry is a very significant economic contributor but with the rampant piracy, the industry might lose its economic value. Piracy has adverse impacts on people’s lives especially the industry players. It is in the public knowledge how some of the movies that are flooded in the market are costly to make. Making a movie can reach up to the levels of hundreds of million in American dollar currency. Movie making a business and the investors hope to rise as much and make profits out it as well.

However, piracy has made the recovery and ultimate benefit of such investments a very difficult endeavor. Although the perpetrators argue that, their actions are justified by the act that the prices set on original movies are too high in the middle-class and low-class population, the industry maintains the prices are set putting into account the production cost. It is very practical for the industry players to have their prices as high as their production cost since this is also a business entity. Piracy of movies is not justifiable since it is a criminal offense to infringe other people’s right. Nonetheless, the copyright owners on the other hand have to rethink and restructure their market structure. It is true that with the rampant growth of piracy has grown, there lacks an easy way to stop the practice. It is real and happening in almost every corner of the world today. All that one needs to do is to purchase an original movie once and then they can reproduce it as many times as they wish and as many copies as they can. This can be later sold at a very subsidized price that is affordable to all hence spreading the movie and increasing its viewing.

The chain goes on as the copy is sold out since every copy sold out can also be reproduced in other copies and eventually the original copies will have no demand in the market in the end. Piracy of movies has both positive and negative impacts. However, the positive impacts of piracy are outweighed by the negative impacts depending on which angle of problem one is looking at. From the consumer angle, it may seem justifiable because it reduces the prices and enables the poor to access entertainment. However, looking at the broader scope of the industry, piracy is as disadvantageous as a nation experiencing an economic meltdown. The movie business covers a lot of other economic loopholes and it is a source of revenue to the government as well as to individuals who get employment directly or indirectly through the industry. This paper has outlined a number of the impacts of piracy. In the paper, piracy has been defined and analyzed considering both the bad and good sides of its existence. Piracy has been described as a way to solve pressing problems but it also has been criticized for having economic deformity. Movie piracy as discussed in this essay is illegal and the practice of it attracts very serious copyright infringement punishable by law in most of the countries globally.

References
McDonald, P., & Wasko, J (2008). The Contemporary Hollywood Film Industry. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub.
Edwards, L., & Waelde, C. (2005). Online Intermediaries and Liability for Copyright Infringement. Retrieved from: http://www.mpa-canada.org/press/IPSOS-OXFORD-ECONOMICS-Report_February-17-2011.pdfRyan, P (2012). College sports should hook ‘em online. Retrived from: http://policybythenumbers.blogspot.com/2012/09/college-sports-should-hook-em-online.html.