EU Commission on piracy

TallPaul1878 · 24 Sep 2017 at 08:59

http://www.pcgamer.com/eu-commission-report-doesnt-find-a-link-between-piracy-and-sales/

A 307 page study on the effects of piracy has concluded that it has no impact on sales of video games, ebooks and music.

Effectively it is saying that the people who pirate games would not be buying the game legitimately if piracy was not available.

They do provide a caveat in that newly released movies are suffering the effects of piracy. My opinion on this is that the cinema experience is not what it used to be.

Cinemas are overpriced, from the cost of a ticket to the cost of popcorn. On top of that the prevalence of big screen 4k TVs makes the experience of in home entertainment far superior to that of a cinema when you have to consider that the cinema must be shared with other people that will be throwing popcorn about, using mobile phones and chatting throughout the movie.

If I could watch the new Star Wars movie on my 4k TV, in the comfort of my own home, with only my family around me then I would gladly pay a PPV subscription for it.

Rroff · 24 Sep 2017 at 09:05

With movies and TV shows could do a lot more to offset piracy - take The Expanse season two for instance - there was such a time delay in getting it generally available online legally many people resorted to pirating it who would have otherwise gone via one of the paid options.

TallPaul1878 · 24 Sep 2017 at 09:12

Rroff said:
With movies and TV shows could do a lot more to offset piracy - take The Expanse season two for instance - there was such a time delay in getting it generally available online legally many people resorted to pirating it who would have otherwise gone via one of the paid options.

Yea I have a Netflix subscription and Amazon Prime that the whole family make great use of but friends had watched the entire season 2 of The Expanse through piracy whilst I had to wait for it to release on Netflix.

Same goes for Peaky Blinders.

The public have voted with their wallets and they prefer streaming now.

Ste · 24 Sep 2017 at 11:23

Yeah knowing people who religiously pirated everything back in the day it just doesn’t make sense when streaming is so good. I don’t know anyone who does it now.

Netflix and Spotify combined is barely any more than a decent newsgroup subscription or whatever the kids use these days...

ANDARIAL · 24 Sep 2017 at 11:26

streaming is so good. I don’t know anyone who does it now.

You have a decent internet speed then?
Should try here max 3.5 Mbs and .6Mbs up

Its download or buffer,not a difficult choice

WantoN · 24 Sep 2017 at 11:51

ANDARIAL said:
You have a decent internet speed then?
Should try here max 3.5 Mbs and .6Mbs up
Its download or buffer,not a difficult choice

I feel sad for you. I download at 24 megabytes a second

Modern delivery systems are a fantastic method for watching what you want, and I'd gladly pay a little extra to see new things immediately.

The film industry is in my opinion antiquated, streaming is the now, and as someone mentioned previously I'd happily pay a PPV to watch at home.

Fishbait · 24 Sep 2017 at 12:40

I used Amazon Prime free trial thing & didn't think the quality was that good, so I'll be sticking to DVDs (Yes, I still use those things

).
Last time I went to cinema it was expensive over a decade ago, wouldn't dream of going to one now.
Plus, I can sit in doors & watch one in peace or go to a cinema with a lot of noisy eaters & want to go postal

ANDARIAL · 24 Sep 2017 at 12:51

Cinema?
I was last in one at least 25 years ago maybe more
Hate the noisy kids,popcorn,and crisp packets that were crackling all the way through

Plus I always needed to pee at the most interesting part of the film lol

eekfek · 24 Sep 2017 at 13:43

If you watched Dunkirk on IMAX you will know that sitting at home watching a film on a large TV cannot replicate or even come close to that visual and sonic experience.

I've a 4K which I watch a lot of Amazon Prime/Netflix stuff on and it's superb but you can't beat going to the IMAX.

Cromulent · 24 Sep 2017 at 14:21

I buy all of my films and TV programmes on DVD and Blu-ray and for things I don't really want to own forever I have Netflix and Amazon Prime (I didn't get Amazon Prime for the streaming I got it because it gives you Twitch Prime and free one day delivery the streaming is just a nice bonus).

Some things I'll stream but if I find something I really like I'll always get it on DVD or Blu-ray.

x-st · 24 Sep 2017 at 16:23

The important takeaway seems to be that people will buy books, music and games because they feel that the price is fair. Whereas TV and film is overpriced and most people would rather find alternative sources. There's a nicer breakdown here -
https://torrentfreak.com/eu-piracy-report-suppression-raises-questions-transparency-170922/

Martini1991 · 24 Sep 2017 at 16:30

Rroff said:
With movies and TV shows could do a lot more to offset piracy - take The Expanse season two for instance - there was such a time delay in getting it generally available online legally many people resorted to pirating it who would have otherwise gone via one of the paid options.

There needs to be a switch up on how media is sold etc. It's all over the place at the moment.

Doogles · 24 Sep 2017 at 17:35

I do pirate stuff but DRM only makes me want to do it more, Witcher 3 as we all know hasn't got any DRM yet I actually went out and bought it (well not really I paid online with GOG

) when it would've been the easiest game with no cracks needed. Piracy is a weird area, I think some people just download continuously because it's free and they'd have no intention on buying that product in the first place.

Smokey Deza · 24 Sep 2017 at 17:42

Shocking news. It's not like we've been saying it for years.

Malevolence · 24 Sep 2017 at 17:45

The internet infrastructure in this country is a ******* joke. I'm in the middle of a large city and yet have no access to fibre, and am Stuck on 10Mb ADSL2+. Means that I buy movies on Blu-ray because the A/V quality is far superior than any streaming service. I also buy games.

TV shows though, well shiver me timbers and pieces o' eight.

Columbo · 24 Sep 2017 at 18:12

TallPaul1878 said:
The public have voted with their wallets and they prefer streaming now.

Have they?

Last time I looked the numbers watching broadcast TV were still outstripping streaming by a huge margin and cinema attendances were actually going up.

I, like you much prefer streaming and generally hate the cinema experience of today but the evidence is people are using streaming to supplement their viewing rather than moving completely over to streaming.

Cromulent · 24 Sep 2017 at 18:39

Columbo said:
Have they?

Last time I looked the numbers watching broadcast TV were still outstripping streaming by a huge margin and cinema attendances were actually going up.

I, like you much prefer streaming and generally hate the cinema experience of today but the evidence is people are using streaming to supplement their viewing rather than moving completely over to streaming.

Streaming would be great if it actually had decent films on it. I collect foreign language WW2 films for instance. Good luck finding any decent ones on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. If it isn't "popular" they don't bother having it on their service.