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| BitTorrent Piracy Doesn’t Effect US Box Office Returns, Study Finds Posted: 10 Feb 2012 04:32 AM PST
However, a new study reveals that movie industry itself has the key to decreasing piracy, without passing any news laws. In a paper titled ‘Reel Piracy: The Effect of Online Film Piracy on International Box Office Sales’ researchers from the University of Minnesota and Wellesley College examine the link between BitTorrent piracy and box office returns. As hypothesized, they find that international movie piracy losses are directly linked to the delay between US and foreign premieres. In other words, the longer it takes before a movie is released internationally, the more box office revenues are impacted through piracy. “We find that longer release windows are associated with decreased box office returns, even after controlling for film and country fixed effects. This relationship is much stronger in contexts where piracy is more prevalent: after BitTorrent's adoption and in heavily pirated genres,” they write. “Our findings indicate that, as a lower bound, international box office returns in our sample were at least 7% lower than they would have been in the absence of pre-release piracy.” Aside from their conclusion that a lack of availability is fueling piracy, the researchers report a perhaps even more interesting result. Contrary to what the MPAA and other lobby groups claim, the study doesn’t find a negative effect of BitTorrent piracy on US box office revenues. “We do not see evidence of elevated sales displacement in US box office revenue following the adoption of BitTorrent, and we suggest that delayed legal availability of the content abroad may drive the losses to piracy,” the researchers write. The above means that movie pirates in the US wouldn’t have bought a ticket at the box office if file-sharing was nonexistent. Only international box office sales see a piracy related decline in revenue, which is attributed to long release windows, something the industry itself can address. Yet, the movie industry lobbyists keep hammering on about eliminating pirate sites, while ignoring the fact that the industry itself can make important steps to decrease international piracy as well. Governments around the world are not blind to this double standard, as both the Netherlands and Switzerland chose to keep unauthorized movie downloading legal until the industry improves the availability of legitimate content. Of course the study is far from perfect as there are many more factors that influence box office returns. However, the findings clearly suggest that the movie industry itself can take the biggest step towards eliminating piracy “losses,” not lawmakers. Source: BitTorrent Piracy Doesn’t Effect US Box Office Returns, Study Finds
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| Megaupload Founder’s Home Seized, Co-Defendant Bailed Posted: 09 Feb 2012 10:52 AM PST
Today, van der Kolk was back in the North Shore District Court before Judge Pippa Sinclair who considered what bail conditions should be set before finally releasing the 29-year-old. Prosecutor Anne Toohey, the lawyer representing the US government, argued that as the site’s lead programmer, der Kolk was the most likely to try and set up a Megaupload replacement. Lawyer for der Kolk, Guy Foley, said that was ridiculous, especially given the heavy surveillance his client would be subjected to by the FBI on his release. Toohey said there was a risk that der Kolk would get in contact with his co-accused in the so-called “Mega Conspiracy” of which there are seven in total. Four are currently in New Zealand and three are in other countries – two of those are still at large. Foley argued that der Kolk must be at least granted permission to speak with two of his co-accused in New Zealand since they all share the same lawyer and need to communicate in order to mount a defense. Judge Sinclair decided that the networking expert could indeed be released but under strict conditions. First, der Kolk would be denied Internet access which means that his bail location and anyone living there may not have any devices with online access. Additionally, police were authorized to continuously monitor der Kolk’s ability to get online. Der Kolk was also banned from speaking with any of his co-accused overseas, although he was given permission to speak with those currently held in New Zealand for the reasons outlined by Foley. Finn Batato, the 38-year-old from Germany whose bail was granted in principle during January but delayed pending an assessment of his bail address, was also in court today. The address given by Batato was the residence of Kim Dotcom’s wife, Mona, but she had not yet submitted the required paperwork due to illness. Batato’s hearing will now take place tomorrow. Meanwhile, a smaller house located alongside ‘Dotcom Mansion’ was seized today by authorities. Dotcom’s heavily pregnant wife and their three children will be allowed to stay in the £3.6m property, at least for now. Kim Dotcom is scheduled to appear in court February 22nd. Source: Megaupload Founder’s Home Seized, Co-Defendant Bailed
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With their unconditional support for SOPA, PIPA and ACTA, Hollywood is pressing hard for new legislation to curb piracy. The studios want ‘rogue’ websites to be censored and are calling on Google and Internet providers to take responsibility.
Bram van der Kolk, the lead programmer of the now-defunct Megaupload cyberlocker, last appeared in court on | You are subscribed to email updates from TorrentFreak To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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