Pirated Movies Argumentative Essay
Video piracy is the illegal copying and distribution of copies of the audiovisual products (video production) protected by the copyright. Criminals use digital writing down equipment for larceny of films from the screens of cinemas. The groups which are engaged in the release of piracy production consist of private persons who get piracy copies from video thieves. Copies are spread through the Internet or used for manufacturing of DVDs for sale worldwide.
Many video thieves sell “master copies” to the “video laboratories”. Then they are illegally duplicated on piracy optical disks, packed and prepared for sale in the black market, on the street trays worldwide, on the online auctions or even on the web sites in some days after their premieres in the cinemas.
Politics and Piracy Parties
An interesting tendency is observed when analyzing political situation of some countries. Recently, the increasing popularity was gained by the so-called piracy parties. They support cancellation of the copyright and full freedom of distribution of the information. One more general point of all international piracy parties is the requirement of inviolability of private life. Acceptance of the given requirement will considerably complicate calculation and conducting of judicial cases against those engaged in piracy.
The first piracy party has arisen in Sweden in 2006. In 2009, it has gained more than seven percent of votes on elections to the Euro Parliament. For today, there are more than forty piracy parties in the world, the majority of which are located in the countries of the European Union and also in the North America. It is remarkable that the greatest success of these parties was reached in those countries where the piracy level is rather low. It is possible to explain this tendency considering developed countries, which try to legalize piracy. At the same time, the citizens of the countries, where illegal distribution of digital goods is considered as a norm, do not see sense in giving piracy a legal status.
Country |
Piracy Party |
Percent of the Market Occupied with Pirates |
The USA | Registered | 20 |
Germany | Registered | 27 |
Luxembourg | Registered | 21 |
France | Registered | 41 |
Switzerland | Registered | 25 |
Great Britain | Registered | 27 |
Russia | Is active, but is not registered | 68 |
Ukraine | Is active, but is not registered | 84 |
China | Is not present | 80 |
Georgia | Is not present | 95 |
Moldova | Is not present | 90 |
Modern Ways of Struggle against Piracy
Modern world community has formed a negative attitude towards piracy. One of the main objectives of politicians is to struggle against infringement of copyrights. However, there are people who support legalization of noncommercial distribution of information, because this will allow distinguishing between the “pirates” who illegally copy films and programs for a narrow circle of users, and the ones who do it for commercial purposes.
Another way to fight against piracy is closing torrent trackers. Probably, almost each Internet user heard about scandal concerning “The Pirate Bay”. By 2008, its number of users has reached three millions. The scandal began in 2009 and lasted during one and a half year. Finally,, it was forbidden for “The Pirate Bay” to render its services.
Importance of Stopping Video Piracy
All forms of a piracy cause damage to the show business, economy of the films producing countries, and consumers.
As for the entertainment industry, six of ten films do not justify primary capital investments. Production of films is quite risky, and if pirates continue to plunder investors of the film industry, the production of films will be reduced.
Commercial success of services of lawful distribution of films through the Internet, such as Netflix, LOVEFiLM, Internet Movie Database and Blinkbox, proves technical efficiency of such films distribution. However, there always exists a temptation to take advantage of it. In July, 2010, the government of the United States closed nine web sites, offering free access to films. Sometimes, these sites gave access to the films right after their official appearance on the cinema screens. They received the same income as compared to many sites specializing on unapproved distribution of music. In May, 2011, it was informed that the company Voltage Pictures has brought an action against 24 583 users of BitTorrent, basically living in the United States, for illegal loading of a film “The Hurt Locker”. According to estimations of the Korean Council of Cinematography, 50 percent of households in Republic Korea are engaged in unapproved loading of films. All this made the market of DVD-disks lose about 1 billion USD.
The film industry is an economic mechanism, which creates new workplaces and brings the contribution to economy of the film producing countries. However, piracy causes damage to economy of the countries that sell and broadcast films. Video piracy can supersede from the market of legitimate employers, owners of cinemas, video shops, so also their employees. The profit on such unauthorized activity often appears in hands of members of the organized criminal groupings, gangs and so forth.
Talking about consumers, who have access to the wide assortment of high-quality films with a rich cultural palette, it is quite necessary to liquidate piracy. Representatives of show business realize the potential of the new technologies, which will allow creating new fascinating production. However, constant threat of piracy can constrain introduction of innovations. Therefore, the problem of piracy concerns everyone as it has a huge influence on developing of the film industry.