One thing I’m often criticised for/questioned about is my reluctance to download pirated movies, music and games. I don’t download movies, music or games illegally. I don’t accept copies of pirated items and avoid watching copies of movies or playing copied games with other people whenever possible. This often frustrates, annoys or even offends some people. So today I thought I’d try and explain myself.

I’ll use movies as an example. Imagine you’ve just bought a new movie. You think it’s a great movie and lend it to your friends. They watch it and give it back when they’re done. Having purchased the movie, you’ve generally got the right to do this. It’s your DVD and you have the right to share it with others. After watching the movie, a few of your friends buy a copy or tell their friends who buy a copy or rent it at a video store. It works out well for all parties.

Isn’t borrowing a movie from a friend the same as downloading it off the internet? I still haven’t paid for it.
Personally, I don’t see it as the same thing at all. It is like saying two brothers who get into a fight is the same as World War 2. Sharing digital media on the internet is free distribution on a global scale. When you download a movie off the internet, you aren’t borrowing it, you are receiving your own copy with no idea of where it came from originally. Lending a movie to a few friends is different to duplicating this movie for anyone who wants it around the world.

What if I delete it straight after I watch it?
Sure it’s slightly better than a collection of pirated movies but it’s not without its issues. How much money did everyone involved in that movie get from the 3000 people who all just watched a copied version of one purchased DVD? Even still, how much money did they recieve when the first person who uploaded the DVD didn’t actually purchase it but stole it from a pre release version of the movie which only producers are supposed to have?

The movie studios make enough money, what does it matter if I download a movie or two? They shouldn’t make it so expensive.
Firstly, how do you know how much money each movie studio makes? Some smaller studios in Australia need to rely on government grants just to produce a TV series. Surely all that money they made from previous series would be plenty to fund the next one right? Well apparently not just as Roy Billing, one of the actors from Underbelly points out here,

“contrary to popular belief, actors are not all earning millions. Some of us do very well, some of us just eke out a living — same as in every job. But, like the life cycle of a movie, our income has many streams, unlike an average job where you get paid one wage for the job done. Those extra income streams from the movie or TV show’s initial release to DVD sales or online distribution, make the difference between working for peanuts or getting a fair whack for what we do.

Similarly the production companies that employ us rely on those income streams to make a profit, which can then be channelled back into other productions.”

So do you decide which movies you download based upon the wealth of the movie studio and/or actors? Or do you use the wealthy studios excuse for all downloaded films? (I would like to point out I don’t agree completely with Mr Billing, he believes ISPs should be held liable for illegal downloads, I don’t believe that but that’s a topic for another blog.)

Sure – some movie/tv/music/game studios charge too much or keep too much of the profits, but why does that make getting their work for free okay? How does that help actors and artists? Punishing the whole team for the wrongdoings of their bosses? What if the actors’ payslips relied on DVD purchases? Would you go into a top range clothing store and steal just because you disagreed with the prices set by management?

I don’t see the morality in taking something for free just because I disagree with how the profits are distributed or because I think they’re earning too much. If a group of people have spent months creating a piece of work for your enjoyment, why not pay them what they ask for and support them continuing their work further?

Is piracy really stealing? I haven’t taken it from anyone really.

I do want to point out that downloading movies isn’t really stealing in the usual sense. Piracy allows you to copy their work while the original is still left in possession of the store/owner. As i’ve pointed out above though, I don’t think this makes it okay.

Imagine you spent months on something, be it building a house, designing a piece of clothing, coming up with a brilliant recipe, inventing something amazing, coming up with a unique marketing strategy for your company, designing and developing a new website… pretty much whatever you can think of which falls into your expertise. Imagine that within days of releasing this piece of work it was copied almost exactly and given out for free to everyone and anyone. How would you feel?

I’m all for free movies, music, games… whatever but only if it is authorised by the artist or creator and if they are happy with what they are recieving in return.

Update: Just came across this article which says that:

“A study into Internet piracy by a Paris-based consultancy published on Wednesday showed that 1.2 million jobs in the European Union could be lost over the next five years if more is not done to clamp down on illegal downloading.”

I don’t know anything about the validity of this study or how it was conducted but it’s just food for thought.

Note: I’ll likely update and refine this post when I find better ways to explain my thinking. Feel free to discuss your thoughts and suggest ways for me to better explain this all

If there was ever a piece of news to frustrate the Internet community, it was this one.

Hulu, the site which broadcast TV shows and movies for free using advertising to support itself, appears to be getting ready to start charging for content. Apparently – “It’s time to start getting paid for broadcast content online” (the iTunes store seems to have been ignored in that quote). The service which so many praised for finally getting things right is about to turn away from its audience. Seems like perfect timing for me to let out my huge frustration with everything that’s currently wrong in the copyrighted and complicated world of the internet and copyright. I mean, as an Australian, I wasn’t even allowed to watch Hulu anyway.

Me and illegal downloads
As most people know, I’m a pretty moral guy. Despite being an IT student and having the ability to illegally download movies, music, software and games from the internet for free like so many others, I pay for them. I’ve refused free cracked copies of software despite not being able to afford it any other way. I like to do the right thing.

The iTunes Store
One of Hulu’s competing services which actually charges for content, the iTunes music store, definitely doesn’t make it easy to do the right thing. Whilst I download my music from iTunes and find it to be quite a good service, the DRM (digital rights management) protection they place on my downloads just treats the customer who is doing the right thing as a criminal who can’t be trusted. It places a limit on the number of computers you can have the file on, the number of copies you can make of it onto CD and so on. Upon getting a new hard drive for my PC and installing Windows again from scratch, I had to reinstall iTunes and transfer over my songs. Rather than making it easy, I was forced to authorise this “new” computer. Once again, I was the criminal who could not be trusted. How dare I try to play music I have bought legally on a new version of Windows! Sure, it wasn’t that difficult to authorise the PC, but why is it even necessary? Why should I have to prove myself every time I want to play music on a new PC?

When you can’t buy content even when you want to
Copyright issues on iTunes have even prevented me from purchasing content I willingly was going to pay for. When Channel Ten went from announcing the return of Supernatural to removing it from their schedule indefinitely 5 days later, I decided to see if I could purchase it elsewhere. Channel Ten had already put the show on hold for weeks without notice last season, so I really didn’t want to have to put up with this all over again.

Americans could watch the new season for free on CWTV but of course, due to copyright restrictions, Australians aren’t allowed to watch. Sure, I could trick the site into thinking I’m in America, but for now I have decided not to go down that path due to the whole being moral thing.

I then saw a link to download it on the iTunes store. Perfect! Or so I thought. Upon clicking the link and finding the episodes I wanted to see, I tried to log in. Rather than getting the chance to download it, I was told my account could only be used in the Australian iTunes store and was redirected back to the Australian iTunes store (felt more like I was kicked out as there was no option to stay where I was). I then searched for Supernatural in the Australian iTunes store but had no luck (of course).

I then googled to find out if I could get an account with the American iTunes store. Apparently not without having to enter in some false information, purchasing an American iTunes gift card from overseas and slightly breaching the iTunes Terms of Service.

Exclusive rights?
So even when I’m eager to pay to view these episodes, I’m not allowed just so Channel Ten can wait until they can gain the most from their exclusive rights to the show. Whilst so many around the world are enjoying the new season of Supernatural (including many in Australia illegally), I’m having to wait due to my morals and the decisions of television networks. In a digital age, do Channel Ten really have the exclusive? When so many Australians will have watched it on the Internet, where is the motivation to watch on commercial television? Sure, there are those like Hamish and Andy, who mentioned on their show that they’d illegally download these things but just don’t know how (they mention pirating stuff after the Pizza Hut bit in that link) but even those who don’t know how to find it usually know someone who do. It’s no longer an exclusive. That was exactly the point of networks “fasttracking” TV shows to show them at the same time in the US. That was a great system but I haven’t noticed Channel Ten doing it anymore.

Should I just watch it and pay later?
The simple solution I’ve heard to all this is to watch it online “illegally” now and then buy the DVD later. I’d get to watch it and keep up with the rest of the Supernatural fans and the team still get the money from the DVD sales. I’ve known people to do this and whilst not technically legal, really shouldn’t be that much of a crime? Though to be honest, people shouldn’t have to go to all this trouble. If people are downloading your shows for free, there is one simple solution – find a way to make money from people watching your shows for free. Get them to watch these shows for free from you, rather than from someone else.

The solution
Already when networks like Channel Ten show repeats of shows online, they make sure to put advertising in between. Surely it wouldn’t be so hard to broadcast shows online to a global audience and target advertising to suit each region. The only issue in all this is getting the television production studio rights to all of this content. I’d assume it would be nearly impossible – iTunes still can’t do this globally despite requiring users to pay for their content.

What logical reason is there for regional restrictions? Why doesn’t globalisation apply to television? Why not have one single release date for a show globally? Is it solely because the networks are holding onto giving traditional TV networks around the world first chance at broadcasting? If so, shouldn’t you take this chance away if they don’t use it effectively?

In summary
If people can’t see the shows they’re looking to see (e.g. Supernatural) and are turning to the internet, then the traditional TV networks in Australia are obviously failing in their job to deliver this content when people want it.

If moral people like me turn to the Internet and still can’t legally acquire the shows they want (whether for free or not), then television production studios are failing to pick up where these traditional TV networks are failing.

Is the point of copyright law to make things so difficult with restrictions? Or is it to ensure the author gets their fair share for uses of their work?

In the end, I’ve gone without seeing these new episodes of Supernatural with no idea when Channel Ten plans on actually broadcasting them (likely to be next year) despite the fact I could easily watch them if I found it illegally right now. Why be moral when every effort to do so seems to discourage it? How much longer will people like me be patient enough to wait and put up with it all to change?