How Piracy through Digital Media has affected the Film Industry

One of the main impacts that Digital Media has left on the film industry is piracy.  Now that the internet is so wide, it is very easy for films to leak out on to the internet and be made available for download. This has obvious effects on the industry including loss of profits.

Illegal film downloads are very damaging to the economy of the Film Industry. Film companies are losing money when their film is watched online. The Guardian reported in March 2011 that illegal downloads are “threatening the future” of the British Film Industry (1). They further stated that estimated losses were “around £500 million per year” (1). This is a significant amount of money that is being lost in the industry. Has it become too easy to get a hold of films online that is now seen as convenience over making a trip to the cinema?

There is an argument surrounding why people should pay to sit in a cinema screen when they can sit and watch a movie in the comfort of their own home for free.  Films that are on a limited cinema release reach a wider audience online but the film industry is a business and “movies need to be paid for” (2). I was told that the people who download the most films illegally are the group of people who go to the cinema most often. This could be supported by the fact that in Avatar was downloaded 16.6 million times via various torrent websites yet it still made over $1 billion at the box office in 2009 (3). The film then went on to break home release sales records (3).

In 2010, the government introduced the Digital Economy Bill. This bill introduced penalties for individuals for the online infringement of copyright (4). The act however, was challenged by BT and TalkTalk as a company called MediaCat claimed to have IP addresses of illegal downloaders (5). There was that this only identifies one internet router which could be used by multiple people and this does not identify the individual who is downloading (5).

This case was taken to court and on the 20^th of April 2011, the Daily Mail reported that the appeal was “thrown out of High Court” (6). Their reason for this was to “protect the creative industries hit hard by online piracy” (6).  This is a positive outcome for the film industry but Daniel Hamilton described the act as a “worrying incursion on users’ personal privacy and freedom of access to information” (6).  Is he right? Is this a step too far into people’s privacy? Maybe this is the only way to start making a stop to this problem?

I think that the problem of film piracy is currently in fact too wide to take effective action. It is very damaging to the industry but I think it has gone on too long and become too easy that it will be a hard thing to crack down on with a new law that is just being enforced now and not several years ago.

References

1.       Thorpe, Vanessa (13 March 2011), http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/mar/13/illegal-downloads-threaten-british-film, Accessed 14 April 2011

2.       Carey, Lavinia (9 February 2006),http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4691216.stm#2, Accessed 29 March 2011

3.       Child, Ben (22 December 2010),http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/dec/22/avatar-illegal-downloads-torrent-chart, Accessed 20 April 2011

4.       UK Government Legislation (8 April 2010), http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/24/introduction, Accessed 20 April 2011

5.       Burkhill, Guy (22 March 2011), http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2011/mar/22/acslaw-filesharing-digital-economy-act, Accessed 20 April 2011

6.        Daily Mail (20 April 2011), http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1378803/Internet-piracy-crackdown-approved-appeal-Digital-Economy-Act-fails.html, Accessed 20 April 2011

How Digital Media allows us to Interact through Social Networking with The Film Industry

Digital Media has clearly left a large impact on the Film Industry. Interacting through Social Networking has changed the industry a lot.

We can define the term ‘interact’ as “to become involved in communication or social activity (1). Film fans, film critics and film makers can now communicate with each other through digital technologies and most important the craze of the internet and social networking. I believe that this has encouraged my enthusiasm for films as I feel like I can really get involved.

Twitter has developed a craze where you are now able to tweet your favourite film stars and filmmakers. The director, Chris Weitz (2), has a twitter account to act as a Q & A service to communicate with fans (3).Most celebrity twitter users infrequently reply to fans but Weitz responds to questions on a daily basis.

The use of conducting online interviews is another opportunity to interact. Recently I have seen MTV ask on Twitter for questions to use to interview a film star. This gives the opportunity for fans to ask exactly what they want to know. Online webchats are similar to this but more informal. It acts as face to face interaction between the film star/filmmaker and the fans.

The use of vlogging from actors in their own personal time or from film sets lets them address their fans directly. Videos from film sets let us right into what is happening in the production of the movie.

Celebrities have exploded onto the social networking scene and to an extent we can now follow their daily lives. However, are celebrities revealing too much information about their personal lives?  Digital Media has allowed us to interact with celebrities in real time which was not possible before.

On the 17^th of April, I followed the Water for Elephants premiere online. I was nowhere near the New York yet I was updated by the minute through digital media.  Within 4 minutes of the premiere starting, a picture appeared on twitter via a mobile phone. Twitter users were using the hashtag “#wfe” and film critics and fans were tweeting live from the event (4). MTV streamed the premiere live over the internet which you were able to watch from anywhere in the world (5). Apple had an application available from their App Store that you could upload and share your pictures from the event (6). Digital Media allows us to access so much more information now and makes us feel like we are part of an event even though we are not there in person.

Before Digital Media really took off, we knew little about the films that were due to be released and less about those who starred in them. I think Social Networking has definitely given us a bigger insight into the production process but sometimes it is possible that we find out too much also. This is simply through the interaction of people online. It only takes one person to share data for a thousand people to share it. Digital Media has made it more difficult to keep secrets in this industry but gives us a greater insight of that they do as a business.

References

1. MSN (2009), http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1861621730/interact.html, Accessed 18 April 2011
2. IMDB (2011), http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0919363/, Accessed 18 April 2011
3. Twitter (2011), http://twitter.com/chrisweitz, Accessed 19 April 2011
4. Twitter (2011), http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23wfe, Accessed 17 April 2011
5. MTV (2011),http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2011/04/16/join-us-on-sunday-for-the-water-for-elephants-premiere-live-stream/, Accessed 17 April 2011
6. Color (2011), http://www.color.com/waterforelephants, Accessed 17 April 2011