The (Hidden) Cost of Film Piracy

            Nearly one quarter of all global internet traffic is involved in the piracy of copyrighted media, as of 2016 according to research reports by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis. That fact by itself is shocking in scope. It’s the sort of lynchpin fact that could easily headline a staunch anti-piracy campaign, which are more in favor now sincethe solely dramatic anti-piracy advertisements of the early 2000s were far fromsuccessful. In fact piracy bandwidth – the total data used by digital piracy – has increased by roughly 50% annually since the premiere of the FBI’s You Wouldn’t Steal A… campaign. Growing at an almost exponential rate, despite shutdowns of The Pirate Bay and MegaShare, it’s clear the hydra that is 21^st century piracy is not one to die soon.

(You Wouldn't Steal A... campaign, circa 2002).

            I bring up these statistics for their precise face value, they’re numbers. Numbers evoke a very analytical and very dry part of our brains, and just as usual as they are for objectively quantify a situation, they are just as prone to distract. In the case of piracy, the list of statistics are a long one, just take a look at this infographic prepared by Creative Future – an anti-piracy group based out of Los Angeles:

Source: Creative Future. 2016.

            These numbers evoke issues that are rooted in economics and finances, imports and exports, legal codes and legislation. It becomes drier and drier the more we talk about it. In fact, the US Congress has not updated the Copyright Act of 1976 since a digital amendment was added in 1998, back when transferring a movie online would take almost a week compared to the minutes it can be today. Congress hates debating this issue – especially now that Google has become the single largest lobbying group in Washington DC. Little is expected to change as our digital econoy has irrevocably grown around our lax digital copyright laws.

There is a definite status quo with our piracy, both legally and on a broader cultural spectrum. It is something we have accepted worldwide as part of our 21^st century lifestyle – at least 25% of the world certainly agree. And it’s a dangerous one, but not for the numerical reasons that so cloud the issue:

Ruth Vitale (CEO, CreativeFuture) was particularly vocal about its negative consequences. One shocking case study she noted related to Dallas Buyers Club (for which Jared Leto won an Oscar). Jean-Marc Vallée’s 2013 film generated about 7 million theatrical ticket sales. But, it amassed some 21 million illegal downloads, or about three times more than the legal transactions.

[Ms. Vitale later added] “It is sad whenever an artist doesn’t get compensated for their painstaking work. In this example, though, I do like to see an indie film like The Rendezvous and director Amin Matalqa get as much exposure as possible.”

            There’s no doubt that piracy hurts small sleeper hits like Dallas Buyer’s Club or The Rendezvous, and we know that before the numbers are even presented. But there’s a cost that stretches beyond simple box office tickets. For a film like Dallas Buyers Club, most of the crew was paid close to minimum wage, banking on ‘back end points’ or a small percentage of the net profits if the film did well. The film was successful, but never broke past its initial production cost. Many of the filmmakers, as Ruth Vitale can testify, are struggling to find work, and some may exit the film industry all together. Amin Matalqa, after working near a decade on his feature rather apathetically admitted it’s likely his last. And that’s the unseen cost behind the millions of tickets we tend to focus our attention on.

            We’ve all seen that seemingly more and more superhero movies are being made each year, and hardly anything else reaches the silver screen. That’s not simply Hollywood greed as many a laptop-warrior might decry as he pirates The Dark Knight for the umpteenth time, but a symptom of an industry hemorrhaging money on smaller projects like Dallas Buyers Club. As a consequence, less and less of these smaller movies are being made, relying of the tentpole blockbusters to rake in the years net profits for the studios.

            Through all of this we forget that our arts are the glue that bind us together as a society. Every year there is a movie that fundamentally shapes the way we perceive the world. We have to look just under a century ago to the iconic Birth of a Nation and its distasteful blackface to glimpse into the tense racial divisions that plagued the 20^th century. Gone with the Wind brought to light Hattie McDaniel, the first African American actress to garner the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress – a cultural milestone in our long history of racial injustice. And in 2014 amidst a wave of 21^st century discussion of sexuality and gay marriage, The Dallas Buyers Club brought to light issues sexuality through the AIDS epidemic in the most heartbreaking of stories following a homophobe stricken with HIV.

These pictorial stories aren’t just for entertainment, but bring to light cultural issues we are waging everyday as a global community. It’s a price that a dollar sign can’t measure, but the voices of our creative communities cannot be stifled as we try and tackle issues of inner city poverty, racism, and sexism. These stories carry an important weight with a power equal if not greater than the journalists of The New York Times. The fight against piracy isn’t a just a legal one as the FBI banner’s might make you think, but a cultural one.

Support Art. Stop Piracy.

Sources:

http://www.starkinsider.com/2016/10/state-film-industry-tackles-amazonnetflix-piracy-technology-led-disruption.html