Honestly, how many of you rip, copy, and burn your Netflix DVD rentals and then send them right back for another? According to a report titled Consumer Home Piracy Research Findings July 2008 (pdf) nearly one third of people copy DVDs. Of those that copy DVDs in the U.S. over half are copying DVDs rented from sources like Blockbuster and Netflix.
The study commissioned by anti-piracy firm Macrovision for Futuresource Consulting found that copying DVDs is on the rise compared to 2007. Survey participants admit to copying about 12 DVDs on average in the past six months.
How Are They Doing It?
The most common method for copying DVDs is either from a DVD player to a DVD recorder or using one of a number of software applications for ripping and burning DVD copies. According to the study 18 percent of those that copy DVDs in the U.S. said they tried and failed to copy a DVD compared to 8 percent in the UK.
One might say Hollywood is fighting an uphill battle on this front given the proliferation of DVD-duplication tools available for free on the Internet or even sold in stores.
The study clearly is a pitch for Macrovision's anti-piracy technology. One of the conclusions of the Consumer Home Piracy study is if want-to-be DVD pirates can't make a copy of a DVD then between 63 and 77 percent of them would have purchased the DVD.
For its study Futuresource surveyed 3613 U.S. residents and 1718 from the U.K. earlier this year.
(image credit: miskan via Flickr)
Maybe if DVDs were cheaper to buy people wouldn't pirate them, same with CDs and MP3s. Sorry at a dollar a song, I might as well buy the album, or go for the foreign distributors for 13 cents a song. Everything boils down to price and quality, cheap software and lower quality results, or pay less for the high quality manufactures version.
I can't afford gas, let alone a trip to Best Buy or Amazon
yea BUT if movies were cheap then the studio's wouldn't be able to pay the stars, directors, FX guys crew and none of that includes the rest of the budget for the film.. And when did $15-20 become too expensive for a movie? I agree that blu-ray is too expensive but Sony and others are paying a price for that right now by not selling through the roof.
The thing I find funny about this is that people who have Netflix are doing this? WHY they can rent the movie anytime they want to and some are available on there Instant access thing.
Truth be told DRM sucks but it wouldn't have to happen if people didn't steal. Those .$13 songs you are referring to aren't breaking the law by any means but the money doesn't even go the artist.
A thief is a thief DRM exist for a reason and it's unfortunate that it hurts more then helps.
yea BUT if movies were cheap then the studio's wouldn't be able to pay the stars, directors, FX guys crew and none of that includes the rest of the budget for the film.. And when did $15-20 become too expensive for a movie? I agree that blu-ray is too expensive but Sony and others are paying a price for that right now by not selling through the roof.
The thing I find funny about this is that people who have Netflix are doing this? WHY they can rent the movie anytime they want to and some are available on there Instant access thing.
Truth be told DRM sucks but it wouldn't have to happen if people didn't steal. Those .$13 songs you are referring to aren't breaking the law by any means but the money doesn't even go the artist.
A thief is a thief DRM exist for a reason and it's unfortunate that it hurts more then helps.
Lowering the price of DVDs and CDs would increase sales. When Video tapes were first available they were 100's of dollars a piece and then the industry realized they could make more money by lowering the price of the videotape, allowing more people to buy it. The profit is made through economy of scale.
Movies have generally made all of their money back by the time it reaches the store to be sold as DVDs; so outside of production and marketing costs the majority of DVDs are sold with a greater level of profit.
I copy DVDs but do it only for time-shifting - same as I would (legally) tape a TV show and watch it later. If I can't watch the movie that day, I copy the DVD on a DVD-RW and send it back. After I've watched the movie, I write over the copy with the next one. If I like the movie and think I would watch it again, I buy a used one or a new one on sale. I don't see anything different about this than what I can do with TV shows - other than the distributors have unilaterally declared this to be illegal. Of course, saying something does not make it so.
I copy DVDs but do it only for time-shifting - same as I would (legally) tape a TV show and watch it later. If I can't watch the movie that day, I copy the DVD on a DVD-RW and send it back. After I've watched the movie, I write over the copy with the next one. If I like the movie and think I would watch it again, I buy a used one or a new one on sale. I don't see anything different about this than what I can do with TV shows - other than the distributors have unilaterally declared this to be illegal. Of course, saying something does not make it so.