May 5, 2009
If you can't buy it legally, of course you'll download it
According to The Guardian, staggered film releases no longer work in a global economy and are to blame for the rise of pirate websites.
From the earliest days of cinema, a system of staggered worldwide releases of Hollywood movies developed. It made sense: there were only a certain number of prints and it took time to ship them across the world. ... In the 1970s you could sometimes wait two years to see a Hollywood film in the UK.
And 30 years ago that was alright. The markets really were separate. How would the average person in the UK even hear about the latest movies or TV shows on the US?
But it's not alright anymore. Here's why: the markets for legitimate purchase are still separate, but the marketing is not. The web is, as the name suggests, worldwide, and if you're advertising your great new movie or TV show on the New York Times website, or Salon magazine or in Gmail banner ads, you're advertising it to the world.
And if you're advertising a movie or a TV show, but not giving people the opportunity to buy it legally, what do you think is going to happen? You're working against yourself: with one breath saying "look at this wonderful product, don't you want it?" and with the next saying "you can't have it at any price".
People who download illegally aren't people who hate the product. They're fans.
... Every day these shows and movies aren't available to buy, worldwide, on the same day, for a reasonably equivalent price, more people are finding out how to get them for nothing. And once they're used to doing it that way, it's going to be harder than ever to get them back.
Read full article.
Above, a scene from X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which was leaked online several weeks before its theatrical release
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