Following on from last week’s readings and discussion on copyright, I decided to do a little research into piracy and some opinions surrounding it, using Game of Thrones as an example.
Quick facts:
- The term ‘piracy’ was first used in the 16th century, well before the existence of copyright laws, to condemn the unauthorised copying of books.
- Since the release of Napster in 1999, a program used to share mp3 files, the term has become synonymous with online copyright infringement, through P2P sharing and streaming services.
- Unlike previous times however, the term ‘pirate’ now also applies to anyone who downloads illegitimate copies, not just those who upload them, because when a person downloads content they are creating a new copy on their computer.
- Piracy rates have soared in recent years due to the widespread availability of pirated content and the ease and speed at which it can be accessed. This is largely due to technological advancements such as faster internet speeds, which allows content to be uploaded and downloaded quickly.
- Throughout history, each new technological advancement brought with it increased rates of piracy, be it the printing press, VHS, cassette, DVD or the internet.
Game of Thrones:
- When the season four premiere of Game of Thrones went to air on April 6 2014, the world saw piracy rates far higher than ever before. The episode had over one million illegal downloads within half a day of airing and more than 300,000 users were sharing a single torrent of the show, setting a new record for P2P sharing. Australia topped the list for the most downloads per country with 11.6% of downloads coming from Australia.
- These piracy rates are both a combination of the show’s popularity and the fact that in many countries around the world it is very hard and expensive to watch the show legally.
- In Australia, while previous seasons were available for purchase on iTunes, season four rights were exclusive to Foxtel. To watch the show legally, viewers either needed to sign up for Foxtel with the movie channels or subscribe to Foxtel Play’s Drama and Movies Bundle online for $35 per month (originally $50 before the ‘Game of Thrones special offer’ was introduced). With the season spanning three months this is a total cost of $105, or over $10 an episode. In comparison, the third season of Game of Thrones was available on iTunes for $3.49 an episode or $33.99 for the season.
Reasons why people pirate or common justifications:
- They wouldn’t have watched the film/show, read the book or listened to the album in the first place if they hadn’t pirated it. They never had any intention to pay for it.
- They will buy it on DVD when it comes out.
- They don’t pay for the CD but they spend money going to a band’s show.
- It isn’t easily accessible — piracy is the easiest or sometimes only way to access the content.
- It’s easy and free.
- They want to be able to work with and use the content in whatever way they please. Often when you pay for content legally it is locked down with DRM (Digital Rights Management), which controls what users can do with the material. For example it may limit the number of devices it can be used with or prevent you from copying the content to disk.
- They want to watch shows as soon as they are available (Game of Thrones, for example). This may be because they don’t want the show spoiled for them or they want to be able to join in discussions with other fans.
- It’s too expensive to access content legally or they don’t want to sign up to a whole package just to watch one show.
- It doesn’t have the same negative stigma as other crimes and is often compared to ‘petty crimes’ such as jaywalking.
