Name: Does Piracy Actually Help The Movie Industry?
Uploaded: 2014-05-10T23:32:38.000Z
Duration: 2 min 44 s
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This episode of DNews is brought to you by Audible.

What's the difference between a MOVIE PIRATE and a MUSIC PIRATE? Booty. Lots and lots of

Hey everyone, Laci Green here for DNews. Until this week, I've kiiiind of lumped pirates

of all kinds into one category. Well, maybe with the exception of separating pirates at

sea from pirates at a computer....little less violent, yaknow?

This week, a new study published in the Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics found

that there ARE actually some significant differences between the group of people that pirate mostly

movies and the people that pirate mostly music. The biggest difference is that movie pirates

still spend a lot of cashola on the *legal* enjoyment of movies. Not so much the case

for music pirates. Those who pirate movies are also, on average: wealthier, more likely

to live in a city, more willing to cut down the piracy if they believe it's hurting the

industry, AND are also are less likely to believe they'll get caught than music pirates.

Why the divide between the two groups? The scientists believe it forms out of the technological

demand of illegally downloading movies. As in: it's a little harder to do. You have to

figure out how to torrent, you have to know how to play it back, and then there's also

the issue of storing lots of large files. They believe this is why movie pirates tend

to be a little more technologically savvy than music pirates.

The fact that movie pirates spend more money on legal content shouldn't come as a huuuuge

surprise. Several studies have found that people who pirate spend more money on media

than people who purchase everything legally -- about 30% more in fact. The idea is that

pirates are just bigger consumers of media, period.

So, what could this meannnnn? Well, for one it busts the myth that pirates are just people

who don't want to pay for things. They do pay for things, especially movie pirates,

just not EVERYTHING. A few other thoughts: the fact that movie pirates still buy *so

much legal content* and *are willing to cut back* suggests that CONVENIENCE might play

a role in pirating. It's there, readily available, while the legal alternative isn't. Maybe it's

not available legally online, maybe it's only available in another country, maybe you have

to drive to go pick it up and rent it -- and when you're there, sitting on your couch,

the hassle (or impossibility) of those legal alternatives just aren't persuasive enough.

Another possible implication is that some movie pirating happens when people feel ripped

off. Like that one time I tried to rent The Hobbit when it first came out on iTunes and

it cost something like $15 for 1 play and 24 hours. Or, for instance, if the pirate

believes there's a good chance the movie will be terrible and doesn't want to fork over

14 bucks to see a crappy movie. It's not that they don't HAVE the money, it's that they

SO! What do YOU FOLKS make of this study? Why might pirates buy more content? And for

those of you interested in legal content AND helping out the show, you can get a free audiobook

at audiblepodcast.com/dnews. Awwwww yeah, get your Hobbit fix thataway. Thanks for joining