It’s no secret that people pirate content. I personally pirate pretty much everything, and I only sort of feel bad about it.
Let’s be real: pirating is wrong. It’s stealing. And yet the Internet is still kind of a lawless Wild West. As I’ve said before, people can get away with death and rape threats they never would in real life, and the same holds true for stealing content. Most people (I hope) would think twice before stealing a DVD at the store, while it’s somehow become socially acceptable to steal everything online. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) estimates that with the ever-growing music piracy numbers, music sales in the US have dropped 53 per cent between 1999 and 2013 and in 2009, just over a third of music consumed by Americans was paid for.
And of course, since a lot of money is being lost through piracy, corporations and businesses are fighting back to try to regain some of these lost profits, with mixed results.
One thing that is clear is that people don’t pirate just to save money – a big factor is probably convenience. This is evidenced by the fact that iTunes and Netflix are so successful. People will pay for content, as long as they don’t have to move from their couches to do so and it’s relatively inexpensive.
The problem with trying to combat online piracy is that solutions don’t work for very long with an ever-changing digital landscape and mutating trends. Physical album sales started dwindling, so iTunes was launched, and it did well for a very long time. But in 2014, sales from the iTunes music store dropped 13-14 per cent. Lately, the trend has shifted from digital sales to streaming with services like Netflix or Spotify. According to an infographic on the Atlantic, in 2013-2014, CD sales were down 15 per cent, digital sales were down 13 per cent, and streams were up 54 per cent. Businesses are scrambling to catch up, with Apple acquiring its own streaming service to supplement falling iTunes sales. Streaming isn’t a great cure-all, though – services like Spotify don’t pay their artists that much in royalties (for Spotify, it’s 0.007 cents per play).
Jay-Z’s music streaming service Tidal tried to set itself apart by offering high quality recordings at a higher price, and marketing itself as a service that pays artists fairly. It’s a noble goal (and one that smaller artists desperately need), but it’s hard to feel sorry for millionaires like Jay-Z, Beyonce, Alicia Keys, and Madonna, who are talking about not getting paid enough for music streams. Tidal also made several more missteps: first of all, the number of people willing to pay for high quality, lossless audio files (whatever that even means) is very small. Tidal also doesn’t offer a free subscription, and the cost per month for the highest quality audio is $20. In comparison, Spotify users pay $10 a month or can get the service for free. Netflix users pay $8 a month. Tidal had an uphill battle from the beginning with the higher price and the backlash against what was seen as a blatant money grab from rich people.
What doesn’t work effectively to fight against piracy is directly going after the pirates. Pirate Bay, which has torrents for free download, has been shut down many times and always pops back up again. What does work apparently is shame and fear: Canada recently passed a law saying that Internet providers were required to pass on notices of copyright infringement. It’s estimated that copyright infringement has been reduced massively in Canada: by almost 70 per cent among Bell users and 54 per cent among Telus users, among others. However, this isn’t a total victory for those fighting piracy – CEG TEK, an American company that monetizes copyrights, is using the Canadian law to send letters demanding settlements. The company is essentially using the law to send the letters at no cost and the cost they demand is misleading (the letters imply a maximum fine of $5,000 per infringement, when the actual number is meant to include all infringements, for example).
In 2012, there was a great furor over the US’s SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (PROTECT IP Act). Both Acts were designed to stop or slow online piracy, but instead were more about censorship. There was a huge outcry, websites like Reddit and Wikipedia protested, and the bills were killed.
Piracy isn’t going to stop. Using the law to go after pirates does little to slow the tide. The best option is to come up with convenient, cheap paid services. Unfortunately, the trends are changing so quickly that what works today may not work tomorrow.
