There’s no arguing that the proliferation of file sharing technology (e.g. BitTorrent or similar) has changed the industry for content creators. Never before has it been easier to acquire free movies or music. Or has it?
For the last several years we, the consumers, have had to endure the complaints (dare I say whining) of movie studios and the recording industry. Both industries cite digital piracy as the root cause of their financial loss. Funny how this argument rarely (if ever) surfaced during the days of analog.
Piracy of content has been going on for decades, long before the Internet was around. With the advent of the VCR and Cassette Recorder (which I guess would technically be an ACR) people have been able to duplicate content with relative ease. I remember when stereos started to come out with not one but two cassette bays for this purpose alone. Drop in a master tape, then a blank tape and copy away.
The same was true for movies. I had friends who subscribed to their movie channel of choice, and then regularly recorded movies from the television to tape for later viewing. All one had to do was hook up two VCRs and you could easily duplicate those tapes for friends. All those years of consumers pirating content and hardly a word from media moguls about lost revenue.
Fast forward to today. It seems not a week goes by without someone in the world of entertainment getting on a soapbox and crying fowl over the horrors of piracy. On the box this week: Rhett Reese, co-writer of Zombieland.
Reese started somewhat of a firestorm after commenting on the fact Zombieland is currently the most popular download on BitTorrent, “Beyond depressing. This greatly affects the likelihood of a Zombieland 2.”
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