Questions for robots on saving the world: Pirating!

Proof that technology is an unstoppable force to be reckoned with can be shown in the actions taken by the music and movie industry concerning piracy. When the first personal CD burner was put into a personal computer the music industry has been scrambling to find ways to keep its empire intact. From possibly illegal software (RCA) on CD’s to stop a CD from being “ripped” onto the hard drive or “burnt,” to sealed Discman’s delivered (Sony) to music journalists to stop unreleased albums from leaking on the internet. No avenue has not been explored to protect this multi-billion dollar industry’s from going the way of history.
The “bad guys” entrusted in protecting their benefactors in music buisness is an organization known as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The RIAA has done everything from enlist musicians to condemn “pirating” such as the now hated Lars Ulrich of Metallica, to busting children from starting (Napster), or simply using file sharing networks on the internet. This ten year effort started in the mid nineties and has continued it way all the way up to the Supreme Court; which ruled in 2005 that an individual can not be responsible for the user’s actions on his/her file sharing network. This essentially sealed the fate of the record industry and was indicated by a drop in album prices, the closing of record store giants (Tower Records), and a jump in online sales from sites such as I-Tunes.
While the record industry scrambles to find new ways of making money off of underpaid “true” artists, and overpaid “industry” artists; the movie industry is starting to fight their own war over pirated DVD’s that would signal a drop in DVD sales a large portion of their—an even bigger multi-billion dollar industry. And once again the big studios have an acronized face to hide behind the Motion Picture Association of American (MPAA). And, as the MPAA is taking the same route the RPAA took by busting kids who are utilizing already existing technology at their disposal. Certain differences in both cases should be pointed out.
In the music business the main problem was that albums were being leaked before their release date via the internet; by journalists and music rags with advance copies of the album. Sometimes consumers would have early copies of albums a month or even two, before an album’s scheduled release date. And, what this did in terms of sales was decrease the anticipation sales and first week numbers, a period that is the largest percentage of sales typically for any mainstream record. In contrast, while “bootlegs” of movies have existed for twenty years on street corners of New York, these low quality camcorder copies of already released films have never posed any threat to the movie industry. As well, it is unheard of for movies to leak onto the internet before they are ever to be released, which should send a message to the music industry concerning how they treat the way promotions and early copies of records are treated.
Essentially what this means is that box-office numbers are not being affected by DVD “ripping;” which doesn’t even become and issue for a film until it is released in a format that can be copied sometimes a year after it first appeared in theaters. So what this means is that while the record industry has only one method to make money from a record, the movie industry profits both from the initial release of the film and the DVD release. As well, unless the home computer user has some knowledge of the technology he won’t be able to “rip” a purchased or rented DVD onto a blank medium. The user can try and download the movie but with large file sizes it takes at least a couple of days of uninterrupted broadband downloading, and once the file is on the computer the user runs into the same problem of how to get the movie onto a playable DVD.
What this debate really does for me more than anything else is feeling sorry for the “true” musicians who are loosing money in this battle; not for the four giant record companies, and not the Best Buy’s or Target who have other ways to make profits. Even if a movie tanks in the theaters and falls victim to DVD piracy, the actor in the movie—as long as it’s from a big studio—still gets paid for his/her performance. Albeit, these “true” musical artists I keep mentioning can make their money by touring and selling merchandise out from under the pressure of their label. In this regard “true” fans and artists of music will find themselves escaping the Titanic sinking ship of the over bloated record industry to the small and safe comforts of independent labels that distribute mainly through their partners in independent record shops.
So why is the MPAA fighting by shutting down sites that are distributing “ripping” software, and going after—once again—kids who are simply making copies of their favorite DVD’s so they don’t have to pay for a movie they probably have paid two other times to watch. Greed kills kills again, and then dies itself; all you have to do is wait!