Calling all movie industry dickwads – time to STFU about piracy killing your business
If there is one thing that 2009 will go down in the history books for it will be regarding two things. The first is the all out assault against piracy around the world by the movie industry and their trade groups.
The second is that 2009 is going to be the year that the movie industry has made record profits at the box office.
So on one hand they are saying that piracy is killing their business which means we have to gut our existing copyright laws and other intellectual property laws so that the movie industry can take over lock stock and barrel.
Then on the other hand they stand to make $10.6 billion before the end of the year, and the numbers are still climbing.
The year’s runaway overall box-office tally keeps getting adjusted upward.
A week after announcing that the domestic theatrical market would push past $10 billion for the first time in 2009, and end the year at around $10.4 billion, industry tracker Hollywood.com Thursday revised its count to an astounding $10.6 billion.
And that’s a calendar-year figure, meaning the counting stops today. Adhering to a different 52 week calendar, studio distributors are actually counting this weekend (Jan. 1-3) on the 2009 books, at least domestically, so who knows how high the ultimate 2009 will end up, given the heat of “Avatar,” “Sherlock Holmes” and “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.”
According to Hollywood.com, the last week of the calendar year will conclude with nearly $500 million in domestic revenue, by far the biggest week ever at the North American box office.
Meanwhile, the Hollywood Reporter Thursday released data showing that foreign theatrical distribution also reached a new record in 2009, hitting $10.7 billion — an uptick of 8 percent over 2008.
Source:The Wrap
So let me get this straight. Piracy is a rampant beast that is killing the movie business and yet these self-same movie companies are setting record profits.
Can some-one please explain to me how it is that piracy is the great big monster it is being made out to be then?
Anyone?
Thought not and yet the road to ACTA continues unabated using this piracy argument as one of its driving forces. Talk about having your cake and eating it too.
