Is Hollywood helping make piracy an option?

[silicon_toad2000]

“Hollywood is keeping piracy alive by failing to make content available legally.” It’s an often heard argument, but one that’s not “borne out by the facts” according to the MPAA. However, the “facts” presented in a rebuttal by the movie industry group are twisted and show utter contempt for those trying to do the right thing.

Over the years we have published dozens of articles on the reasons why people choose to pirate media. Time and time again “availability” comes out as one of the main motivations in both surveys and anecdotal reports.

Yesterday David Pogue highlighted this issue in Scientific American by pointing out that Hollywood is encouraging piracy by failing to make their content widely available online. The MPAA took offense at this stance and were quick to reply on their blog.

“[The article] echoes a very common argument about online digital theft: that if more movies and TV shows were available legitimately online, the problem of online content theft would take care of itself. The problem with this argument is that it’s not borne out by the facts,” the MPAA’s Howard Gantman writes.

Both Pogue and the MPAA refer to TorrentFreak’s list of the Top 10 most pirated movies of 2011 to defend their case. Pogue notes that none of these titles are available for “rent”. The MPAA on its turn argues that many of the titles are available to “watch instantly online.” So who is right?

http://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-wrongly-downplays-hollywoods-role-in-keeping-piracy-alive-120823/

[Trestor]

I guess it depends on whether those official online downloads are "keepers" or just "viewers"; (I don't know myself). Certainly if I pay for something I expect to be able to keep it forever and play it as often as I want on any player and export it to other hard and flash drives. Do the "official" downloads fail in any of these areas? If so then there is part of the problem, right there.

[silicon_toad2000]

I'm not even that picky. If i go to the cinema's i know i dont get to keep the movie. I know sometimes im just paying for the experience.

I just want to watch it in my own time. I just went to the dark shadows website. There's no links there to be able to buy/rent/view the movie. I don't know where they think it is available.