An analysis of the pros and cons of film piracy including statistics and facts on the illegal download of films and box office sales.

1. Film Piracy
Serious Crime or Social Convenience?

2. What is Film Piracy?
• Official Definition: Film Piracy is the illegal copying and distribution
of movies in print, videos, DVD’s or electronic files.

3. The top 10 most pirated films of
all time:
The top 10 most pirated films of all time:
10. Pirates of the Caribbean (14 million)
9. The Incredible Hulk (14 Million)
8. The Departed (14 million)
7. Kick-ass (15 million)
6. Star Trek (16 million)
5. The Hangover (17 Million)
4. Inception (18 million)
3. Transformers (19 million)
2. The Dark Knight (19 million)
1. Avatar (21 million)

4. Arguments For Film Piracy
Argument 1: Convenience.
• When trying to pay for content you want becomes much more difficult than pirating it,
piracy becomes a much more appealing option. For example, you may not be able to buy a
film due to it not being available or licensed in the region you live in; therefore piracy would
be the more viable option.

5. Argument 2: Publicity
• Sometimes piracy can help spread the popularity of a film, for example if a
group of people all torrented a film before it was available to legally
download or buy and enjoyed the film they could be more likely to buy it
once it is available to purchase. Word of mouth can be a huge source of
publicity for film producers so if the pirate copy of a film increases the
popularity of the film it can be profitable in the long term.

6. Argument 3: Money
• Cheaper providers such as Netflix can be slow to release new
films and buying the Blu-ray/DVD for every film can be too
expensive for a lot of people.
• People have been recording programmes on VHS recorders
in the past so they could own a copy for free and it was
acceptable then so why do you have to buy the film now?
• Why pay for something when you can get it for free?

7. Arguments Against Film Piracy
Argument 1: Damage to Film
• Piracy lowers the views and ratings of a film and damages the
chances of the industry making a sequel.
• Piracy could damage the future of cinema, if no ones goes, it
could cause them to shutdown.
• Piracy could also be the reason cinema prices are so high,
they would have to raise the price to make as much money as
before.

8. Argument 2: Money Loss
• Piracy causes small people in the industry, such as runners,
editors, cameramen and behind the scenes workers, to lose
out on much needed money.
• Small independent film company's may not be able to recover
from the money which could cause them to stop making
films.

9. Argument 3: The Law
• Piracy is against the law and could end in serious legal
actions ,such as fines or even jail time.

10. Figures & Theories
“68% of Europeans download or stream movies for free.”
• Many people admit to downloading or streaming movies purely because cinema
prices, DVD's and VOD's are expensive. Some people say that some films aren't
worth paying for the cinema experience.
• 68% is a vast majority of people and this could consequently damage the industry.

11. Figures & Theories
"Recent research by Ipsos suggests that almost 30% of the UK
population is active in some form of piracy, either through
streaming content online or buying counterfeit DVDs. Such theft
costs the UK audio-visual industries about £500m a year.”
• The amount of money lost to piracy could seriously damage the
industry; especially those working within it with smaller budgets.

12. Figures & Theories
"There were 260 million pirated movies and TV shows downloaded in
2008 but that figure has fallen to 120 million.”
• Some figures suggest that the amount of films pirated has fallen over
the past few years. This may be because some DVD's have been
brought out quicker after cinema release. Another reason could be that
platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime have made movies
available online for a reasonable price. This also mean they are more
easily accessible as you can access them on the internet.

13. Figures & Theories
• This graph suggests that, even though prices are rising, the amount of box
office sales have also risen in the past couple of years. Furthermore, this
backs up data which suggests the amount of film piracy committed has
fallen over the past few years.