Feature: A Look at Piracy in 2007

In an October 2007 report by the Institute for Policy Innovation called “The True Cost of Copyright Industry Piracy to the U.S. Economy,” it was reported that every year the United States losses over $58 billion due to the piracy of movies, games, and music. It also claims that the amount of money lost has grown dramatically every year and shows little sign of slowing down.

This alarming piracy rate doesn’t stem just from professional bootleggers, but also from college students. In an article from Ars Technica, twenty-five schools from across the nation are scored according to piracy rates among students. While Rowan University doesn’t make this not-so-prestigious list, Columbia University does top the charts with a whopping 1,198 students recorded downloading illegally last year.

However one could easily argue that the current piracy rate does not hold that much of an impact. According to an article by Yahoo! News, the Motion Picture Association of America has reported that U.S. box office receipts have raised 5.4% from 2006 to 2007, marking an all-time record high box office gross of $9.63 billion.

While an article at Torrentfreak.com claims there have been over half a million downloads of the popular blockbuster film “Transformers” in 2007, this seems like a very minor loss seeing how much money the movie made. In theaters alone, “Transformers” grossed over $320 million in the U.S; on DVD it has made over $315 million. To many bootleggers, the movie’s massive success carries with it a defense. Excuses such as “it already made so much money” or “I could rent it anyway and lose five bucks” let pirates carry on with their activities with nary a hint of guilt. However, when the pirated property isn’t an international smash hit, then the damage is far more noticeable.

In November of 2007, the highly-hyped computer game Crysis was released in the US amid high scores from critics. The visually intense action game was projected to sell millions and garner tons of fans. Corporate executives at the game’s publisher, Electronic Arts, were both surprised and horrified when in the first few months of its release, Crysis only sold around 80,000 units internationally. Some speculated that the low sales figures were a result of high system requirements by the game, but the real reason turned out to be piracy.

At the time of the game’s release, it was recorded that on one torrent site alone, over 5,000 copies of Crysis were downloaded every day. Considering that the product retails for $50, that’s over $250,000 lost on a daily basis.

The damage that piracy does to the entertainment business every year is increasing and while for the most part the damage isn’t significant, the fact is that piracy is growing at an incredible rate. While blockbuster titles such as the upcoming “Dr. Seuss's Horton Hears a Who” will no doubt make big money at the box office, small indie films and local bands stand to loss the most in the face of this ever-growing illegal pastime.