Study: Torrent Downloads Don’t Hurt U.S. Box Office

While the internet may be wrong about some things, it’s also right about a few things. A study conducted by Brett Danaher, from the Department of Economics at Wellesley College, and Joel Waldfogel from the Department of Economics at University of Missouri suggests that internet piracy of films is driven by delayed international releases. It’s understandable in this age of instant global communication. After all, imagine checking out your favorite websites to find that everyone is talking about a movie that won’t even be released where you live for another six months. You could probably live with it for a while, but what if it was happening all the time? Here in the U.S., the Fox Network decided to impose an 8 day delay between a show’s air date and when it’s available on Hulu. What happened next? There was a surge in pirated downloads of the affected shows.

When treated fairly and equally by distributors and studios, the vast majority of people are willing to pay for content that interests them. Companies need to start looking at how to curb piracy by changing their own behavior before they push for new laws.

News Source: Study suggests U.S. box office not affected by BitTorrent

Study: Reel Piracy: The Effect of Online Film Piracy on International Box Office Sales by Brett Danaher, Joel Waldfogel :: SSRN