Digital Media Piracy – Reasons for plundering in the modern age.

Piracy of digital media is one of the largest, most multifaceted issues of our current internet age. The rise of early peer to peer file sharing, and current prominence of bit torrent file sharing are defining aspects of the way many people consume their multimedia. Music sales have been in decline for years, and movies are less attended (on average) than ever. Much of the blame for these shrinks in revenue is placed on people illegally downloading and sharing copies of digital files. For this blog post, I'll be looking at a few of the reasons that (I believe) people are enticed to pirate, with what I perceive as solutions in a separate post.

Why do people pirate things?

It comes down to a variety of issues including (but not limited to) price, convenience, and availability.

Multimedia (video games, TV shows, movies, and music) usually cost money to experience. Most big budget, triple A games cost around $60 these days, and $60 is a big chunk of money for a lot of people. Many people will decide that a game is worth the money and shell out for it, but some people just aren't in a position to do so. Prior to the launch of the current generation consoles (Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii) the price of most games was $50. Not a huge jump, but large enough to make game purchases a more serious financial decision for people. Movie tickets have also been getting more expensive throughout the years. Television shows are divided up into those on network broadcasts, cable stations, and premium channels. Network TV channels (such as CBS, NBC, ABC, etc) put their shows out via aerial broadcasts that anyone with compatible hardware can tune into for free. Many families pay for standard cable access, which gives them the access to shows on other networks that do not broadcast through the air. The most costly option though, is the premium channels (HBO, Showtime). Much like the expensive video games, the premium channels are a strong financial consideration for many people. Music, on average the least expensive of the considered formats, hasn't risen all too much in recent years in terms of price. Piracy allows people to experience multimedia that they normally couldn't do financially.

Getting media to consume is another aspect where piracy can win out quite easily. Television and movies commonly run for lengths of time that have to be considered as part of a person's daily routine. TV shows running in their broadcast slot don't always line up with when somebody can watch them. There may even be two shows that somebody wants to see on at the same time. Movies on television fall into a similar problem, and movies in a theater might not be showing at a time when it's convenient to go see it. Piracy answers these problems very well. A user can download a file to their computer and watch it whenever they want. They can pause it and come back later, and they can watch it as many times as they want for as long as they keep the file (if they lose it, they could just download it again). For music, movies, and TV shows piracy also offers the choice of format. Just a click away is the desired content in an array of formats and qualities, often far superior than what is commercially offered.

Lastly, sometimes something just isn't available for you to buy. Movies come out in theaters for a while, disappear for a few months, and then are available to purchase legally. TV shows air, might come back in reruns later, and eventually come out to purchase. How can you see them in these intermittent periods though? That's where the pirates have the answer. Piracy varies vastly in quality for movies and TV shows though. People are able to capture TV shows and maintain the quality that they were broadcast in. Movie piracy (prior to a retail version becoming available) is usually a person sitting in a theater and recording the movie screen.

Other issues arise with availability in different regions throughout the world. Not all TV shows are available in all countries. Many movies never make it to some places, in theaters or to purchase later. Similar issues arise for music. Piracy allows people to acquire media that they can not legally purchase because either their nation won't allow it, or the company won't offer it to them.

Video games suffer from even more issues. They have the issue of not being available for purchase in some places, but also have to deal with the occasional odd restriction. In 2012, Borderlands 2 (sequel to 2009's Borderlands) was released in two different versions. There was one version for most of the world, and a separate version for Russia and countries nearby. The two versions of the game were unable to be played cooperatively with each other (cooperative play being a selling point of the franchise), with the Russian version containing only Russian audio. Some games have also been censored in some countries. Valve's Left 4 Dead 2 had most of the gore in the game either toned down drastically or eliminated completely. Volition's Saints Row IV was refused classification in Australia due to some of its content, and had to be resubmitted twice (with various changes). Pirated versions of these games with none of these issues could easily be acquired.

On another hand entirely is the concept of Digital Rights Management (DRM). DRM is quite often the bane of PC gaming. Companies enable DRM to keep games from being distributed illegally, but the DRM software often impedes the game from being played. For example, Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed II had a very strict DRM policy that would halt the game if it were disconnected from the internet. Pirated versions of games have their DRM stripped from them, so the games no longer care if they can connect to the internet.

Media companies have some serious hurdles ahead of them if they want to compete with piracy. They can compete, and they can win, but that's for another post.