This report on the BBC News web site states that the number of illegal film and TV show downloads has increased more than 30% in the last five years.
The top four reasons, according to Dr David Price, are reported as being...
*) "We've seen increases in technology like faster broadband," he said.
*) "The methods of piracy have become easier, with quicker downloads and easier to find content.
*) "We have a generation online now who aren't really bothered about downloading things illegally.
*) "Finally it's an issue of availability - there's a lot of American content which a lot of people are desperate to download that they can't get hold of legitimately."
But is there more to it than this? Well, one thing is that catch up services like iPlayer, are not always working. I know that I've been caught quite frequently by material that simply isn't available. The most recent problem was Channel 4's "Dispatches" program two weeks ago that broadcast a program discussing the seedier side of the conservationist organisations. I wasn't going to be in to watch it so I thought I'd see it on Catch Up, only to find that it wasn't available; presumably because of some form of copyright or licensing issue. It always seems to be the programs that I want to watch, that suffer like this.
Whatever the issue was, the result was that I couldn't see it on catch up. Cue one very frustrated viewer.
Television services are touting these catch up systems and when they don't deliver it can be understandable that people turn to download services to get hold of the TV shows they wanted to view. I mean, how else are they going to watch them when there is no reasonable advance warning that they won't be available?
Even if they broadcast a warning, before the start of the show, that it won't be on iPlayer; you won't be there to see it because you literally aren't there to see the warning! This really is pathetic and companies have a long way to go to sort out this issue.
The rest of the arguments haven't taken a look at the other side of the coin. Namely the public perception of the image of the manufacturers and distributors of the content.
From my side, I have to put up with considerable grief from content manufacturers. They try all sorts to restrict the material and are out of touch with modern living. We are watching things on tablets, mobile phones and lighter, more power conscious equipment. Yet they still sell the media on out of date DVD and Blue-Ray which chew power on our devices and require bulky players. Their, "protection," against hackers stop us from transferring our legally bought content on to other devices.
None of this stuff actually affects the pirates, though. It only seems to be a few days and the protection mechanisms are ripped asunder. It is the paying customer like me, that has to suffer this junk. I pity the parent who buys a Disney DVD and even on Fast Play, the kids are watching adverts for other products and there is no way for the parent to bypass this. Enforced advertising like this is an obscene abuse of position and brings a massive shame on the industry. It is getting the kids to nag the parents in to buying more product. Excuse me if I say of Disney ... BASTARDS!
I mean, I run Linux so I can't use the heavily encrypted, "mobile," versions of the films that come on DVDs. The message from the studios is that if you don't do it their way, then you can't do it. Full stop. From a consumers point of view ... that sucks, and my personal opinion is that they can go burn in hell. ... Slowly ... with barbecue sauce. ... you get the idea.
So long as the content manufacturers remain in the dark ages and abuse their customers in a bid to keep as much money rolling in to their coffers as possible, then it is no wonder that peoples attitudes towards them are the way they are. Region encoding is actually a device to let the studios massage the pricing of their wares in different regions; enforce a few hundred percent mark up in countries where they think they can leach it from people. I'd rather miss the rush and grab the film in the bargain bucket a few months later for less than a fiver. I'm not paying inflated prices (well, not as inflated as the hype tries to make out it is worth)
This state of affairs can only be changed by one party; the content providers. And as has been proven by the music industry; trying to get tough and throwing sue balls around will just waste shed loads of money and alienate people even more.
The problem is, given events over the last few years, the only thing that will knock any form of sense in to the studios heads is a slap round the face with a building demolition ball, well either that or a change in the laws to actually give the legitimate, paying consumer some defence against the studios strong arm techniques. As long as our politicians are accepting weekend breaks on private yachts, however, that isn't going to happen any time soon.
All this boils down to pathetic customer service and the extension of bullying corporate attitude in a world where the corporations think that they can dictate their policies on to the population at large. The days where customer is king are over; until these giants eventually hack off the public so much that it results in a boycot and a bringing down of these services.
That day needs to come very, very soon. The air could do with a good clear out.
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