In Depth
Pirate Bay Dealt Setback, Media Cheers
The television industry received a ray of hope in its battle to protect a key future revenue source—online content—from Web thievery last week when the people behind file-sharing site the Pirate Bay were convicted of copyright violation.
Friday’s verdict in Stockholm ordered four men to pay $3.6 million in damages to companies including Warner Bros., Columbia, 20th Century Fox, Sony BMG and EMI.
“We are obviously very pleased with the court’s decision, which is a clear acknowledgement of the importance of protecting intellectual property rights of creative works,” said Darcy Antonellis, president of Warner Bros. Technical Operations.
The decision could buttress the foundations of the burgeoning digital distribution business and the investment that studios and networks have made in online content and delivery.
The men found guilty also must serve jail time, although the site will not be shut down.
The Pirate Bay does not host stolen programming, but links to it instead.
Studios and the Motion Picture Association of America applauded the ruling, but experts don’t expect the verdict to stem the tide of TV piracy online.
In fact, piracy of TV shows is growing faster on the Web than illegal sharing of movies and music is, said Eric Garland, CEO of Big Champagne, a media measurement firm that tracks piracy.
With more than 14 billion videos viewed online each month and countless more illegally shared across file-sharing sites, there are now more than 60 million Internet users worldwide actively engaged in piracy, Mr. Garland said.
Still, Hollywood embraced the Pirate Bay decision hours after it was issued.
“We welcome the court’s decision today because the Pirate Bay is a source of immense damage to the creative industries in Sweden and internationally,” said Dan Glickman, chairman-CEO of the MPAA, in a statement. “This is an important decision for rights holders, underlining their right to have their creative works protected against illegal exploitation and to be fairly rewarded for their endeavors. This decision will help to support the continued investment in talent and in new online services.”
Winning a court battle doesn’t necessarily foretell winning the piracy war. The music industry was jubilant when Napster was shut down nearly a decade ago, but that did not stem the flow of pirated music, Mr. Garland said. The music business has suffered steep revenue declines since then.
“Everyone always gets excited, and six months later we are back where we started and the problem will have grown,” Mr. Garland said. “This will go on for a long time.”
The basic fact of piracy is people who want to obtain content without paying for it will always find a way. Typing in the name of a TV show with the word “torrent” will lead to many search results for sites that house network and cable programming illegally.
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Comments 3
John Hays
Oh, is that how you do it? Thanks for the help! Haha
Seriously, though, it's a matter of principle, not a belief that this will actually stem the tide. Finding them guilty is a way of saying, whether or not we can stop this, it's wrong and shouldn't happen. No matter what happens, that does count for something.
themoke
Hmm.. is there room for them to appeal or is that the final verdict? I don't know much about the Swedish judicial system.
Bill
Unfortunately, there's no way the pirates will shut down Pirate Bay, they'll just move it elsewhere, perhaps one of the former Soviet countries.
Studios have gotten better about providing people what they want, but the time lag factor hasn't gotten any better, and there's still far too much product not available.
Part of it is time, of course, but part of it is, say, people who've wanted to buy thirtysomething on DVD but who have so far been denied.
Another part is the many, many films available in HD on pay channels without even a mention of their release on Blu-Ray...