by Some may call it a boon of the 21st century to access the world of information right in their fingertips, only to be boosted by the ultra speed internet connection provided by the latest broadband companies at very low rates
However to every upside of this smartphone and digital revolution , there’s also a huge downside to it. It goes by the name of piracy. Naturally the maximum affected are the media companies, film production agencies, producers , music directors and even book publishers.
Piracy with respect to the internet is the act of downloading something illegally, not obtained through an official channel or without the consent of the owner. This could be through a recording of a movie in a movie theatre or stealing the original disc to make copies of the movie. When it comes to music, piracy can mean ripping the songs from the CD and hosting it in one’s server for free without paying any royalty to the music owner.
Quite recently , books also suffered at this hands of digital piracy. Earlier it was confined to people selling pirated books ,reprinted from the original version and selling it roadside for 1/10th of the price
When the digitization of books started and books were sold through PDF and kindle versions, it became ever so easy to make a copy of these files. Once you extracted a PDF copy, it was super easy to have it distributed to anyone you knew through Email. This created a rippling impact across many segments in several industries causing many bookstores and music industries to shut their business
Areas known for their famous book markets now looks deserted as lot of key players including Landmark have shut shop across centers. Malls now boast only food courts, cineplexes and clothes and doesnt have a single bookshop in its 500,000+ sqft malls
Music Artists and movie makers have pleaded the public to buy original content or watch the movie in theatre but in vain. The piracy levels have only increased with even high quality DVD pirated prints being released within days of its official movie release
Filmmakers are trying novel approaches to release movies and curb piracy by releasing it directly online for a very small fee or releasing through a DTH service. Small time recording artists are adopting a pay as you please model which allows their listeners to donate any amount which they please starting from 0.
An artist’s primary income is through his creation and piracy can impact his life, career and livelihood in a very bad way. Hopefully we’ll see a day which will end piracy forever
This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.
