Recently the webpage variety.com released the top 10 pirated television
shows of 2014 and who did the pirating. Game of Thrones and Walking Dead were
among the most-pirated shows. Two of my favourite shows Supernatural and The
Big Bang Theory made the list. The top pirating nations with the largest number
of downloads were Brazil (28.4 million) followed by Russia (28.1 million),
India (16 million), Australia (15.4 million), China 914.9 million) and the US
(14.4 million) according to Excipio. Variety then provides a reason “That suggests piracy in many territories is
fuelled by the fact that current American television shows aren’t available
through legal channels.” As some content is available in wealthy first
world nations Australia and the US immediately and/or soon after screening the
reasons why people pirate and view pirated content are more complex.
I have also been following with interest the Australian
Federal Government’s attempts to introduce reforms to crack down on illegal
pirates in Australia. After all Australians are one of the world’s greatest
pirates of illegal content and as the research identified in Variety states the
fourth largest downloader of illegal television content. Under the new reforms copyright
holders will be required to issue notices and block would-be downloaders from
accessing the popular websites that host illegal material.
The Australian Federal Government is also giving interested content
providers and rights holders 120 days to agree to a piracy code… Tucker in the
article “Why Australia’s new pirating
laws are doomed to fail”. www.news.com.au published on December 14, 2014 states
copyright holders will issue warnings to customers who illegally download and
copyright holders can take action against infringers “after an agreed number of
notices”. Copyright holders will work together with Internet Service Providers
will provide ways of giving people information on legitimate ways to access
content at fair and appropriation of costs.
Tucker (2014) states there is no evidence that warnings
deter people from downloading. There is no way to identify people who are
illegally downloading content as any number of people could be using a
computer. However, this can be corrected by making the person whose name is on
the account responsible for anyone who uses it and blocking users who abuse it.
The problem with these reforms is there is already a warning
clearly contained within content and the copyright holders when service
providers broadcast and they are just repeating themselves. Perhaps a better
solution would be to make it compulsory for service providers to advertise a
piracy warning both visually and verbally similar to that of the viewing
classification system and highly visible to their viewers. Then those customers
who record and distribute can be prosecuted immediately, if caught by copyright
holders.
While the Australian Federal Government is taking action to
combat piracy there are issues that are not addressed and that is the causes of
piracy and the lack of cheap accessible content available to Australian
customers. Those Australians pirating have changed the way television content
is provided to costumers. However, for content providers like television
stations waiting a week between when the show is aired in the US
and on Australian screens is too long. The content is available to buy online
and to be viewed on YouTube via legal sites. As a result television shows are
being delegated to their second stations. I agree with Tucker in that
Australians like me have said again and again that we do pay and are prepared
to pay for content. The only way to do that is to make content affordable, fast
and easy to access immediately after the aired in the US.
References
Author unknown, 2014,“New
laws would ban piracy websites in Australia” www.news.com.au published on December 9,
2014.
Australian Broadcasting Commission, 2014, “Australians reminded that TV and movie
piracy is theft” www.abc.net.au published on September 10, 2014.
Spangler, T. 2014,
“Top 10 Pirated TV Shows of 2014: ‘Game of Thrones’ ‘Walking Dead’ Lead List” www.varity.com published on 2 January, 2015.
Tucker, T. 2014, “Why
Australia’s new pirating laws are doomed to fail”. www.news.com.au published on December 14,
2014.
