Do Online Movie Downloads Mean the End of the Rental Store?
Video store owners worldwide surely trembled not so long ago when the first legal service to Watch The American Movie for Free was announced to consumers. After all, movie downloading companies today are aiming at a massive market. If you doubt there's an opportunity waiting, just look at the huge number of films downloaded illegally in recent years.
After all, average citizens all have a larcenous streak. Why not get something for free? A key reason is that downloading movies on the internet without paying is illegal -- a violation of a number of federal laws. Don't feel any risk? Remember the very public examples that law enforcement made of unauthorized music downloaders several years ago. So, if you are downloading movies illegally, ask yourself if you really want to hear your name on the cable news shows?
And here's another prediction: the illegal download sites will boom as well. Why not download for free? One major reason is that it's illegal. Law enforcement made very public examples of a number of illegal music downloaders several years ago. Do you really want to see your name in the headlines? Terrible quality is another reason. Viruses are also common with free online movie downloads. The jerks who create viruses have to dream up clever ways to spread them.
Just a few months ago, somebody sitting at their home computer uploaded a high-quality copy of a newly released film onto a certain illegal person-to-person file-sharing network. Within weeks, that one file had been downloaded by 30,408 people on six continents. Dozens of other illegal copies of the movie found their way onto the hard drives of many thousands more.
Today China is the capital of movie piracy. Indeed, within hours of a film being released nationwide in the U. S., illegal DVD copies are available on the street in Shanghai and Beijing. About 90 percent of DVDs sold in China are bootlegs, according to the Motion Picture Association of America. Why? Because China puts quotas on the number of foreign films allowed into the country -- and carefully screens them, making sure nothing gets in that would spread dangerous ideas such as free speech or democracy. In Iran, every film must pass approval by Muslim morals police. The same restrictions apply in Saudi Arabia and throughout the Islamic world - and in Burma, Cuba and North Korea. So in each of those nations, movie pirates are feeding a hunger for freedom that dictators have tried to quash.
Such pirates fill a gap overseas where legitimate markets are heavily restricted. So the pirates may actually be pointing the way to new markets that the internet can open. Once upon a time, the big movie studios opposed the release of their movies on TV. They also fought the development of cable movie channels such as HBO. Then they resisted VHS and DVD marketing. Hollywood feared that TV, cable and home video would destroy movie theaters.
In fact, the downloadable movie market is booming. Studios will be smart to study today's ever-changing technologies -- and every move of internet pirates.
So, expect the pirates to exploit the internet. But watch out for Hollywood to figure out clever strategies as well -- as the ability to Download The American Movie Free Online becomes a part of everyday life.
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