Is it possible to completely eradicate piracy?

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logistopath said:
Not at all. I don't have any statistics to support, but as far as I can see, most movies are screened for not over 2 weeks, even in a small town like mine. It is quite rare nowadays to see films reaching the 50 day and 100 day target.
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That is true, movies don't last that long in theatres anymore but releasing dvds within a month will result in the remaining crowd not bothering to watch it in the theatre at all. Plus you know how it works, that one dvd will be passed around in 10 households.
The problem is with people's mentality, they won't pay/support if they'll find it for free. There should be a global service that sells software/games/media at localized prices with good region locking mechanisms in place so it's not abused by people from developed countries. For e.g., no one in India probably has a Windows 7 ultimate license but price it at Rs.1500 and maybe some of those pirates will convert and go legit, atleast i wouldn't mind paying that much for something i use everyday.
I used to pirate games like mad but once i got a job i bought all the games i had enjoyed playing just for supporting devs and most of the 250 games on my steam library were purchased at full price.
I also buy all my music on beatport/cds but i have a lot of well to do friends who think it's crazy to spend on games and music.
 
The satellite rights are sold when movie releases and if CD's are released within 2 weeks of release the satellite rights cost would come down drastically.
 
I think there are three types of people :

1. One who wants to pay just for hardware, Lets one thinks if he has paid above 30k for phone then everything should come free with it. (even apps and softwares, games etc)

2. One who doesnt want to pay for hardware but will pay for apps or games or softwares as they come. (example like packaged phones from T mobile at 100$ or so)

3. One who doesnt mind paying for both.

I think most indians fall in category 1.

Plus there are lot of other factors as well such as.
1. Many people in india are still afraid of linking there credit card to google.
2. The quality of 100 rupees dvd/vcds is very bad, less. Decent 720p or 1080p prints are still range in Rs 1000 to Rs 2000 or above
3. Lot of restrictions/difficulty/steps in seeing the legit version through almost all means.
4. etc
5. et.
.
.
 
Sobirvs said:
Most pirates won't agree to that. Think about it :) Most of em pirate coz..... FREE.
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How is it free when the pirates pay through their nose for internet plans and numerous hdd's and electric bills? Nothing is free.
They pirate because its a very convenient means of getting content.

Do people get to see game of thrones or whatever they want within hours of it being released in USA? No
Do people get to see new seasons of popular TV series and not reruns of old series? No
Do people get to see old content like music or movies or tv series in good quality which are not available for sale on DVD or on TV on any legal site? No.

Suppose some company like Sony started an online site which gave users access to their content by paying a subscription of 250 rupees a month and free download of movies, how many would start using their site? I would for sure since I don't have to worry about virus or fake files. Plus I can always delete stuff from my hdd knowing it will always be available online if I want to watch it later. :D
 
6pack said:
How is it free when the pirates pay through their nose for internet plans and numerous hdd's and electric bills? Nothing is free.
They pirate because its a very convenient means of getting content.

Do people get to see game of thrones or whatever they want within hours of it being released in USA? No
Do people get to see new seasons of popular TV series and not reruns of old series? No
Do people get to see old content like music or movies or tv series in good quality which are not available for sale on DVD or on TV on any legal site? No.

Suppose some company like Sony started an online site which gave users access to their content by paying a subscription of 250 rupees a month and free download of movies, how many would start using their site? I would for sure since I don't have to worry about virus or fake files. Plus I can always delete stuff from my hdd knowing it will always be available online if I want to watch it later. :D
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Agreed for international content, but we still pirate domestic content. It is free actually for us. Elec bills? electricity is a necessity, internet is a necessity, HDD's is necessity aswell. We use all 3 of this things in our daily life anyways no? For content we have a choice. There's dvd's, bluray's available for let's say for the movie Holiday(2014 akshay's movie) but we still prefer to pirate is. Why? because we can. Even if the content is available everywhere, even if they get the bluray's prices down to let's say 50, still we will prefer to pirate. Let's say movie people get their content available on the internet via download(links or torrents) and they say 50 per bluray content, We will still prefer to pirate. Why? because we don't even want to pay that much. May be morally wrong, but as long as it doesn't get us jailed all the time, we will continue doing that.[DOUBLEPOST=1407161880][/DOUBLEPOST]I have seen one thing which really got me low on pirating cricket content which is star sports official website. Rs 20 for a full match and 120 for a whole series. Best thing ever. otherwise I used to watch cricket on unofficial/illegal websites streaming the content. Why would I see a match on this type of site which is full of ads, has bad quality and streaming is not with good speeds. If this type of thing is possible with download option for bollywood content and hollywood content, I'll probably get my media needs from this site and get my piracy needs low to 20% may be. (Don't want to pay for every movie there is, even if it costs 20 rs :p )


I'm sure if there is a thing such as netflix/hulu here in India, it will be a fail. My relative sister just got her laptop some like 2 weeks back and first thing she did was trying piracy for some of her movie needs. Probably tells us the mentality of Indians no?
 
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Sobirvs said:
There's dvd's, bluray's available for let's say for the movie Holiday(2014 akshay's movie) but we still prefer to pirate is. Why? because we can. Even if the content is available everywhere, even if they get the bluray's prices down to let's say 50, still we will prefer to pirate. Let's say movie people get their content available on the internet via download(links or torrents) and they say 50 per bluray content, We will still prefer to pirate. Why? because we don't even want to pay that much. May be morally wrong, but as long as it doesn't get us jailed all the time, we will continue doing that.
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I'd like to believe otherwise. If blu-rays/DVDs are available early enough, and if they cost Rs.50 as you say, I'm sure people will prefer to buy blu-rays or DVDs. Free of cost is not the only reason, and not the major reason (at least IMO) for piracy. People like to watch movies much closer to the actual release date than later, barring a handful of exceptional movies. Tell me, how many of us would be interested to watch the same movie Holiday 6 months down the line (I won't watch it even now.. :P that is another story). Very few. The most important reason for piracy according to me, is lack of access at an early time. Even paid online content would do well, if released early and priced nominally.
In the recent past, I had to acquire a few Malayalam movies. I had no other ways to access them. None of the stores in my town sold the original DVDs. Neither was it available online. If it had been available online as a paid service, for even Rs.100, I would have gladly paid. I would like to believe that there are many like me.
 
ashishsahu said:
Yes. it is highly censored, as all dvds, cds, blu-rays have to obtain an Indian censor board certificate.
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Good to know. *puts pirate hat on *

Seriously though, these culture warriors like that Batra guy or CEO of censor board are real pain in the @$$.

xtremevicky said:
People would buy 50K phones but cant buy a 50 buck app.

So you know the mentality can never change.
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I got Amazon Appstore on my phone for their 'free app of day'. Often it is games, but got Shuttle+ music player from there.
 
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logistopath said:
In the recent past, I had to acquire a few Malayalam movies. I had no other ways to access them. None of the stores in my town sold the original DVDs. Neither was it available online. If it had been available online as a paid service, for even Rs.100, I would have gladly paid. I would like to believe that there are many like me.
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For rare content, it's completely different story mate. I can easily give around 300-400 for rare PC games which are not seeded anymore these days, even in public trackers let alone in private, usenet or private ftp's. Other than that, sorry, not being rude but I disagree with most of your points.
 
xtremevicky said:
So you know the mentality can never change.
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Actually, if you are talking about android play store, then it's completely different thing in India. Google isn't putting any efforts for Indian users to support their debit cards. Most of the debit cards which Indian bank issues come with securecode shit(http://www.mastercard.us/securecode.html) and Google isn't supporting that from years. I have contacted many time to Google in their CC, online support and emails. Nothing. Nada. Google is to blame for this. I would love to buy many apps, including some that are expensive like Call recorder(https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.skvalex.callrecorder&hl=en) for Dad for his business needs. Though it's crack is not available anywhere is something you can argue with me :P but then again some days back, I so wanted to buy this amazing game named Smash Hit. It's a very simple game, a 7 yro can play it, but it comes with the best animations, graphics I have even seen on an android game. Call it Timely(https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ch.bitspin.timely&hl=en) of android Games if you will. But then again Google didn;t support it. Shame.
 
Sobirvs said:
Actually, if you are talking about android play store, then it's completely different thing in India. Google isn't putting any efforts for Indian users to support their debit cards. Most of the debit cards which Indian bank issues come with securecode shit(http://www.mastercard.us/securecode.html) and Google isn't supporting that from years. I have contacted many time to Google in their CC, online support and emails. Nothing. Nada. Google is to blame for this. I would love to buy many apps, including some that are expensive like Call recorder(https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.skvalex.callrecorder&hl=en) for Dad for his business needs. Though it's crack is not available anywhere is something you can argue with me :p but then again some days back, I so wanted to buy this amazing game named Smash Hit. It's a very simple game, a 7 yro can play it, but it comes with the best animations, graphics I have even seen on an android game. Call it Timely(https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ch.bitspin.timely&hl=en) of android Games if you will. But then again Google didn;t support it. Shame.
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There are many reasons why debit cards are not supported. You may want to buy the App but you cant. But there are reasons why debit cards are not supported.

I was talking about people who have credit cards but they dont.
 
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Was discussing this with my friends here. One point came up was like this.

There is huge demand for video-song content (especially quality content).
The supply is limited (as either quantity or quality or both)

Thus wherever there is huge gap in demand in supply there are wrong (aka pirate) methods to cater to demand.

Thus the people go after convenient way of accessing the demand and in-betweeners who make these things available are also there.
 
One way to stop major amount of piracy is to act like Taliban and shut down internet. No internet = no piracy. Or pass some law making torrent files illegal. And make ISP block download of torrents.
While on the subject, just throttling down internet speeds to dial up speeds should frustrate pirates.

The local roadside guys will be back in business though since they pay cops a lot.
 
6pack said:
The local roadside guys will be back in business though since they pay cops a lot.
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Those guys don't have Batman trilogy in HD along with making of and other bonus material. Neither they have Pink Floyd collection in FLAC ripped from Vinyl.
 
psyph3r said:
That is true, movies don't last that long in theatres anymore but releasing dvds within a month will result in the remaining crowd not bothering to watch it in the theatre at all.
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i totally agree the numbers will fall but in my city(dont know about others), movies are still the best hangouts on weekends for youths. i have seen people going to shitty movies with shitty reviews just cause theres no other movie in the theaters to watch. plus office goers do like to watch movies in theaters, with family/friends. if this wasnt the reason there would be less movies in 100 crore club.

lets take an example of chennai express, a very fine print of the movie was available on torrent the very next day the movie released. but still it made records. my friend downloaded it next day of release, watched it and still went to the movie twice(i dont know how did he even manage once :P), same goes for his room mate and for his sister whom he gave the movie on second day (i dont know how many times they watched it in theaters :D but yes they did go to theater).
 
I think that cost is a major issue. And issues because of DRM and shit.

For example - Everyone in my family has watched this Malayalam movie Drishyum, except for me, since I was out of town on work. Now, I recently saw that there was a print on TPB, and I queued it for download, and forgot about it. Later, saw that the same movie was on DVD for 120 INR - immediately ordered one. However, I am yet to watch the DVD, since its not feasible to watch on a tablet, and ripping the DVD is a PITA. So will be loading the rip on the tablet to watch it later on.

In short - prices should be affordable - I think 50 to 100 for DVDs and 200 - 250 for a HD copy is good VFM. The reasoning that DVD will be passed around - lost sales - not going to happen. And it should be easy to watch and all. Not too much of a hassle.

Earlier, when moserbaer came out at cheap pricing, I bought some 10 - 20 DVDs. Also, when there was an offer with Amazon for cheap MP3 discs - bought 6 - 7 discs. My local source of devotional CDs too had an offer - bought 3 CDs.

As for Chennai Express - if the chap is a south indian who understands Tamil - its worth watching again, till you become brain dead.
 
For me, it comes down to convenience, specially with the arrival of a certain service which rhymes with *copcorn lime* (sorry, I don't wanna get banned :P). Give us easy to stream, anywhere, anytime content (with easy to pay options, not just CC), and I think many people will be game. It's utterly ridiculous how easy streaming is using the above mentioned software.
 
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