Dinzy submitted an article in which another piracy issue is discussed. Downtown Boston, U.S., pushcart vendors are selling pirated Honk Kong DVDs of movies that have yet to be released in the theatres or are currently playing:
Washington Street, to be exact, in the middle of the city's Downtown Crossing district. On Monday, a retailer with a pushcart was selling DVDs of " 25th Hour," which so far has only been released in New York and Los Angeles. The cart also offered DVD copies of movies that are still playing in local theatres, such as the latest James Bond movie, "Die Another Day," and "Star Trek: Nemesis." Down the street, a gift shop offered copies of Denzel Washington's new movie, "Antwone Fisher," and "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers." |
But the issue of pirated DVDs is much bigger than these two retailers. The Motion Picture Association of America says that its member movie studios lose $300 million a year in US revenue because of Americans buying video knockoffs. It's far worse outside the United States, where $2 billion to $3 billion in ticket sales and legitimate DVD sales are lost to the video pirates.
According to the article the movie industry is facing even more problems. Even when they succeed in getting rid of all movie pirates, they must also deal with freely available software that lets people make perfect copies of legitimate DVD movies and post them on the Internet. In the near future, millions of Americans could begin swapping flawless digital copies of their favourite films.
Source: digitalMass
