JULY 7 | DIGITAL: American consumers with broadband Internet service download 14 billion movies and videos a year, but just a fraction of those, 15%, are legally purchased, according to a new report, “,” from research firm In-Stat, a sister company to VB. The majority of those films are likely downloaded and shared through peer-to-peer online sites by a small subset of broadband households. But rather than go after those households with lawsuits, treat them as criminals or lobby legislators for more copyright protection, In-Stat said studios could instead convert them into legal purchasers by making it easier for them and other consumers to watch movies when and where they want.
“The long-term evolution of this space is pretty well agreed upon that people will ultimately get the content they want on the screen of choice where they want and when they want it,” principal analyst Keith Nissen said. “It’s a question of how do you get there.” Nissen argues that the best way is to use Digital Rights Management technology to enable consumers to watch content in more ways on more devices, rather than using it to prevent consumers from making backups or transferring content to devices.
