Thread: Most Internet Pirates Say They Would Pay for Content

I know this isn't huge news, and the idea has been touched on plenty of times..
This is a good survey though, and it's a good read.
So i'll pass it on to you folks.

Originally Posted by Neowin.net

News.com.au and CoreData conducted a survey about illegal downloads, the survey got over 7000 responses and found that the majority of people would pay for things they download illegally if it was made available for the right price.
The study found that users who typically download movies would be willing to pay the most, up to $10, if it was made available in a format that they could use how they wanted. While the majority of music downloaders were only willing to pay 50 cents.
Australian Pirate Party president David Crafti says, "People aren't just looking for a free ride. They're living in the modern world and expecting business models to keep up with them."
"They just want to know that they've got the data, they can watch it whenever they want, on whatever device they want, they can watch it three months later, or a year later, and not have any time limitations."
Neil Gane executive director of anti-piracy group Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft responded to the survey as well saying, "This is something that consumers obviously want, and it's something that legitimate businesses are striving for."
"Movie industries obviously want to make their content available online, but they can't compete currently with a free alternative that's perpetrated through theft. "Once there is a level playing field, I think you'll begin to see a lot more flexible, innovative business models."
Mr. Gane also said that they prices that users think are reasonable are unrealistic for the music and film industry.

Pretty interesting charts huh?
The funny part is that these prices are quite reasonable!

Imagine this..
A musical artist writes 2 songs and does the editing on a computer or has a professional for that (who takes 15%)
If he put the files online for digital download on itunes or beatport for example, and got a measly $1 for each download..
He could be loaded even with the 15% reduction.
Or say 20-25% if the online distribution takes some too.
Say they sell 2M of each song..
With 25% off it's still 1.5Million buckaroos!
That's a lot of cash!

Really though, the future of music is online, which cuts out cost of production by a lot..
The only reason the music industry complains is because the record companies want more and more money.
Truthfully though, artists are learning how little they need them, and are becoming more independent!



Seriously though, some big record companies take like 90% of the artists profit..
What kinda shit is that?

Another thing, if you know that the money your paying is going DIRECTLY to the artist, you would be much more likely to pay.
I know I would!
When i think that the majority of my cash is going to a greedy corp the chances of me choosing to buy it are slim to nil..

The unfortunate part of this whole deal is that not everybody's as educated about all of these industries. Myself, I've gotten spanked on forums when I was younger for my 'who cares?' attitude, but the fact is that if a fellow like me with that mindset existed, then so will others. Not to mention, it's only those who know about the real problems caused by downloading (I'll say downloading because not all countries have made laws and restrictions about it) that would easily fall into this category.

Assuming that a person's smart enough to navigate through the world of tracker invites and private trackers, it's easily a palpable concept that we all have good grasps of the effects of downloading on respective industries.

I, personally, would like to pay for content only when I know that the industries have cleaned up their acts first. It's not new news that movies and music are big business like most anything else and are privatized. Many artists have fallen to the mental abuse, stress, and torture these companies promote for the sake of their own success. I can't condone giving them my money, especially if they're taking a lump sum of it and the guy/girl who created the work I'm enjoying gets only a little bit.

Here is how the music industry works, according to my dad who almost got signed by Sony:

Sony likes your album. They offer you $3mil for your albums rights, so that they control everything about the music. While the copyright is still yours, YOU cannot do ANYTHING with your music you created unless authorized by Sony Music. As long as your album exists, you make royalties off of it (lets be generous and say $.50/cd sold)

Scenario 1: Your album sales only net Sony music $1mil profit. You end up owing Sony Music the difference in sales should you fail. You are SOL. You still get Royalties, but are absorbed by Sony to recover the cost of your failing album.

Scenario 2: Your album sales net $10mil (650,000 copies sold @ ~$15 each)! You end up only keeping your money that Sony paid you ($3 mill) plus royalties ($325,000).

Just a little insight on how people get paid in the biz.

EDIT: I do my own production work, and while I have nothing out yet, I plan on doing my own online promo, selling my tracks on Beatport or iTunes. I get more money doing it that way than if I signed up on any label. Though, when it comes to booking, its easier to be with a company. I guess that DJs view their tracks as ways to get booked out, which is their primary money source.

The thing is that only those who don't have a whatever mood care.

The kids at my school all know I pirate but they also know that I will pay for something if I like it. They find this as blasphemous. They go "What is the point of buying it you can get it for free!" Well the simple response is that if everyone took what they want for free no one would make anything they would think it a waste of their time.

For example I didn't plan on seeing How To Train Your Pet Dragon, but after watching a TS of it I decided I was going to go see it in 3D because I thought it was great and wasn't targeted at just kids like I thought it was. Heck I even plan to buy it on Bluray when it comes out... So lets see because of piracy they made.... 38.50 USD. That might not seem like a lot but I can say there are others out there who feel the same and it adds up! If only 100 people plan to do the same as me they made an extra 3850 USD! And chances are there are a lot more the 100 people in the world who have the same mind set. So if there was 1000 people then they would make an extra 38,500 USD do to piracy. Now that is a lot of money and to me 1000 people still seems to small numbers for all the people in the world who pirate.

Me I follow the "If you like it then go buy it" with a few exceptions of course. I like to try something without any cages keeping me from trying anything, I like to see if the CD is worth buying or if I should buy only a few of the songs. The only case where I don't buy it even though I like it is when something is WAY over priced not like CDs but for example Photoshop, I like it but I won't buy it. It is not my profession I don't have that kind of money to spend on a hobby. Yes I could use Gimp but I like the feel photoshop has.

Also if you notice the people that will buy things they pirate tend to be connected to some form of private trackers, whether it be through just a friend in one influencing. You will 'rarely' see someone who only uses TPB going out and buying what they like.

Well, I just want to give my two cents...

I believe it all comes down to what I like to call the "price of convenience". Take me for example, I am relatively tech savvy and I know how to find and download everything for free, however I am an avid user of Unbox, and I only go to download video if it is not available there, which is not that often. I am totally willing to pay for content if it readily available for immediate consumption, and the fact that I know how to get the stuff for free does not deter me from paying for legitimate content.

Finally, I believe piracy is not as big a problem as the media would like you to believe, think about it, how many people are sufficiently tech savvy enough to use all the free torrent and other p2p downloads? a very small percentage of the population, so all the hype about piracy ruining it for everyone is a bunch of BS...

so the majority of the people will anyway will do whatever is more convinient whether they know or don't know how to get free stuff

sorry for rumbling on...

Good topic.


NOTE: If anyone has any good articles/links on this, including opinion/perspective, but especially data, facts, polls, reasearch etc.... it would be really appreciated, as I am writing an article on this for a project.

Piracy is, in a large part, the result of economic pressure.


When it comes to things like books, companies are behind the times. You don't charge the same price for an ebook as you do a regular book, not even close. You charge like, 50 cents to a few dollars.

If 10 people have 10 dollars to spend on books, and books cost 10 bucks, obviously they can each only buy 1 book. 100 total dollars is then spent on the book industry, and total profit is much less, cost of printing, etc....


Now if the ebooks cost 1 dollar.... well, many more people would obviously buy it, and instead of spending 10 dollars on one book, each of those people might spend 5-10 dollars, on 5-10 books each. Since ebooks don't really have any marginal costs such as printing, the profit is equal, or even greater. And the customer has benefited far more.


With the explosion of information from the internet, and other things, the supply of information has grown exponentially. It's basic economics that price must come down. Companies have not figured out how to get with the times, so things like piracy will emerge.

Originally Posted by mtguy8787

Good topic.


NOTE: If anyone has any good articles/links on this, including opinion/perspective, but especially data, facts, polls, reasearch etc.... it would be really appreciated, as I am writing an article on this for a project.

Piracy is, in a large part, the result of economic pressure.


When it comes to things like books, companies are behind the times. You don't charge the same price for an ebook as you do a regular book, not even close. You charge like, 50 cents to a few dollars.

If 10 people have 10 dollars to spend on books, and books cost 10 bucks, obviously they can each only buy 1 book. 100 total dollars is then spent on the book industry, and total profit is much less, cost of printing, etc....


Now if the ebooks cost 1 dollar.... well, many more people would obviously buy it, and instead of spending 10 dollars on one book, each of those people might spend 5-10 dollars, on 5-10 books each. Since ebooks don't really have any marginal costs such as printing, the profit is equal, or even greater. And the customer has benefited far more.


With the explosion of information from the internet, and other things, the supply of information has grown exponentially. It's basic economics that price must come down. Companies have not figured out how to get with the times, so things like piracy will emerge.

But here is where the publishing groups come in, they don't sell the ebooks for a dollar, in fact they will only occasionally take 1-2 dollars of the normal book price is all. There was a book I wanted but it was only in hardback and was 25 USD, so I checked for it online as an eBook. It was only 25 USD... But as a book lover I rather get a hardcopy if I am going to be spending the same price, the eBook should have only been like 5-10 USD and not even close the the price of the hardback.

Agreed, ebooks should be cheap.. When we pay for digital things which are not tangible its hard to feel like we got our monies worth..
A huge reason we pirate is because prices are unreasonable, or it's too much of a hassle..
With games for example. You either spend way too much money and are hassled with physically going to the store to buy the game, or ordering online paying for shipping and then waiting for it..
Compared to saving ~50 bucks and getting instant gratification (dependent on line speed ofc :001_tongue:)
Not to mention the troubles with finding an old game in a store..

OK, i didn't plan on getting into this.. but corporations need to start COMPETING with piracy not jacking up prices and suing poor individuals. That just sends the image that they're assholes and makes more people want to pirate!
There are many benefits to buying already and they could capitalize on it!
For example, using the same game analogy, if they made games with really really good multiplayer/online modes, then people will buy it!
For movies, more compelling movies, 3D and even SUPER SUPER high quality movies, will get pirates out of their rooms watching crappy TS, and into theaters paying cold hard cash!
For music, they need to bring down the prices for digital music to make it more appealing..
Not to mention they could promote by entering everyone who buys a song into a contest..
For example "Win, and the band will play at your next birthday" or whatever the hell.
Just get creative you f**kers! Like the old days when they actually worked their asses off, instead of just suing everybody!!
/end rant/