Most Pirated Movies Not Available Lawfully Online; Search Engines Not to Blame for Piracy, Mercatus Says

The Mercatus Center created a website, PiracyData.org, to examine whether people turn to piracy when the movies they want to watch are not available legally. The site looks at the top-pirated movies, as ranked by P2P news site Torrent Freak, and uses information from CanIStreamIt to see whether the content is available for digital purchase, digital rental or streaming. Six of last week’s 10 most-pirated films are available for digital purchase, and three are available for digital rental. None can be streamed, it said. “If the movie industry wants to combat piracy, one thing they might want to try is offering consumers the online viewing options that they want,” Brito said. “It also shouldn’t be incumbent upon search engines to change what they do in order to prop up another industry’s business model.” Brito implored Congress, which this year began a review of copyright policy under House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., not to protect content owners with legislation. “Most importantly, Congress should not consider protecting any particular business model,” said Brito.

The fight between content owners and search engines has escalated in recent months, Mercatus said, pointing to an MPAA study unveiled on Capitol Hill last month that criticized search engines for helping consumers access infringing content (CD Sept 19 p23). “Search engines such as Google have increasingly found themselves in the crosshairs of the entertainment industry,” Mercatus said. The MPAA’s study criticized Google, saying 82 percent of queries leading to infringing content came from the company. Google had earlier that month released a detailed report of its antipiracy efforts, saying it dedicates hundreds of employees to fighting piracy online.

An MPAA spokeswoman criticized the premise of the Mercatus site, and said some of the data is inaccurate. “More than half of the films they cite are in fact available to stream or download, including films they claim are not. And if a film is not available for stream or purchase at a given moment, it still does not justify stealing it from the creators and makers who worked hard to make it,” she said. “There are more ways than ever to watch movies and TV shows legally online, and more are constantly being added.”

The spokeswoman also pointed to WheretoWatch.org, calling it a “one stop compilation of legitimate platforms available in the” U.S. Lawfully available content is also subject to pirating, the MPAA spokeswoman said. “'The Walking Dead’ was pirated 500,000 times within 16 hours despite the fact that it is available to stream for free for the next 27 days on AMC’s website and distributed in 125 countries around the world the day after it aired,” she said. “Our industry is working hard to bring content to audiences when they want it, where they want it, but content theft is a complex problem that requires comprehensive, voluntary solutions from all stakeholders involved.”

RIAA had no comment on the piracy data, since it pertains to movies, said a spokeswoman. She pointed to WhyMusicMatters.org, an industry-sponsored site that offers “an authoritative list of legitimate music sites in the U.S.” Access “models such as streaming services are not just our future, they are our present, comprising more than 15 percent of our total revenues in 2012 and growing,” said the RIAA representative. “Fans now can instantly access their favorite songs in every way imaginable -- a telling sign that the music industry has transformed itself in just the past few years.”