Hollywood vs. Digital Piracy: 0-1

Yesterday's New York Times had a very interesting article on online piracy detailing the clash between major film studios and digital pirates and, basically, putting the whole issue in a more intense light.

Although there were some less accurate facts, the piece was quite right to point out the level digital piracy has reached a level which has already placed it beyond possible a very effective litigation.

"John Malcolm, the (MPAA's) director of worldwide antipiracy operations, said that although the group does not sue individuals for watching pirated videos, other lawsuits against Web sites are forthcoming, and he acknowledged that the challenge is stiff. 'There are a lot of very technologically sophisticated people out there who are very good at this and very good at hiding,' Mr. Malcolm said. 'We have limited resources to bring to the fight.' "

It looks like the movie industry is finally starting to see the futility of their stubbornness to oppose an unstoppable technology (read: progress).

Much of the worrying statistics for the industry are revealed by TorrentFreak.com:

TorrentFreak.com, a Web site based in Germany that tracks which shows are most downloaded, estimates that each episode of "Heroes," a series on NBC, is downloaded five million times, representing a substantial loss for the network. (On TV, "Heroes" averages 10 million American viewers each week).

Read the article