NBC Universal Funded Study Shows, Yet Again, How Infringement Is Hollywood's Own Damn Fault

from the been-through-this-already dept

While we already discussed the MPAA's questionable new study trying to pin the blame for infringement on Google, MPAA member NBC Universal has released its "Digital Piracy Universe" study as well. This study was done by NetNames, the company formerly known as Envisional, which basically released a very similar study two and a half years ago. Matt Schruers, over at CCIA, does a nice job explaining some of the more questionable aspects of the methodology. However, we'd like to focus on something a bit more basic: the study's own numbers don't seem to support what NBC Universal seems to think it does. More specifically, as we noted with the last study, the results actually suggest piracy is Hollywood's own damn fault. This isn't just our interpretation either. The guy who wrote both studies, David Price, basically said the same thing right before SOPA died (he argued that the bills were a bad idea).

Once again, it's not difficult to see why the problem is Hollywood's with one simple chart: Basically, in the US, where Netflix has come up with a model that many people find to be reasonably priced and convenient enough, the rate of things like BitTorrent usage falls in comparison. Getting beyond just protocols, if we look specifically at "streaming" we see the same basic thing: In the report, Price explains that the YouTube content is predominantly non-infringing. So the vast majority of streaming is legitimate, not infringing. And that's what happens when you have services like Netflix and YouTube that are focused on providing what consumers want in a convenient package.

It seems that a reasonable take away from this report is that rather than worrying about piracy, these companies should be focusing on getting more authorized content available in a more convenient fashion.

Elsewhere, the report highlights how focusing on the "infringement" part, rather than the "providing better authorized offerings," is a silly game to play. It talks about the closure of MegaVideo, a leading player in streaming video, as a part of the Megaupload seizure. While shutting Megaupload had a ripple effect among cyberlockers, it looks like streaming video just continued to grow and grow. In fact, the report notes that people seem able to adapt pretty quickly when their preferred source disappears. Of course, anyone who's been watching the space since the closure of Napster should already know that:

Video streaming, both as a legitimate and illegitimate practice, is simple to engage with and deeply embedded in typical user routine. Video streaming bandwidth consumption of all kinds has exploded over the last few years, increasing by over 170% between 2010 and 2012 in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. Infringement through video streaming has increased even more dramatically: the amount of bandwidth devoted to infringing video streaming has grown by more than 470% over the same period, despite the loss of well-known hosts such as MegaVideo.

This demonstrates clearly how quickly online piracy can react to system events such as site closures or seizures. User behaviour is modified, often in moments, shifting from locations or arenas impacted by events to others that offer a comparable spread of infringing content via a similar or different consumption model. The practise of piracy itself morphs to altered circumstances, with use of video streaming and bittorrent escalating as direct download cyberlockers fell away.

So, uh, a study sponsored by NBC Universal more or less admits that the company should focus on doing more to make authorized content available, and that focusing on shutting down sites it considers rogue sites is unlikely to have significant long-term impact. Now, will NBC Universal actually follow what the data suggests?

Filed Under: authorized services, competition, copyright, file sharing, infringement
Companies: envisional, nbc universal, netnames

NBC Universal's Own Preferred Researcher For 'Anti-Piracy' Stats Comes Out Against SOPA/PIPA

from the well,-look-at-that dept

This is fascinating and unexpected. We've discussed the research firm Envisional a few times here at Techdirt. The company is NBC Universal's preferred research firm for coming up with stats that NBC Universal then uses to insist that it needs new laws like SOPA/PIPA. Some have certainly called into question Envisional's research as a paid vendor. However, a year ago, we noted that if you actually looked at the details of the research Envisional did for NBC Universal, it actually showed that piracy was Hollywood's own fault. NBC Universal and the MPAA twisted those results to say that piracy was a huge problem, but the data certainly suggested the real problem was Hollywood's failure to release what people wanted in formats that they wanted.

Still, we never expected Envisional to come out and actually make that same point (even if that's what the data said). Yet, as this recent Ars Technica article notes, at CES, Envisional's "head of piracy intelligence," David Price, didn't mince words in saying that infringement was, in fact, Hollywood's own fault for not offering products in the way customers wanted and that SOPA/PIPA were the wrong approach to fixing its business model problems:

"The content owners are really fighting the tide of the Internet," Price said. "They're trying to fight the flow of the Internet which is all about making content as widely available as possible, as easily as possible, as quickly as possible. They're trying to hold back the 1.4 billon users of the Internet from doing what the Internet wants them to do."

In discussing SOPA/PIPA:

Price does not like the way the bills are drafted, potentially causing major technical and free speech issues. "When I talk to content owners I try to tell them this is not the way to go," he remarked. "You don't want to hurt people. You want to try and go with a compete approach, put the content out there and hope people will come to you."

Again, none of this is surprising. We've been saying the same thing for ages -- and we get dismissed as "piracy apologists." Yet this is the research firm that NBC Universal has relied on and regularly quotes in making its arguments about just how "big" a problem infringement is. That says something. And that something is that NBC Universal (yet again) is unwilling to face reality.

Filed Under: business models, hollywood, research, windows
Companies: envisional, nbc universal

New Research Shows Movie And Game Piracy On The Rise, But Won't Tell Us How It Knows

from the is-it-really? dept

According to a recent report citing piracy statistics, game, film, tv, and software piracy are on the rise in the UK. The report cites an increase of roughly 20% over the last 5 years. Interestingly enough, it also shows a reduction in music piracy over the same period. This could certainly be bad news to those companies whose movies and games are part of the study, but sadly, there is no way to verify the information.

What this report doesn't reveal is just how the researchers came to these conclusions. Unlike some recent objective research, this report is not transparent in any way. This lack of transparency is exactly what those Danish researchers want to change. However, not all research firms feel the same way. When a research firm such as Envisional, the author of this latest report, makes a living by providing statistics and other tools and information to content industries, it is their job to create research that adheres to what their employers want to hear. This is usually done by hiding their methodology in order to prevent the results from being debunked. After all, we have already seen what happens when honest researchers look at Envisional's data. Perhaps a closer look at the data is advised.

Filed Under: piracy, studies
Companies: envisional

NBC Universal Study Shows That It's Hollywood's Own Damn Fault So Much Content Is 'Pirated'

from the though,-that's-not-how-they-spun-it dept

All week people have been submitting variations on the news that a study commissioned by NBC Universal, and promoted by the MPAA, shows that 24% of web traffic involves "piracy." If you look through the actual methodology, done by research firm Envisional, there are all sorts of problems with it, including the fact that they seem to bootstrap these findings based on research done by others. Another problem is that the source Envisional used, the PublicBT tracker, does not include many of the legal BitTorrent uses, meaning that they may have significantly undercounted legal usage.

Of course, the MPAA is using this data to suggest that piracy is a big problem, and governments need to step in and help (of course). Yet... if you actually look at the data, as Rob Pegoraro at the Washington Post did, you get a very different picture. It really suggests that all that movie piracy is the industry's own damn fault for not making legitimate content available online. This is not news of course. One of the main reasons why people access unauthorized copies is because they can't get legitimate copies. The movie industry is so infatuated with "windows" that it doesn't seem to realize that restricting how people can access their movies only drives more and more people to unauthorized means.

Pegoraro compares the different stats in the report and notes that there's a very clear indication that when legal alternatives are available, the amount of unauthorized file sharing drops considerably. So if the MPAA's goal is to reduce file sharing, then the answer is to start offering legitimate services. Pegoraro even asked the director of the study about this, and the guy agreed:

I think the availability of legit content in the US may be one reason why infringing use is lower in the country than elsewhere worldwide: the US has Hulu, Netflix, Amazon VOD, Vudu, streaming content from the tv networks, etc. This level of availability just can't be found elsewhere. Further, the content in the greatest demand online is that which originates from the US -- television shows and films in particular -- which often take a while before they appear in other countries.

So, the real lesson of this study is that the large amount of unauthorized access in movies online is the MPAA and NBC Universal's own damn fault for failing to adapt and to offer legitimate services to the market when they want it. Thanks for sharing that information with the world...

Filed Under: competition, file sharing, legitimate options, movies, piracy
Companies: envisional, mpaa, nbc universal