Internet Piracy Boosts Sales, Study Concludes

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Contrary to claims made by the entertainment industry, a new study found that internet piracy actually boosts DVD sales. The study was conducted by the Japanese Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry and focused on Anime DVDs but hey, we have to take the positive news when and where we can. ;)

“Estimated equations of 105 anime episodes show that (1) YouTube viewing does not negatively affect DVD rentals, and it appears to help raise DVD sales; and (2) although Winny file sharing negatively affects DVD rentals, it does not affect DVD sales,” the researchers conclude.
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Well considering the entire western market was basically created because of piracy, I imagine this multi-million dollar industry is proof that piracy might just not be a negative thing.
 
true or not, I doubt they'll go "lets stop suing people because they add to our sale" but rather, "let's continue suing people to get more money!"

Of course, there is always a chance they'll do it to keep people on their toes.... but I doubt they'll mean that.
 
So, would the quote from the article mean that Redbox and Netflix should sue pirates, not the MPAA? I wonder how that would go.
 
How many people ran pirated copied of DOS/Windows 95/98/2000, but eventually went legal with XP/Vista/7 ?

Limited piracy can be a way to build market share, the companies then just need to provide a low cost solution for people to become legal with the newer versions. The low-cost student versions of software is not much different. Provide it cheap, get people use to it, and then hope they will have to buy it at the regular after college.
 
nutzo said:
How many people ran pirated copied of DOS/Windows 95/98/2000, but eventually went legal with XP/Vista/7 ?

Limited piracy can be a way to build market share, the companies then just need to provide a low cost solution for people to become legal with the newer versions. The low-cost student versions of software is not much different. Provide it cheap, get people use to it, and then hope they will have to buy it at the regular after college.
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Legit, with XP? :confused: Unless you bought a computer with XP pre-installed... Nevermind :p
 
I pirate games sometimes to test and evaluate, which in most cases I pirate a steaming pile of digital poop. Case in point NFS:HP ... I cant even use my Logitech FF wheel (huge dead zone,and bindings down work right).

So many horrible bugs that never get fixed...hello EA?

Im not going to drop $60 on a game that is broken at launch.

If I play a game and it works. I buy it via steam.
 
nutzo said:
How many people ran pirated copied of DOS/Windows 95/98/2000, but eventually went legal with XP/Vista/7 ?
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Im pretty sure that DOS/earlier versions of windows were pirated alot less than XP/Vista/7. The internet helped a bit.

"Dont copy that floppy!"
 
Toiletmint said:
I pirate games sometimes to test and evaluate, which in most cases I pirate a steaming pile of digital poop. Case in point NFS:HP ... I cant even use my Logitech FF wheel (huge dead zone,and bindings down work right).

So many horrible bugs that never get fixed...hello EA?

Im not going to drop $60 on a game that is broken at launch.

If I play a game and it works. I buy it via steam.
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My exact sentiments. This is my procedure until rentals and/or demos become more wide speard. Free weekends on steam are great also.

At least on console they can go rent a game to see if they like it. I'd pay 3 or 4 bucks to see if a pc game is any good.
 
jadams said:
My exact sentiments. This is my procedure until rentals and/or demos become more wide speard. Free weekends on steam are great also.

At least on console they can go rent a game to see if they like it. I'd pay 3 or 4 bucks to see if a pc game is any good.
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Thank you! I feel the exact same way. Why pay top dollar for a pc and no returns allowed if it is shit. You know what, all of the pc gamers should start a class action lawsuit because we cant return games that we do not like, NOR can we take them to Gamestop and resell them. That is discrimination in my book.

So my download Burnout Paradise (albeit older game) to test it and see if it works is justified. Now to get a xbox 360 controller to work with my pc, just need to purchase that receiver...
 
I do admit I was a anime pirate back in old school. Because of that, I started to buy DVD boxset, not just to support the company, but to collect them :)

This study is quite true to be honest, this is also one reason why Funimation is putting up all the latest subbed anime legally to youtube and hulu for free to watch.. It's a good way to advertise anime and to promote it. They do boost up quite significant amount of sales by doing so.

IIRC, Gabe from Valve also said the same thing about gaming :)
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Considering movie and music sales are at all time highs (including digital sales), I'm not surprised.
 
I pirate a good amount of anime and end up buying the ones I like most of the time its about 1/2 of what I pirate. If not for that I probably would spend alot less on it. Over 1TB downloaded and over $2k in dvds/bluerays. It would take me a good part of a year to rewatch what I paid for. Music I never pirate cause most of the time (95%) I buy local music and underground stuff so I want to help them out more. One of my fav musicians is Devin the dude like to show him support where I can.
 
Steve said:
Contrary to claims made by the entertainment industry, a new study found that internet piracy actually boosts DVD sales. The study was conducted by the Japanese Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry and focused on Anime DVDs but hey, we have to take the positive news when and where we can. ;)
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Nothing against those that like anime out there, but in my experience, they tend to be the "collector" types which would vastly effect the interpretation of these results. They are somewhat of a niche market and I would say with pretty good certainty, do not represent the population.

Why not just conduct a study on a random sample. This is why I dislike these studies, you can interpret practically any outcome you want from the results in many cases, even when you don't rig the sample set.
 
pothb said:
true or not, I doubt they'll go "lets stop suing people because they add to our sale" but rather, "let's continue suing people to get more money!"
Of course, there is always a chance they'll do it to keep people on their toes.... but I doubt they'll mean that.
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Yes, US economic policy, as dictated by our RANDROID infested FED, demands shortsighted greed, with any deviation (being a visionary, seeing the big picture) incurring cattle prods to the taint. Which is better than the penalty for piracy, which is incarceration in a cell with Tyrone, Beijing 2008 Gold medalist in endurance raeping. At tax payer expense, no doubt.
 
complexx said:
Nothing against those that like anime out there, but in my experience, they tend to be the "collector" types which would vastly effect the interpretation of these results. They are somewhat of a niche market and I would say with pretty good certainty, do not represent the population.
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This. Most anime fans that watch lots of anime buy lots of anime. The same cannot be said for all members of the population with every media type. It is, of course, nice to have a study or two expressing the opposite of the majority view though.
 
Hm I think Genon, ADV, and USManga Corps would like to disagree about how helpful anime piracy is. Well that is if they weren't all dead.
 
Arcygenical said:
This. Most anime fans that watch lots of anime buy lots of anime. The same cannot be said for all members of the population with every media type. It is, of course, nice to have a study or two expressing the opposite of the majority view though.
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No, most anime fans don't buy a lot of anime. They pirate most of it.
 
Derangel said:
No, most anime fans don't buy a lot of anime. They pirate most of it.
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it really depends.
shows like Bleach and Naruto Shippuden, you can watch for free on hulu and the like. awesome movies, like Ghost in the Shell, I have on DVD. now a bad release, like GITS 2:Innocence, I downloaded to see if it was worth buying. Ended up getting the UK release.

Now something like the new Space Battleship Yamato live action movie, that will most likely never come out here, i'm downloading.

see, it really depends on how you can acquire the media.
sometimes theres no choice.


games on the other hand.... its always been a quality issue.
if people think the game sucks or is buggy, it will be downloaded to hell. especially without a demo. people arent that dumb. of course the publishers would have you believe otherwise. it also seems casual games are more downloaded as well, i would think its gamers just curious of the gameplay they are not used to. that was the reason i download sims 3 back when, i never played that type of game before and looked somewhat interesting, but not $50 interesting. played for 3 days, deleted, never again. consider it a extended demo. piracy is a farce. distribution is not piracy.
 
LeviathanZERO said:
it really depends.
shows like Bleach and Naruto Shippuden, you can watch for free on hulu and the like. awesome movies, like Ghost in the Shell, I have on DVD. now a bad release, like GITS 2:Innocence, I downloaded to see if it was worth buying. Ended up getting the UK release.

Now something like the new Space Battleship Yamato live action movie, that will most likely never come out here, i'm downloading.

see, it really depends on how you can acquire the media.
sometimes theres no choice.


games on the other hand.... its always been a quality issue.
if people think the game sucks or is buggy, it will be downloaded to hell. especially without a demo. people arent that dumb. of course the publishers would have you believe otherwise. it also seems casual games are more downloaded as well, i would think its gamers just curious of the gameplay they are not used to. that was the reason i download sims 3 back when, i never played that type of game before and looked somewhat interesting, but not $50 interesting. played for 3 days, deleted, never again. consider it a extended demo. piracy is a farce. distribution is not piracy.
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I really hate the BS excuses for piracy. You want to pirate fine, but don't hide behind lame ass excuses. Its pathetic that people need to find ways to justify their crap. I have no problem admitting that I used to pirate things and you know what I don't make up crap to justify it. I did it in the past despite knowing it was wrong. There was no amount of falsified moral BS to hide behind.

Is piracy overstated and a scape goat most of them time? Hell yes it is.Can it still do harm? Very much so. All you need to do is look at the PSP or whats left of the American anime market for proof of that.

PS: Before it causes some confusion, I don't count download fansubs of unlicensed series as piracy. Downloading fansubs of licensed series on the other hand....
 
Derangel said:
I really hate the BS excuses for piracy. You want to pirate fine, but don't hide behind lame ass excuses. Its pathetic that people need to find ways to justify their crap. I have no problem admitting that I used to pirate things and you know what I don't make up crap to justify it. I did it in the past despite knowing it was wrong. There was no amount of falsified moral BS to hide behind.

Is piracy overstated and a scape goat most of them time? Hell yes it is.Can it still do harm? Very much so. All you need to do is look at the PSP or whats left of the American anime market for proof of that.

PS: Before it causes some confusion, I don't count download fansubs of unlicensed series as piracy. Downloading fansubs of licensed series on the other hand....
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BS excuses? Huh?
I just told you I buy a quality release if the means of acquiring it is available to me.
Whatever. I buy games I like, not shit I will play twice and never touch again.
 
LeviathanZERO said:
BS excuses? Huh?
I just told you I buy a quality release if the means of acquiring it is available to me.
Whatever. I buy games I like, not shit I will play twice and never touch again.
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Then you are rare among pirates. Most use that as a terrible excuse.
 
People either pirate stuff they wouldn't have bought ever anyway, or pirate stuff they are unsure about. Then, if it is really good, they will often buy it.

What I hate is the RIAA suing someone who downloaded 39 songs for $1 million. So,the RIAA is "out" $39 at going rates but is suing them for $1 million. WTF? Yeah, that makes sense.
 
From what I've seen a lot of anime is pirated because it can't be gotten any other way. Most anime freaks I know have bought LOTS of anime. The whole "pirating" issue is a lot more complex than a lot of people want to admit.
 
delahaya said:
From what I've seen a lot of anime is pirated because it can't be gotten any other way. Most anime freaks I know have bought LOTS of anime. The whole "pirating" issue is a lot more complex than a lot of people want to admit.
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Main reason I used to pirate anime is because of the turnaround time from the new episode release to a legitimate DVD copy. There is no way an anime fan will wait that long since part of the fun about watching anime is the speculation, prediction, and discussions that goes on in forums.
 
delahaya said:
From what I've seen a lot of anime is pirated because it can't be gotten any other way. Most anime freaks I know have bought LOTS of anime. The whole "pirating" issue is a lot more complex than a lot of people want to admit.
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If that was true ADV wouldn't be dead and Genon wouldn't have sold off all of their anime licenses. That happened within the last two years, after the quality of dubs and the turn around time of releases drastically improved. Not to mention the price of anime.
 
Korben Dallas said:
Main reason I used to pirate anime is because of the turnaround time from the new episode release to a legitimate DVD copy. There is no way an anime fan will wait that long since part of the fun about watching anime is the speculation, prediction, and discussions that goes on in forums.
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A lot of times now Funimation will stream subbed episodes of shows they're licensing on Hulu, their official page, Anime News Network, or Youtube so you don't really have to resort to piracy for a lot of licensed stuff. I watched all of Black Butler and a few eps of Black Butler II before Funi even announced a release date for the set. All legally on their Youtube page. Which reminds me I need to buy season 1 part 1 one of these days.
 
Derangel said:
A lot of times now Funimation will stream subbed episodes of shows they're licensing on Hulu, their official page, Anime News Network, or Youtube so you don't really have to resort to piracy for a lot of licensed stuff. I watched all of Black Butler and a few eps of Black Butler II before Funi even announced a release date for the set. All legally on their Youtube page. Which reminds me I need to buy season 1 part 1 one of these days.
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I did not know that. That is pretty awesome imo.
 
Derangel said:
A lot of times now Funimation will stream subbed episodes of shows they're licensing on Hulu, their official page, Anime News Network, or Youtube so you don't really have to resort to piracy for a lot of licensed stuff. I watched all of Black Butler and a few eps of Black Butler II before Funi even announced a release date for the set. All legally on their Youtube page. Which reminds me I need to buy season 1 part 1 one of these days.
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What's the difference (streaming vs. torrents)? Are you saying piracy is defined by the source? (not goading you, just curious...)
 
kubla_khan said:
What's the difference (streaming vs. torrents)? Are you saying piracy is defined by the source? (not goading you, just curious...)
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In this case all of Funimation's legal sources are ad supported so by watching them through official channels you are still giving money to them. When you torrent or watching through unofficial sources not a single penny goes to the people who created it.
 
I watch quite a lot of anime, but I only have the SE Lain box set. Why? Because the only way to get a decent version (original Japanese audio & proper English subs) requires me to import it all from the UK or such, as around here (Netherlands) the DVDs you buy in stores only have French, Dutch and sometimes German subs.

But even the importing option isn't that attractive a lot of the time as too many DVDs come with absolutely terrible English subs, far below the level of the fansubs. Since fansubbers do it partially because they care about anime, and the companies do it just for the money, that's not too surprising, I guess.

In short, there are quite a few series I like enough to buy on DVD, but I don't know what kind of quality I would get if I did so. It's sad if a fansub group can completely crush the 'official' release in terms of QA.
 
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