Director Speaks of Piracy's Necessity

Lexi Alexander, a Hollywood director, spoke out against the anti-piracy piracy work. She specifically called out the MPAA and the arrest in Sweden of Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde. While she never states that she condones piracy, she acknowledges that anti-piracy legislation and safeguards promote the act more than discourage it, explaining that even she has resorted to piracy. Alexander finds major issue with the money Hollywood is willing to spend fighting piracy ($19 million in one year alone to support SOPA), but condemns them for not making content available because "we still can't watch most programs from back home, even though we're willing to pay good money for it.”

“For every IP block, DRM and who-knows-what security feature Hollywood spends thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours on, some piracy kid will undo it for free and within a couple of minutes,” says Alexander on her blog.

Alexander said she thinks piracy is necessary because of country content restrictions, and that while the wealth piracy begets for the pirates isn’t right, the freedom of access to content is.

“Piracy has NOT been proven to hurt box-office numbers - on the contrary, several studies say it may have boosted the bottom line.”

Alexander is the first person I've come across to argue the side of the pirates while living the life of the content-makers. I found her points to be relevant and thought-out, particularly the idea that even if a person does pay for services, it can still be impossible to legally obtain some content. My family pays for Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hulu, yet there are still countless shows and movies that we can't find and are therefore unable to watch. Not only is it frustrating for consumers but also it is harmful to the success of productions.

Source:

Gibbs, S. (2014, July 10). Hollywood director: piracy is necessary, and doesn't hurt revenues | Technology | The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jul/10/hollywood-director-piracy-is-necessary-and-doesnt-hurt-revenues