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German anti-piracy group DigiRights Solutions has published a presentation which suggests that suing people for piracy is actually more profitable than selling legal downloads.
Their stats show that 25% of all individuals that were sent letters threatening legal action pay the settlement fee as opposed to perusing the matter further. The fine is usually €450 ($650), with DRS getting 80% and the content owners getting 20% ($130). This roughly works out to be 150 times the profit gained from a legal download, and so DRS has made the controversial statement of saying that piracy is actually more profitable than legitimate sales.
This shows exactly what is wrong with the current system, where the penalties for illegal downloads are far greater than what the content owners would have received through legal sales. And it also shows how anti-piracy firms like DRS, and DigiProtect (which uses similar tactics, discussed here), exploit the current situation and people's fears of going to court, which almost seems like extortion. But as long as the government sides with the copyright lobby, this will go on.
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Their stats show that 25% of all individuals that were sent letters threatening legal action pay the settlement fee as opposed to perusing the matter further. The fine is usually €450 ($650), with DRS getting 80% and the content owners getting 20% ($130). This roughly works out to be 150 times the profit gained from a legal download, and so DRS has made the controversial statement of saying that piracy is actually more profitable than legitimate sales.
This shows exactly what is wrong with the current system, where the penalties for illegal downloads are far greater than what the content owners would have received through legal sales. And it also shows how anti-piracy firms like DRS, and DigiProtect (which uses similar tactics, discussed here), exploit the current situation and people's fears of going to court, which almost seems like extortion. But as long as the government sides with the copyright lobby, this will go on.
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