• Skip to main content

zoiaorg

Tech, Strategy, and other interesting things by Roberto Zoiaby Roberto Zoia

  • Articles
  • Book Reviews
  • Effective Goal Setting
  • What I’m Reading
  • Archive
  • About

Piracy is a Service Problem

2014-03-17 by Roberto Zoia Leave a Comment

Enrique Dans writes about Popcorn Time, the great movie application created by a group of Argentinean hackers that allowed users to search and view torrent movies, according to Time, in an interface better than Netflix’s.

Basically, it’s the version of Netflix that you’ve always wanted — and maybe have been willing to pay extra for — but that Hollywood may never allow.1

Popcorn Time

Popcorn Time gained an incredible traction in a short time and challenged the movie establishment. But its creators decided to shut it down and release the code into the public domain, because _standing against an old fashioned industry has it’s own associated costs. Costs that no one should have to pay in any way, shape or form._2

Some days later, YTS –one of the main torrent sites– announced that they are taking over the project. Popcorn Time is again available for free.

Piracy is not a people problem. It’s a service problem. A problem created by an industry that portrays innovation as a threat to their antique recipe to collect value.2

When Apple launched iTunes’s music store in 2003, it demonstrated to the music establishment that people were willing to pay for music in .mp3 format, if they could do it easily and securely. (Up to then, the music industry had been fighting music in .mp3 format.) Results? Apple became a new player in the music distribution business. Since February 2008, Apple’s store has become the biggest music vendor in the United States, and since February 2010 the biggest music vendor in the world. On January 2009, Apple announced that it was removing DRM3 from its music catalog4.

The way to stop movie piracy is to offer the movies in digital format, for a price, the same day they appear in movie theaters.


  1. Popcorn Time Is So Good at Movie Piracy, It’s Scary. ↩
  2. Popcorn Time closing letter. ↩ ↩
  3. Digital Rights Management, or DRM, is a technology that prevents digital files from being copied to other devices that the one where they were originally purchased, and is intended to prevent media piracy. ↩
  4. cfr Wikipedia, iTunes Store. ↩

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: bittorrent, drm, piracy, popcorn time

Did you like this article?

Join our FREE Newsletter and receive updates directly to your inbox.

We hate SPAM. We'll keep your email address safe.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • What I’m Focused on Now
  • Español
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2021 Roberto Zoia
zoia.org runs on WordPress using a customized version of the Parallax Pro Theme for the Genesis Framework.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience.Accept
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.