Illegal Downloads 150x More Profitable Than Legal Sales | Hacker News Reader

Illegal Downloads 150x More Profitable Than Legal Sales

torrentfreak.com

47 pointsvaksel23 comments

So this company is suggesting that it's better to allow your customers to break the law and then threaten to sue (making money from the settlement), rather than have them use legal channels?

It's a scary world we live in.

yes, it's better for DigiRights since they sell the software that will help you track down the law-breakers.

The premise that 25% of people pay up without questions seems highly questionable. The only source for this is the company itself, correct?

Edit: why the downvote? Take a look at the direct quote from the article:

However, not everyone who receives a letter will pay up, but DRS says that an impressive 25% of all recipients do without asking questions. This figure is much higher than most people assumed previously.

Why would one take such a surprising number on face value, especially from a company with such a shady business model?

I buy the 25%, only because it was based on responses in Germany. This is the country where I get yelled at for jaywalking at 3am and some subways work on the honor system. Germans are ridiculously honest.

In fact, now that I think about it, 25% seems low. What's happening in Germany?! Pretty soon, when I visit, I'll be forced to pay for my subway rides. Clean up your act Germany!

Kind regards, A dishonest American tourist

That jaywalking bullshit again?! Totally untrue.

I jaywalk all the time (well, not all the time, but you get what I mean) in Germany and I have never ever been yelled at. But it is uncommon, at least in the smaller towns. In bigger cities nobody would bat an eye, but you'd better be careful because unlike say Amsterdam it is not the expected behaviour.

I only ever got dirty looks for jaywalking.

True, I've been yelled at in Amsterdam for not jaywalking.

they mainly own copyrights to pornographic movies. i guess that helps with the "no questions asked" part. i got such a letter myself, but ISPs in europe don't have to give out personal data unless the request comes from a judge.

Why bother with tracking the downloads or caring at all what the user does? Just get a list of all internet users everywhere, send a nastygram insinuating that they've done something illegal, and send a bill. Some percentage of people will pay. Those interweb thingees are mostly just used for piracy anyway, right?

Random threats of lawsuits are infinitely more profitable than no threats at all.

I never thought of it quite that way before, but that's a really good point. They're functionally the WoW Accoung Phishers of the music industry.

This commenter nailed it: "It’s ’speculative invoicing’."

Also, the title is a bit shady. It's 150 times more profitable per instance, but only 25% (according to the company) pay up, meaning that it's really only 37.5 times more profitable.

I think you need to qualify the title. $0.60 is what you get for every legal download, 150 times that is what you might get if you happen to catch someone, find out her address and if she then also pays.

" According to the company they get to keep 80% of the money, leaving 20% for the copyright holders."

Yup, they really have the bands best interest in mind.

I don't understand how all of these companies who blatantly rob the money that should be going to artists think they are any better than the pirates.

Artists have a choice in doing business with them, they don't have a choice in copyright infringement.

DigiRights "developed" the technology to automate those "requests for damages" letters, so they are marketing it as being very profitable - no big surprise.

DigiRights, the company making those claims is highly suspicious. my parents actually got a letter from them. well their ISP got the letter wrote to my parents something like "digirights says you downloaded XYZ (porno movie). we didn't tell DigiRiths who you are, but please: stop it."

i doubt DigiRights is acting legally in austria, where i live. this is currently being viewed at.

According to wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_you_live_in_interesting_tim... , "May you come to the attention of those in authority" is an escalation of the better known curse "May you live in interesting times". Today it's a depressingly common threat, too.

It looks like RIAA and the other mobsters are going about it wrong, maybe they should be hitting up more people for smaller amounts.

The trick of a good parasite is to let the host live and be a small enough nuisance that the host won't kill the parasite.

The RIAA is getting dangerously close to the 'squash' button.

A few more 100K+ verdicts and I'm sure they'll achieve their goals of irrelevance.

However, the parasites in the content industry have a symbiotic relationship with the parasites who would do the squashing.

The trick of a good parasite is to let the host live and be a small enough nuisance that the host won't kill the parasite.

That is indeed the pirate's dilemma: how do I steal all my music, movies, and videogames while making sure Content, Inc. doesn't move to a business model where all the value is on their servers and you can, at best, rent access to it. It has already happened in China, and looking at the PC game sales charts in America it is pretty much complete there, too.

Oh, those weren't the parasites you were talking about? My bad.

Nothing is new under the stars. I heard, VHS rental services in US made more from late fees than from the rental itself.

i'm not saying they do that, but one could:

  * buy cheap copyright like 1940s movies
  * make divx files, name after non-existing pornos
  * anonymously seed to major torrent site
  * startup your auto-legal-threat-software
  * collect money

this might be legal?

And just because people is sometimes stupid. This is embarrassing.

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