Film Studios have already made attempts to take action against pursuing similar legislation, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), taking place over a decade ago.
Recently, MPA (Motion Picture Associations) urged lawmakers to pass legislation for site blocking of piracy sites in a hearing on Wednesday. The hearing took place in the U.S. House of Judiciary Subcommittee on the Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, as reported by Deadline. This is a serious issue, and actions are necessary.
Nowadays, people are using pirated websites to watch content for free, which impacts production houses, anime studios, and other sectors.
This is not only applicable to Anime studios but also to movie production houses, web series, games, and apps.
After noticing these increasing cases of piracy, Anime Studios and MPA took action. While Anime Studios made similar attempts, no actions were taken by the Lawmakers or the court.
Negative impact on the industry due to Piracy
While many people say piracy can be a good thing, like Vince Gilligan, the creator of Breaking Bad, and Jeff Bewkes the chairman and CEO of Times Warner. Who said in an interview with BBC’s Newsbeat that online piracy can lead people to watch the series who otherwise would not have watched.
It is true that when people illegally download and watch the series online, it increases the popularity of the show and also the sales of their merchandise, books, and other positive impacts. In addition, it also helps people become better consumers.
But this doesn’t change the fact that piracy is illegal and wrong. Piracy also creates a bad habit for people because when they can watch the content for free, then why would they pay money for that and increase their expenses?
The industry faces a lot of problems due to piracy, especially for the new ones in the market. Due to piracy, sales decrease, and good income from the audience is not generated, which can lead to financial losses and many more problems.
Piracy has increased substantially in the last few decades and can be found in almost every country, and is a challenge for policymakers and new growing businesses. Creating a decrease in sales and legal copies of the shows or the content.
Anti-Piracy Laws and Its Benefits
Anti-piracy measures may sound familiar from decades ago when Anime Studios pushed for similar legislation on the House for SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) Bills.
While they won, it backfired when there were backslashes fueled by Google and other major internet companies, leading to protests and warnings that this Law would curtail internet freedom. This caused significant controversy among the internet and the public, and due to this, the bill did not pass.
But many things have changed since then, and Anti-Piracy can be promoted by ensuring that developers, creators, and businesses receive the rightful income from their work, which also encourages a fair economic environment and dispirit of unauthorized distribution.
Karyn A. Temple, the MPA’s senior executive vice president and global general counsel, explained that no action would be taken against the infringing sites but would involve asking the internet service providers and other intermediaries to take a more active role in restricting access publically.
One Anti-Piracy method is software licensing, which is about software vendors limiting access to their software products based on the validity of the license the user holds. The user must procure a license from the vendor in sequence to gain access to the product, typically by making a payment.
Internet-related unlawful activities like file sharing, downloading, and counterfeiting are collectively referred to as “privacy.” Internet piracy is risky, and in most cases, it’s illegal, so it should not be promoted or done by anyone.
Also, many countries like the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Spain, Denmark, and Singapore have already started to take action against piracy by court-ordered site-blocking legislation.
