TW, Disney, Viacom Lose $3.5 Billion to Film Pirates

U.S. movie companies lose $3.5 billion a year to piracy, not including the burgeoning trade on the Internet, according to the Motion Picture Association of America, according to this detailed Bloomberg feature on movie piracy, and what studios are doing to combat it.

An interesting point by Eric Garland, CEO of BigChampagne, the download-tracking firm: he says studios will fare better than the music business in their clash with pirates. People were angry at the music labels because they overcharged for CDs and made consumers buy the whole album to get the song they wanted, he says. DVDs are a better value. They have features you don’t get in a theater or on cable, like interviews with the director and outtakes, he says. “All they have to do is keep us from getting off the couch,” Garland says.

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