Illegal downloading plagues entertainers
THIRD STREET Aaron Paulson knows what he’s doing is wrong, but he just can’t help it.
The 19-year-old UCLA student is addicted to downloading free music and movies over the Internet. Whether it’s songs from his favorite artists or bootlegged movies that have yet to arrive in theaters, Paulson can’t seem to say “no” to piracy, even though he knows that by downloading he’s not only breaking the law, he’s taking food out of the mouths of his favorite artists.
“It’s really just a matter of convenience, and I’m broke,” said Paulson, as he walked along the Third Street Promenade Wednesday with his iPod in hand, listening to The White Stripes’ latest “Icky Thump,” which he downloaded for free off of the peer file sharing network LimeWire.
“It’s gotten to the point where I just don’t even think about it anymore,” added Paulson, a public policy major. “I just click a button and, within a few minutes, I’ve got the song I want and I move on to the next one. I think that as long as I’m going to [concerts] or going to the movies, I’m supporting them.
“I see the free stuff as kind of a bonus.” One in every four people in Los Angeles County knowingly bought, copied or down-loaded illegal goods over the past year, according to a new Gallup Organization survey that was commissioned by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The survey, which included 892 respondents, focused on the attitudes and behaviors of consumers here who knowingly buy fake goods, including bootleg movies, illegally copied CDs, knockoff Gucci handbags and counterfeit auto and airplane parts.
It found that the piracy rate in Los Angeles County was 25 percent — considerably higher than the 20 percent rate discovered nationwide in a separate study conducted last year.
“This really confirmed what we already knew, but it’s definitely interesting to have that perception confirmed and it shows that we have a lot more work to do in educating consumers and local officials about how serious a problem this is,” said Rob Calia, senior manager for anti-counterfitting and piracy for the chamber.
The survey was released just in time for a week-long conference on piracy in Los Angeles. Lawmakers will be moderating a town hall meeting on counterfeiting and piracy today, beginning at 10 a.m. at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood. Representatives from the Entertainment Software Association and the Recording Industry Association of America will be featured, along with a member of the Motion Picture Association of America.
Not surprisingly, most of the counterfeit purchases were movies and CDs, followed by brand name clothing, bags and footware, and consumer goods such as shampoo, computer software, auto parts, video games and, even, bottled water.
The majority of respondents said the most common reason for committing piracy was convenience and the easy availability. Cost was the second most common factor, followed by the desire to have something before it is released by the manufacturer.
The Gallup study follows a report this year by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. that concluded that global piracy cost nine industries across Los Angeles more than 100,000 jobs and about $5.2 billion in lost sales in 2005.
But even with those figures, it’s hard to get people to realize the true impact of their decision to be a pirate.
“Consumers are apathetic about artists and movie stars because they see this as a problem of Tom Cruise not being able to buy a fifth giant mansion, or something like that, and not a problem of the camera guys and the lighting guys and the catering company who could lose their jobs because of this,” Calia said.
“That argument hasn’t been as convincing as we’d like it to be.”
Representatives from the Recording Industry Association of America said music piracy has cost the U.S. economy $12.5 billion and 71,060 jobs, and have called on lawmakers to increase enforcement.
“Vigorous efforts to protect a legal marketplace will help sustain a music community that’s suffering because of rampant theft and send the right message to future generations of fans: Just because it may be easy to obtain music illegally does not make it right,” read a statement from the RIAA.
Music lover Ricardo Lopez doesn’t think it’s right either. Rather than steal tunes, he gets them the old fashioned way, by walking into a record store and paying for it. He believes record companies do produce a lot of bad music, forcing fans to purchase an entire album for just one or two good songs. But with the popularity of Web sites like iTunes, now listeners can purchase only the songs they want for about $1.
“Stealing is wrong, but companies should not just take that hard line of prosecuting everyone, but instead try to adapt or offer more incentives to consumers,” said Lopez, as he browsed the racks at Hear Music, which allows customers to listen to all the CDs in their catalogue, select songs and then burn their own discs, complete with a cover and packaging, for $8.99 and up.
“Nobody’s perfect, and I’m sure I might download a song or two if I wasn’t still living in the Flintstones era,” he said. “But I think we need to really support these artists or whomever is making the product. It’s only fair.”
While much attention is focused on DVDs and CDs, Calia said society shouldn’t forget about counterfeit medications and airplane parts. With those items, its not just about money, but also public safety.
The survey did offer some positive news: 72 percent of the respondents believed counterfeiting and piracy laws should be stricter, and 90 percent said they wouldn’t have acquired fake products if they knew doing so supported terrorism or organized crime.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 23, 2007. Read the original PDF.