What Is The Cost of Piracy to Economy?

Illegal downloading is getting more and more popular and it seems like there is no solution for that. Last year, Hobbit; Unexpected Journey downloaded illegally 8 million times, Bruno Mars 5,4 million and Daft Punk 4 million times. Can you imagine how much they lost? Perhaps, huge. But let's be honest, who never downloaded song or movie? Exactly, `nobody`. What pirating music, movie, tv series cost to economy? What is the ways to minimize the lost?  Is it possible to stop illegal downloading?  In this article, I will try to give answer to these questions.

What is the arguments for people who illegally download?
They don't need this money, they are already so rich, Come on, just because I downloaded, will they be poor? It seems like IKEA doesn't need this money, lets steal this bed. There is no difference actually, the only thing is you are stealing the music just by one click. There is nothing physically so we consider it is not stealing.

But why people are doing that?

The answer is simple; They have no money to spend for that or There is no chance to purchase for them other than torrenting. First option is the world rule, free is better than paid. Instead of paying any money, people can get that free and they choose this option. Specially in poor countries. For example; Illegal Downloading is very popular in China because basically people are earning 300$ per month and they don't want to give 30$ to Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Second is they have no place to purchase so they are downloading it. Basically, some sites like Netflix or I-Tunes are not available in everywhere yet Piratebay is.

What is the real cost to economy?

There is no real answer. Because piracy against organizations such as SOPA says $20.5 billion cost to economy another sources say completely nothing. Let's look at the all the arguments. According to SOPA the Piracy is affecting economy like that; If piracy doesn't exist More Revenues will lead more profit, more employment, more taxes for government. So, according to them if the government solve the piracy policy, world will be better place. Naah, I really don't believe that so much. The other argument is Piracy cost nothing to economy. Their logic is basically like that; There are 2 kinds of people who download the product illegally. People who would buy the product and people who would not. In their belief, people who would buy the product will spend this money in economy anyway. So that doesn't matter did they buy or not. The second is People who would not buy the product, logically in there there is no lost because they would not buy anyway if the piracy is not exist.

How to minimize the lost of piracy? 

Of course there are legal sites you can download music, watch movie/series. For example in iTunes one song cost just at most $1.29. So, if I want to download 50 songs, probably I should pay $55. It really depends on the people; Some people can pay $55 for songs some not. Of course, that sites can reduce illegal downloading but they are not exactly the solution.

HBO GO subscription which is between $15-$25 per month gives you the opportunity to watch HBO shows with no limit. But still, the most pirated TV Show which is Game of Thrones is from HBO. 2013 season finale downloaded 5 million times which is record. So let's estimate the 5 million times downloaded by 3 million people. 3 million times $15 gives us more or less how much HBO lost. Is there any solution? I don't know. In Europe (eastern generally) people watch the TV Shows online for free by channel's official web sites. So the channel gives the episodes for free? No. They are putting advertisements like in TV. So, they are earning advertisement revenue from TV and Web-Sites. In Ukraine, Turkey, Poland, Russia etc this is very popular way to watch the TV show online.

Is it possible to stop illegal downloading? 

Unfortunately, my answer is currently no. The governments can block the web-sites, arrest owners etc. yet these are not the solutions. Why? What is the most popular P2P torrent site in the world? Piratebay right? What is their monthly cost? Just $3000. Can you imagine? Their cost to economy is huge but the sites cost monthly to them is just $3000. If you close piratebay tomorrow they will open new website. Last time when I was looking for piratebay, it was piratebay.com. Now, it is piratebay.se and it is changing every time because changing server as easy as changing t-shirt for them. They are not a big company, they are just simple internet users which makes them flexible. Therefore, it is not possible to block or close to websites. Secondly, you can not arrest everyone who download illegally something. As I mentioned above, 5 million times Game of Thrones downloaded. Who the police will arrest? Everyday 170.000 people are sharing the episodes of Game of Thrones on internet.

I never think like that.

Conclusion

All in all, pirating is getting more popular day by day. Logically, if someone offers you free stuff, you can not resist. Does it affects economy? Of course yes. Can we minimize the lost? Some how yes. Is it possible to stop illegal downloading? Hell no. I strongly believe that, if now we are living in the internet society, we should teach new generation `pirating music, movie, game, TV show is bad` like we thought them `stealing is bad`. It is a long process, in long-term it can reduce the damage of pirating to economy. We don't know how much it costs to economy like exact amount but we know that it costs badly somehow. But let's be honest, `Have you ever illegally download music?`  you don't have to feel guilty. Everyone did.