Australians love being the best in the world at something – rugby, cricket… beaches. But this is an accolade that we may want to keep on the DL. Word is that Australians have now taken to online piracy at a rate faster than “virtually anywhere else in the world — way ahead of the USA”.
The numbers are in from our recent downloading binge, and the figures reflect film piracy among 12 to 17-year-olds has legit doubled since last year. On top of that, Mad Max: Fury Road has been downloaded 3.5 million times, because we’re proud of our country’s creative output, but not proud enough to pay for it.
What makes matters worse is that we aren’t ashamed of it at all. According to Village Roadshow executive Graham Burke (via ABC), “Seventy-three per cent of people acknowledge that piracy is theft,” and while there has been some declines in illegal downloads due to the accessibility of services like Netflix, we aren’t out of the woods yet.
“Before we get too comfortable by this decline in total piracy, the emphasis on movies is worse and illegal online activity of 12 to 17-year-old Australians has almost doubled since last year — with a whopping 31 per cent pirating movies,” he says.
Which, considering our lousy internet speeds doesn’t really add up, however it does seem to agree with our own government’s report into illegal piracy, which discovered similar trends.
Burke has also revealed the studio’s five-step plan to combat piracy. This will include things such as blocking questionable sites, forging a stronger relationship with Google and structuring the penalties to be realistic and therefore threatening.
“If the price of an act of thievery is set at say $300, we believe most people will think twice,” he says.
On top of that, the studio will need to form a strong relationship with the actual community. Burke explains their research reveals a lot of people were straight up unaware that it’s illegal to pirate, but is adamant that the good in people will prevail.
“People wouldn’t go into a 7-Eleven and swipe a Mars bar. People are fundamentally honest and fundamentally decent,” he says.
So, let’s let out a small and hushed “CARN AUSSIE!” for being #1 and, yeah, stop living up to our international rep of a nation of convicts. Cool? Cool.
