4 ms·

I do wonder the effect it has on "total leisure time spend". My hypothesis is that piracy drops total spend in dollars, but maybe not necessarily on the categor

by relix 5y ago

I do wonder the effect it has on "total leisure time spend". My hypothesis is that piracy drops total spend in dollars, but maybe not necessarily on the category that was pirated. This would fit and counter the oft-claimed "if I couldn't pirate this I wouldn't have bought it anyway, so it's not a lost sale". I hypothese there would be two reasons: - because piracy enables more consumption of some media than the person otherwise would have done, it means they have less leisure time available to spend on other media which they would have spent money on. E.g. instead of buying a book and reading it, they would watch a low-value movie they pirated, affecting book sales but not movie sales - because piracy decreases the perceived value of an hour of entertainment, the person would be less willing to spend money in other categories as well and would rather fall back to cheaper options The result would be that the amount a person spends on _total_ entertainment drops, but the drop would be in other categories than the category that is piratable.

rg111 5y ago
> My hypothesis is that piracy drops total spend in dollars My hypothesis is the exact opposite. I think that piracy increases total spend in dollars. With piracy, people get to experience things for free that they otherwise wouldn't have. This opens individuals to newer media, newer niches, newer genres, and so on. I have known a few people who spent their money for the first time on video games after playing the pirated version of GTA V. They wouldn't have spent a dime on games if they hadn't played pirated GTA V. I turned into a subscriber after watching The Wire, The Sporanos, and Breaking Bad with a shared password (also a kind of piracy). I would have never even thought of paying for TV if I could not watch The Wire for free. I believe that pirated content "converts" people into web series watchers, gamers, and more. Microsoft is fully aware of Windows piracy. Had Microsoft cracked down, then they would have lost tens of millions of future paying customers. Many people pay for Office for their business because that is what they have used since their childhood- in a legal way or not.
hackerfromthefu 5y ago
Conversely, maybe the amount income people have to spend on entertainment is a function of their disposable income, so fixed by the persons financial circumstances rather than entertainment costs. i.e. if you got $20 bucks spare and a movie is $20 you watch one, if they are $10 you watch 2. Over simplified, but I think an important point, that entertainment fits into the budget of 'disposable' income rather than essential.

by relix 5y ago

rg111 5y ago

> My hypothesis is that piracy drops total spend in dollars My hypothesis is the exact opposite. I think that piracy increases total spend in dollars. With piracy, people get to experience things for free that they otherwise wouldn't have. This opens individuals to newer media, newer niches, newer genres, and so on. I have known a few people who spent their money for the first time on video games after playing the pirated version of GTA V. They wouldn't have spent a dime on games if they hadn't played pirated GTA V. I turned into a subscriber after watching The Wire, The Sporanos, and Breaking Bad with a shared password (also a kind of piracy). I would have never even thought of paying for TV if I could not watch The Wire for free. I believe that pirated content "converts" people into web series watchers, gamers, and more. Microsoft is fully aware of Windows piracy. Had Microsoft cracked down, then they would have lost tens of millions of future paying customers. Many people pay for Office for their business because that is what they have used since their childhood- in a legal way or not.

hackerfromthefu 5y ago

Conversely, maybe the amount income people have to spend on entertainment is a function of their disposable income, so fixed by the persons financial circumstances rather than entertainment costs. i.e. if you got $20 bucks spare and a movie is $20 you watch one, if they are $10 you watch 2. Over simplified, but I think an important point, that entertainment fits into the budget of 'disposable' income rather than essential.