Half a million pirate movies downloaded daily

Written by Petteri Pyyny @ 30 May 2002 3:22 User comments (4)

According to Viant, a research company which specializes in Internet piracy, Net users download an estimated 400,000 to 600,000 pirate movie copies a day at the moment -- up by at least 20 per cent from last year's figures.

Company also points out that major releases, such as this summer's megahits Star Wars Episode II and Spiderman, will take the numbers even higher. Viant estimated that at one point, shortly after it was widely reported that both movies are available as an illegal copies in the Net, at least 10M users tried to download at least one of these movies. Funniest thing is that only two or three million users actually succeeded in their task :-)

It would be nice to know, what percentage of these users who downloaded, for example SWEp2, actually went to a movie theatre to see the movie and how many of them will purchase the DVD once it hits the stores. I bet that the number would be extremely high.

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4 user comments

130.5.2002 16:02

wonderboy

Inactive

I have viewed copys of both movies and yes I have seen both in the theatre and I'am planning to buy both when they come out on dvd........

230.5.2002 22:27

cd-rw.org

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I think quite a few of the downloaders still go to the movies. Even though you have seen the movie before, you still get some value for your money: big screen picture and excellent sound stage. Also it seems that many even buy a DVD after that. The downloadable movies aren't exactly good enough quality for a high quality home theatre system.

331.5.2002 13:46

The_Ghost

Inactive

yes m8 i have both and i will buy spiderman but not starwars i was too disapointed in it, can't wait to see apiderman on the big screen....

42.6.2002 10:13

A_Klingon

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Oh sure, I suppose movie theaters have their own special charms. Overpriced popcorn, long ticket-lines, traffic, parking problems, public transit, no smoking, etc. Home-made vcds (or) downloaded movies - watch at leisure, pause film while going to the washroom, come back & resume movie without missing anything, pay $10 - see movie once at theater; download movie once (or rent for $4, burn on 2 80c discs), watch 1000 times, build collection, ignore region coding, trailers (ADS), macrovision, price-fixing, FBI warnings. Oh yeah, sure, movie theaters are cool. ;-) Home-made vcds.......yummy! Schrlurrp! -- K.A. --

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Half a million pirate movies downloaded daily

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