Internet piracy and the Spanish DVD market
Spain is looking likely to become the second country, after South Korea, to be vetoed by the main Hollywood film distributors after DVD sales are estimated to have fallen 75% over the past five years because of piracy.
Michael Lynton, the chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment said that people are downloading movies in such large quantities that Spain is on the brink of no longer being a viable home entertainment market for us.
In an article published by the LA Times, it claims that in Spain, internet piracy is part of the culture and that illegal film downloads here in Spain increased from 132 million to 350 million between 2006 and 2008 whilst DVD sales fell from 12,000 to 3,000 between 2003 and 2008.
He also commented that, in other European markets, the profit from DVD sales and rentals equates to about a half of the companies’ total profits which is between three and ten times greater than in Spain.
Legitimate digital distribution isn’t filling the gap. Apple Inc.’s iTunes, the world’s biggest digital-media store, doesn’t sell movies or television shows in Spain in the same way that it does in Britain, France and Germany.
The LA Times lays the blame squarely with the Spanish judicial system. Unlike in the US, France and soon to be in Britain, piracy isn’t against the law in Spain unless it’s done for profit.
It’s no surprise that the average Spaniard doesn´t think it´s a big deal. The country’s Culture Minister, Angeles Gonzalez Sinde, a former filmmaker who is backing a bill that would make it easier to shut off access to websites that facilitate piracy, blames the problem on deep rooted cultural attitudes.
She commented that for traditionally Mediterranean countries, it’s hard for people to understand that immaterial things can be worth as much as material things.
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