are all the sharing sites really shutting down?

justawordshaker:

Because I can’t deal with this. And it’s not even that I download stuff that often. It’s the principle of the thing.

Companies are arguing that the entertainment industry is losing money due to pirating, right? But how do they know that? Have there been any actual studies done? Have they polled the people on the internet who would be able to answer best and give them the most conclusive data?

Of course they haven’t. If they had, they would find out that the reason they’re losing money is because everything is so fucking expensive and their biggest buyers are people who love television and movies and music but are not necessarily able to buy everything they want. 

If they had, they would find that the reason people don’t upload things for profit. They do it so that others can discover something they love. And the people who download it either decide it isn’t worth their time or they go out and buy it because they love it so much.

This whole thing is just absolutely ridiculous. Movie industries are complaining about box ticket numbers? Well, maybe if you didn’t put every fucking movie in 3D and make us pay twelve dollars to see it you would get more profit. Higher ticket prices = less consumers. The same can be applied to television or music. Everything is so expensive. That is why companies are losing money (if they even are, I have not seen conclusive evidence of this) - not because of pirating. They are losing money because people can’t afford to buy their products.

So instead of thinking things through and realising that there is a simple way to increase their profit and audience (i.e. lowering prices so it is more accessible to their targeted audience), they have decided that the best course of action is to attack and make themselves completely unaccessible by alienating the people that buy their products.

To put it simply, the entertainment industry does not understand this one, basic principle: a consumer is not going to spend egregious amounts of money on a product they do not already know they will enjoy. If they know they will enjoy it, they will gladly pay for the expensive product. But unless I know I am going to love a television show, I am not going to pay sixty dollars for it.