Movie Piracy: Shrinking DVD Windows, Not Academy Screeners to Blame
The shrinking time window between movie and DVD release -- not Academ screeners or online video -- is responsible for film piracy, according to entrepreneur Andy Baio's annual report.
This year Baio, who's been tracking film piracy since 2004 (and who's startup Upcoming.org was acquired by Yahoo a few years back), concluded that Region 5 DVD transfers from overseas -- those DVDs shipped abroad to coincide with the film's release -- are likely the main source of pirated films, as opposed to watermarked screeners. Among his wealth of data:
- all but six of the 34 nominated films were available in DVD quality by the last week of January
- the DVD release window has shrunk from an average of about four months to about three months over the last few years
More info and downloadable Excel/Google Spreadsheets files here.
