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I Want You Back: The Interplay Between Legal Availability and Movie Piracy

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  • Michael D. Smith
  • Rahul Telang
  • Yi Zhang

Abstract

Although it is well known in the academic literature that anti-piracy measures can reduce the demand for pirated content, there are relatively few papers analyzing how legal availability impacts piracy. In this study, we answer two relevant research questions: (1) Does the availability of movies in legal digital channels reduce the demand for digital piracy? (2) Is the level of piracy prior to a movie’s release in a legal digital channel a reliable signal of legal demand after release? We answer these questions using a unique data set provided by a major motion picture studio. Our data contain 1520 catalog movies introduced to iTunes between April 2011 and April 2012. We find that iTunes availability leads to an 11.8% decrease in monthly piracy. We also find that pre-release piracy positively correlates with post-release electronic sell-through sales but not with video-on-demand sales.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael D. Smith & Rahul Telang & Yi Zhang, 2019. "I Want You Back: The Interplay Between Legal Availability and Movie Piracy," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(1), pages 199-216, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ijecbs:v:26:y:2019:i:1:p:199-216
    DOI: 10.1080/13571516.2019.1553293
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    Cited by:

    1. Cuntz, Alexander & Bergquist, Kyle, 2022. "Exclusive content and platform competition in Latin America," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    2. Jordi McKenzie, 2023. "The economics of movies (revisited): A survey of recent literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 480-525, April.
    3. Gänßle, Sophia, 2020. "Big data comes to Hollywood: Audiovisuelle Medienmärkte im digitalen Zeitalter," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 144, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    4. Christian Peukert & Margaritha Windisch, 2023. "The Economics of Copyright in the Digital Age," CESifo Working Paper Series 10687, CESifo.
    5. Łukasz Tomczyk, 2021. "Evaluation of Digital Piracy by Youths," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-26, January.

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