Don’t Make Me Steal: pirates offer truce to film industry1 min read
Reading Time: 2 minutesAn online effort that’s gaining more supporters by the hour appears to offer the film industry something of an olive branch in the war against Internet piracy.
It all began with a conversation at the Lift11 conference in Geneva, Switzerland, aimed at producing ideas on how to eliminate piracy.
A collection of tech-savvy media professionals decided to create a document that stipulates how media should be offered by producers. They called it the “Digital Media Consumption Manifesto.”
In exchange for the pledge to never illegally download a film, signatories ask that production companies adhere to some basic guidelines:
“Rentals should not exceed 1/3 of the cinema price. Purchases should not exceed the cinema price. Monthly flat rate prices should not exceed 3 visits to the cinema. Pricing of TV shows is about 1/3 of movies. Payments are for the content, not bandwidth.
“I can obtain the audio in every language produced for the content. After purchasing a movie, all the languages are available. Fans are legally allowed to create and share subtitles for any content.
“The content I paid for is instantly available. Content is delivered without ads, or infringement warnings. I can find movies or TV shows by year, director, language, country, genre, IMDB ID, etc.
“The release date is global. There are no limits regarding the country you live in. I can download nearly every movie ever made.
“I can watch the movie on any device, without any differences in how the movie is presented. Movies are not bound to the service provider and must be DRM-free. I can easily understand my rights regarding movies that I rent, buy, or stream at a flat rate.”
