Bounie, Bourreau and Waelbroeck (2006)
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Source Details
| Bounie, Bourreau and Waelbroeck (2006) | |
| Title: | Piracy and the demand for films: Analysis of piracy behavior in french universities |
| Author(s): | Bounie, D., Bourreau, M., Waelbroeck, P. |
| Year: | 2006 |
| Citation: | Bounie, D., Bourreau, M., & Waelbroeck, P. (2006). Piracy and the demand for films: Analysis of piracy behavior in French universities. Review of Economic Research on Copyright Issues, 3(2), 15-27. |
| Link(s): | Definitive , Open Access |
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| Linked by: | Danaher and Waldfogel (2012), Zentner (2010) |
| About the Data | |
| Data Description: | The study uses a sample of 620 university members across more than 30 French universities including undergraduate students, graduate students and professors to assess the effect of digital piracy on legal demand. |
| Data Type: | Primary data |
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| Country(ies): | |
| Cross Country Study?: | No |
| Comparative Study?: | No |
| Literature review?: | No |
| Government or policy study?: | No |
| Time Period(s) of Collection: |
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Abstract
The purpose of this article is to identify which, if any, segments of the movie business have suffered from digital piracy. We use a sample of 620 university members including undergraduate students, graduate students and professors to assess the effect of digital piracy on legal demand. A large percentage of respondents get pirated movies from a variety of channels (on P2P networks, intranet, by physical means. . . ). Surprisingly, approximately one third of the pirates declared that watching pirated movies increased their demand for films (for instance, it led them to rent or purchase videos that they would not have rented or purchased otherwise). Using regressions analysis, we find no impact of piracy on theater attendance, and a strong impact on video rentals and purchases. However, movie piracy has no impact on video rentals for respondents who use pre-paid pricing schemes at video-stores.
Main Results of the Study
- Contrary to what movie producers are claiming, internet piracy seems to have little negative effect on theater attendance in the examined sample of people from the university community.
- The strongest effect of piracy is on video (VHS, DVD) purchases and rentals. However, for consumers who use pre-paid pricing schemes in video-stores, movie piracy seems to have a small impact.
- The sample used for this study is very specific. However, if confirmed by other studies, results suggest that the video segment suffers the most from internet piracy and that on the contrary the movie theater segment could be able to generate stable or increasing revenues even in a world of illegal file-sharing.
- New business models such as internet movie on demand could also be able to generate revenues from people who mainly rented videos in the past and who have switched to the convenience of watching pirated movies.
Policy Implications as Stated By Author
Subscription-based pricing could be a relevant strategy to compete with piracy, as a zero marginal cost for watching a movie legally reduces incentives to get pirated movies.
Coverage of Study
Datasets
| Sample size: | 620 |
| Level of aggregation: | Individual |
| Period of material under study: | 2005 |
