Aussie Distributors Announce Desperate Measures to Combat “Piracy Window”

Australian distributors have come even closer to throwing their hands up in defeat at the state of piracy in the country, announcing that they will tighten the window for DVD and digital releases of blockbuster films. Where currently, the window for release stands at around 120 days, the plan is to reduce it to 90, to combat illegal downloads. 

Traditionally, movie studios and distributors give cinemas a window of around four months to show films before they are made available for purchase. This agreement, while never officially certified, has stood as an informal understanding between cinemas and distributors for many years. In recent times, though, studios have lobbied hard to bring home video releases of movies forward.

Simon Bush of the Australian Home Entertainment Distributors Association, today said that studios are “sick of losing money” to pirates, and will likely shorten the period for certain key releases. He stressed that the theatrical release of major motion pictures would retain its “rightful prominence” as the premium movie experience, while allowing consumers access to the product sooner.

Cinema chains around the country are unhappy, saying that the move will undercut the “prestige” of certain films and make theatrical release less viable. Such moves have proved controversial overseas. When Disney attempted to expedite the home video release of Alice In Wonderland in 2010, major cinema chains around Europe were so angry that they proposed a boycott of the studio’s future films.

The Australian Government are doing their best to crack down on online piracy, asking ISPs to give up the details of repeat offenders. In a 2012 conversation with Richard Glover, Turnbull said that tightening release windows is one valid option for combating piracy, and said that copyright owners are “shooting themselves in the foot” by not making their properties legally available as fast as possible in an era where traditional means of copyright enforcement are “unworkable.”

The most pirated movie worldwide last year was The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, with an estimated 8.4 million illegal downloads. Django Unchained, Iron Man 3, The Hangover Part 3 and Silver Linings Playbook were among the top 10.
Image via MGM

More Stuff From PEDESTRIAN.TV