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wylies99
Joined: 13 May 2006
Location: I'm one cool cat!
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 Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 1:47 pm Post subject: Rampant piracy pushes last Hollywood DVD firm away |
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Rampant piracy pushes last Hollywood DVD firm away
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2897172
November 11, 2008
Warner Brothers, one of the world�s largest producers of film and television entertainment, is to end its home video business in Korea, citing rampant piracy, officials said on yesterday.
�As of Dec. 31 this year, the home video and DVD business in Korea will be shut down,� said an official at Warner Brothers Home Video Korea.
�One of the reasons for the pullout is a slump in the video and DVD market, resulting from online piracy and illegal downloading.�
Warner Brothers is the last remaining Hollywood company to withdraw its home entertainment business from Korea. �We are to focus on our digital distribution �pre-DVD� business,� the official said.
In October, Warner Brothers studios announced plans to become the first in Hollywood to make movies available through video on demand in Korea two weeks before DVD releases. More than 94 percent of households in Korea are reported to have broadband connections.
According to the Korean Film Council, more than 47 percent of people surveyed said they download movies at least once a year. Yonhap |
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Teelo
Joined: 09 Oct 2008
Location: Wellington, NZ
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| Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 1:52 pm Post subject: |
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I shall quote an article I read in a PC magizine a couple of years ago:
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| These music and movie companies claim their loss of revenue is due to piracy, but maybe its simply because they keep releasing utter shit? |
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bassexpander
Joined: 13 Sep 2007
Location: Someplace you'd rather be.
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| Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 2:34 pm Post subject: |
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Sounds very familiar. Sony says the same below.
In all honesty, I think it has more to do with the amount of cut that Korean companies want out of sales. Piracy is bad, yes, but both the film industry and the Korean gov't/companies/chaebols are extremely greedy.
I also believe Korea is being used as a test market to see how downloads will succeed in the wake of ending DVD sales.
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http://newteevee.com/2008/09/03/the-death-of-the-korean-dvd-industry-a-sign-of-things-to-come-in-the-us/
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Written by Janko Roettgers
Posted Wednesday, September 3, 2008 at 2:49 PM PT
The Death of the Korean DVD Industry: A Sign of Things to Come in the U.S.?
Sony Pictures is leaving South Korea because of sluggish sales and rampant piracy, The Korea Times is reporting this week. Sony isn�t the first studio to abandon the Korean market; according to the Times, Paramount, Universal, Buena Vista and 20th Century Fox have all ceased operations there, meaning there is no longer a major Hollywood studio operating in South Korea.
Korean DVD sales have been in a free fall in recent years. The newspaper quotes estimates for 2008 of some $285 million vs. $673 million in 2002. At the same time, blazing fast broadband is ubiquitous. The country�s average broadband penetration rate by household hit 90.1 percent last year; in Seoul, the rate was 107.8 percent. Korea�s broadband revolution is often touted as a sign of things to come for the rest of the world, but is the same true for the death of its DVD market?
There�s no question that film-swapping broadband users are behind at least some of the industry�s woes in Korea. In a recent survey, almost 50 percent of Korea�s Internet users have admitted to downloading movies from the Internet, and the typical user is downloading about a movie a week. Copyright isn�t even an issue with the folks that haven�t been getting their Hollywood blockbusters online. Instead, they simply deemed downloading as too complicated.
The slump of DVD sales numbers has also taken its toll on DVD rental stores. The Korea Times is reporting that there were 10,000 of these Blockbuster-type stores back in 2001, but the number was down to 3,500 at the end of last year. Finally, box office sales have been slightly down in 2007 as well, but some attribute this to the changing box office landscape rather than to piracy.
How much of this trend will translate to the U.S.? At this point, it�s hard to speculate, but there are some lessons to be learned in South Korea that should worry Hollywood, the most important one being that in the face of ubiquitous broadband, DVDs won�t be replaced by other physical formats or even VOD services, but by the cloud.
Interestingly enough, P2P networks aren�t at the center of the Korean downloading craze. Users are flocking to web-based storage solutions instead. The market for these so-called �webhard� services was originally popularized by LG, but now there are dozens of vendors, with some offering up to 1 Terabyte of storage space for free. The services are monetized through priority access points that guarantee higher speeds. There are supposed to be filters in place, but it�s obvious they don�t work.
Korean film studios now want their piece of the pie by becoming part of the cloud. According to KBS World Radio, they�re starting a webhard-based movie download service by the end of the year.
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seosan08
Joined: 10 Oct 2008
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 4:58 pm Post subject: |
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| Who cares?!? Hollyweird needs to go belly up! Nothing but crap coming out for the most part. |
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itaewonguy
Joined: 25 Mar 2003
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| Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 9:04 pm Post subject: |
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does that mean there will not be anymore DVDS from the USA here?
find that hard to believe! local distribution will still buy the movies they think will sell and distribute themselves... so what is it exactly the Studios are saying?
actually I had a conversation today with a guy, about piracy in the world
he believes the best way to combat it is to change the technology from disks to ............. and battle it with other measures..
I told him the technolgy is moving to quick and another device, like
tape, to cd, to mp3, to dvd, to bluray is only good for companies to generate more wealth by bringing out new technology but doesnt stop piracy! sure helps global economies and companies involved in this field , everyone likes new devices especially if its better quality than bluray..
my idea is great and I told him he agreed...
people wouldnt mind paying for a movie or tv show if it could be download in less than 10 minutes! with the best quality..
of course only if the price is cheap.. and I mean cheap like 1 dollar a movie or50cents a show or 20cents a song!
the studios need to understand to defeat the piracy game they need to join it!
they need to work with ISP's also to monitor downloading and bill people for their downloads and then they can get their money that way...
people wont pay 5 dollars for a download! they aint gonna pay 6 dollars for a cd! so instead of paying billions trying to fight piracy they need find more realistic solutions..
instead of having blockbuster down the street! have blockbuster come to you.. sitting at home through your tv searching movie titles! EVERY MOVIE ever made at your finger tips.. once you select the movie you want
you pay for it 1 dollar.. NOT 10 dollars! downloaded directly to your tivo or as such machine.. and away you go.. this is the future of home entertainment.
still wont prevent someone from downloading it and burning it to DVD and then watching it.. but still is a fast way to get a movie.. especially one that just left the theater.. |
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bobranger
Joined: 10 Jun 2008
Location: masan
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| Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 11:22 pm Post subject: |
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| people wont pay 5 dollars for a download! they aint gonna pay 6 dollars for a cd! so instead of paying billions trying to fight piracy they need find more realistic solutions.. |
I agree |
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Milwaukiedave
Joined: 02 Oct 2004
Location: Goseong
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| Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 3:44 am Post subject: |
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| It will be interesting to see if this affects the ability to get DVD's in Korea. My guess is no. Thankfully I have finished buying the last of the seven seasons of my favorite series. Other then that, I usually don't buy DVD's at all. |
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seosan08
Joined: 10 Oct 2008
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 4:46 am Post subject: |
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| Milwaukiedave wrote: |
| It will be interesting to see if this affects the ability to get DVD's in Korea. My guess is no. Thankfully I have finished buying the last of the seven seasons of my favorite series. Other then that, I usually don't buy DVD's at all. |
They do what China and every other Asian country does. They have a couple very publicized sweeps, bust some low level guys and call it a success. And the next day everything is back to normal. |
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justaguy
Joined: 01 Jan 2008
Location: seoul
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| Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 5:24 am Post subject: |
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Children are the future.
Children brought us free downloads.
How can anyone be against the children?
I know who I'm betting on. |
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RyanInKorea
Joined: 17 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 1:09 pm Post subject: |
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Children are the future.
Children brought us free downloads.
How can anyone be against the children?
I know who I'm betting on. |
You don't have to thank us,
Ryan |
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SHANE02
Joined: 04 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 7:00 pm Post subject: |
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So mega rich companies are losing money because they were too slow to keep up with technology. Now they don't want to play anymore.
Boo hoo
I will just have to download the movies then.
Oh wait.....hollywood movies usually suck . |
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sarbonn
Joined: 14 Oct 2008
Location: Michigan
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| Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 7:22 pm Post subject: |
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Part of the problem is that Hollywood companies and the music industry treat their product as if it is a necessity rather than a luxury item, or at least a non-essential entertainment item. When the music industry started going nuts about downloading, I don't doubt it was probably out of conrol, but I have not downloaded music illegally, but at the same time I went from buying about 100 CDs a year to buying maybe 5, at most. Why? Because most of the music they come out with these days really sucks. Badly. We keep being given mediocre product and told we must pay high rate prices for it. I'm getting sick and tired of product wrapped entertainers that are supposed to be the "next big thing". There's this whole hype just yesterday over some 18 year old girl who is the next "big thing" and honestly, I don't care. I'm not buying her music, mainly because I really don't see the allure of a musician who is 18 years old, unless she's another Mozart prodigy. Just because she's got a hot body and shakes it on videos doesn't mean it's good music. If I want to look at that, I'll just download porn.
As for movies, they've been getting worse and worse over the years. Every year, there's maybe one or two really good movies that I might want to watch. Other than that, they keep releasing remakes of movies and TV shows that were really bad in the first place. For every Tropic Thunder (a good movie) they release, there are 100s of pieces of crap.
And they blame us for not buying their crap. In other words, if we don't buy it, we must be pirating it? No, just because they release crap doesn't mean I'm going to turn to crime to watch the crap. I'll read a book instead, or play a computer game. Or watch a sunset. Oh wait, scratch that last one. I'm a geek, and we're not allowed to go outside.  |
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dossi
Joined: 19 Jun 2008
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Rusty Shackleford
Joined: 08 May 2008
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| Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 7:37 pm Post subject: |
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DVD is merely a distribution method for something else (the movie). Complaining about DVDs dying is the same as horse and cart manufacturers complaing when cars were invented.
Movie studios need to get with the times. |
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crosbystillsstash
Joined: 12 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 8:51 pm Post subject: |
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| Rusty's right but they already missed the boat. |
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