Home | TrendTracker | PowerBlog Reviews | The Experts | Newsletter
ABOUT
SMALL BUSINESS TRENDS brings you daily updates on trends that influence the global small business market.
Anita Campbell, Editor
Past life: CEO, corporate executive, tech entrepreneur, retailer, general counsel, marketer, HR ... (more)
email me
free business magazines
FREE BUSINESS MAGAZINES
Trade publications FREE to qualified professionals. No hidden offers and no purchase necessary.
On Wall Street
The Deal
Computing Canada
CIO
Employee Benefit
Oracle Magazine
100+ additional titles. Click to browse.
ARCHIVES & SEARCH
Previous Small Business Trends articles can be found at the links below:
October 2003
November 2003
December 2003
January 2004
February 2004
March 2004
April 2004
May 2004
June 2004
July 2004
August 2004
September 2004
October 2004
November 2004
December 2004
January 2005
February 2005
March 2005
April 2005
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
Or, use the search box below to find a
specific post:


NEWSLETTER
Sign up for our FREE Small Business Trends newsletter. (View Current)

We publish regularly and promise we won't share your email address with anyone. (Privacy Policy)
SMALL BIZ INFO & RESOURCES
BLOGS TO READ DAILY*
* Don’t have time to read several dozen blogs a day? Pick two or three. Your brain will thank you for it.
ONLINE COMMUNITIES
BLOG DIRECTORIES
THE BUZZ

SPECIAL RESOURCES
Small Business Trends Radio
Tuesdays, 1:00 PM Eastern U.S. time
on Voice America network
Click to listen

November 1st: Torsten Jacobi, CEO of Creative Weblogging, joins host Anita Campbell. Sponsored by Six Disciplines. Show details.
Sunday, February 29, 2004
Film Piracy Threatens Small Businesses
When films are pirated and sold illegally, it hurts businesses of all sizes, large and small.

It may seem like that new hit film you enjoyed is the product of some large behemoth studio. But an entire ecosystem of small businesses is involved in getting that popular hit film onto movie screens.

A recent New York Times article by Nick Madigan points out:
    "LISTEN to the Oscar thank-you speeches on Sunday night, and one thing will be immediately apparent: moviemaking is a process requiring many hands and minds.

    And while the studios setting those productions in motion are big businesses, most of the workers are provided by a galaxy of smaller ones.

    The number of these small independent contractors has risen as some large Hollywood studios have closed costume, special effects and other departments."
Counterfeit films have become a huge organized business worldwide. The cost to legitimate businesses is significant.

For instance, in the United States audiovisual piracy is estimated to have cost legitimate businesses at least $1.2 Billion (USD) between 1998 and 2002 -- not counting Internet piracy and theft of TV signals.

According to another source, in the United Kingdom counterfeiting cost legitimate manufacturing and leisure businesses over 8.5 billion pounds in 2002. And the European Union is fast becoming the destination of choice for counterfeit goods.

It's a growing problem that is only getting worse as technology makes it easier to copy and quickly distribute video.

A wide range of small businesses are threatened if the big studios are forced to make fewer films due to piracy. First you have all the small independent contractors involved in making a film. And as the Small Business Survival Council points out, there are all the small businesses involved in distributing that film and getting it into the hands of consumers. "Retail stores, theaters, independent artists, and countless other firms serving these industries and their employees all get hit."


Increasingly we see the trend in many industries toward an ecosystem of small businesses that depend on large businesses, and vice versa. Each supports the other's existence. So when something threatens the large players in an industry, often under the surface is a network of small businesses who are also threatened. That's the case with the film industry and piracy.
More news... more trends... more insight...

Home | Privacy | Terms | SmallBizTrends
(c) Copyright 2003 - 2005, Small Business Trends LLC. All rights reserved.