Major Hollywood studios are panicking as video piracy is once again on the rise, with the industry’s main lobbying organization demanding that Congress take action against piracy sites that are eating into studio profits at an ever-increasing rate.
At CinemaCon in Las Vegas this week, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) announced it will redouble its efforts to get lawmakers to crack down on the sites in question by pushing for what it called “judicial site-blocking legislation,” which is intended “to disrupt the connection between digital pirates and their intended audience.”
“This problem isn’t new. But piracy operations have only grown more nimble, more advanced, and more elusive,” MPA head Charles Rivkin said during his address. “These enterprises are engaged in insidious forms of theft, breaking laws each time they steal and share protected content.”
He said digital piracy costs the industry more than $1 billion at the box office in an average year.
Though he didn’t say it, the rise in piracy is coinciding with streaming inflation.
Prices for services like Disney+ and Netflix are skyrocketing as overall inflation spurred by the Biden administration continues to hammer households. Many streamers are also jacking up prices to push more consumers to their less expensive ad-supported options, which feature commercial interruptions and are therefore more profitable.
As Breitbart News reported, Disney fans recently saw prices for Disney+ skyrocket by as much as 75 percent in just two years’ time.
Other services that have jacked up prices include Paramount+, Amazon Prime Video, and Netflix.
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