Testing the Lost Sale Concept in the Context of Unauthorized BitTorrent Downloads of CAM Copies of Theatrical Releases

Abstract:     

This study investigated the concept of lost sales at the box office related to the unauthorized downloading of CAM copies of widely released movies at a popular BitTorrent website. The findings of this study are the first to support using behavioural (versus self-reported) data the commonly held notion that pirates at BitTorrent websites download copies of a number of movies that they would likely not have otherwise viewed in theatres, thereby representing downloads with a reduced probability of equating to lost ticket sales. It is important to note however that these findings do not imply that the unauthorized downloading of CAM movies has no important effects on the box office sales of individual movies, but serve to caution against the use of download statistics in calculations of losses to avoid overestimations.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 31

Keywords: file-sharing, piracy, unauthorized downloads, CAM, BitTorrent, lost sale, box office

JEL Classification: 034, L82, L86, L96

working papers series