Pirated Movies Are On TikTok, One Bite At a Time
The videos violate copyright laws but remain available, and studios are not too upset.
Social media is posing a new threat to copyright laws. The blockbuster Barbie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, is now available on streaming platforms. Before that, almost at the same time as the theatrical release, it made its appearance on TikTok.
Barbie is not the first movie to be fully available on the social network. Accounts on the platform post snippets of films and TV shows, which can be seamlessly watched as a full-length movie. The clips are cleverly titled “Part 1,” “Part 2,” and so on, keeping the movie (or TV series) title reference a secret. However, once viewers start watching, they can enjoy the entire movie, with each small part playing consecutively.
Hollywood lawyers and law professors agree that these accounts flagrantly violate copyright laws and infringe upon the intellectual property of movie and television studios.
However, the perplexing part is that these accounts seem to have no financial gain from sharing these clips, with no sponsored posts or paid promotions in sight.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, passed in 1998, protects internet companies from punishment if their users post copyright material on their networks. That leaves makers—movie studios, production companies, or individual creators—to monitor platforms and file claims when they spot their work. “So long as the platform acts expeditiously to remove infringing material once notified,” says Aaron Moss, a copyright lawyer at Greenberg Glusker in Los Angeles, “the platform will be protected,” TikTok says it prohibits content that violates intellectual property rights, and allows copyright holders to report violations.
On the other hand, these rogue posts could also benefit studios, as they give their content a new audience. “I don’t turn the TV on as much as I used to because everything is in the palm of my hand,” says JayCee Hughes, a 30-year-old engineer. Just like him, many Generation Zs prefer social media over TV. Peacock, owned by NBCUniversal, is among the streaming providers experimenting with building an audience on TikTok, uploading full episodes of Killing It and Love Island USA to the service. Once hooked, they hope the audience will go to the streaming service to continue to watch. “Piracy, I’m sure, will never go away,” says Jan van Voorn, chief of global content protection at the Motion Picture Association and head of the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment. “It will always need actions to keep it manageable.”
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Share:
Netflix Aims to Expand Presence in Gaming & Local Language Content
Italian Comedies Are Being Dubbed In English Using AIRelated Posts
The videos violate copyright laws but remain available, and studios are not too upset.
Social media is posing a new threat to copyright laws. The blockbuster Barbie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, is now available on streaming platforms. Before that, almost at the same time as the theatrical release, it made its appearance on TikTok.
Barbie is not the first movie to be fully available on the social network. Accounts on the platform post snippets of films and TV shows, which can be seamlessly watched as a full-length movie. The clips are cleverly titled “Part 1,” “Part 2,” and so on, keeping the movie (or TV series) title reference a secret. However, once viewers start watching, they can enjoy the entire movie, with each small part playing consecutively.
Hollywood lawyers and law professors agree that these accounts flagrantly violate copyright laws and infringe upon the intellectual property of movie and television studios.
However, the perplexing part is that these accounts seem to have no financial gain from sharing these clips, with no sponsored posts or paid promotions in sight.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, passed in 1998, protects internet companies from punishment if their users post copyright material on their networks. That leaves makers—movie studios, production companies, or individual creators—to monitor platforms and file claims when they spot their work. “So long as the platform acts expeditiously to remove infringing material once notified,” says Aaron Moss, a copyright lawyer at Greenberg Glusker in Los Angeles, “the platform will be protected,” TikTok says it prohibits content that violates intellectual property rights, and allows copyright holders to report violations.
On the other hand, these rogue posts could also benefit studios, as they give their content a new audience. “I don’t turn the TV on as much as I used to because everything is in the palm of my hand,” says JayCee Hughes, a 30-year-old engineer. Just like him, many Generation Zs prefer social media over TV. Peacock, owned by NBCUniversal, is among the streaming providers experimenting with building an audience on TikTok, uploading full episodes of Killing It and Love Island USA to the service. Once hooked, they hope the audience will go to the streaming service to continue to watch. “Piracy, I’m sure, will never go away,” says Jan van Voorn, chief of global content protection at the Motion Picture Association and head of the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment. “It will always need actions to keep it manageable.”
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Share:
Netflix Aims to Expand Presence in Gaming & Local Language ContentItalian Comedies Are Being Dubbed In English Using AI
