If Piracy Is Killing Filmmaking, Why Do Nigeria, China And India Have Thriving Movie Businesses?
We keep hearing from Hollywood folks that “piracy” is killing the movie business, yet there seems to be little evidence of that. The number of films being made each year continues to grow, and the box office keeps setting attendance and revenue records. But what if unauthorized copies were even more rampant? Kevin Kelly noticed that three countries that are normally considered “hotbeds” of unauthorized copies all seemed to house the largest movie industries: The three largest film industries in the world are India, Nigeria and China. Nigeria cranks out some 2,000 films a year (Nollywood), India produces about 1,000 a year (Bollywood) and China less than 500. Together they produce four times as many films per year as Hollywood. Yet each of these countries is a haven, even a synonym, for rampant piracy. How do post-copyright economics work? How do you keep producing more movies than Hollywood with no copyright protection for your efforts? This question was pertinent because the rampant p
