IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/telpol/v28yi7-8p619-644.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An analysis of security vulnerabilities in the movie production and distribution process

Author

Listed:
  • Byers, Simon
  • Cranor, Lorrie Faith
  • Cronin, Eric
  • Korman, Dave
  • McDaniel, Patrick

Abstract

Unauthorized copying of movies is a major concern for the motion picture industry. While unauthorized copies of movies have been distributed via portable physical media for some time, low-cost, high-bandwidth Internet connections and peer-to-peer file sharing networks provide highly efficient distribution media. Many movies are showing up on file sharing networks shortly after, and in some cases prior to, theatrical release. It has been argued that the availability of unauthorized copies directly affects theater attendance and DVD sales, and hence represents a major financial threat to the movie industry. This research attempts to determine the source of unauthorized copies by studying the availability and characteristics of recent popular movies in file sharing networks. A data set of 312 popular movies was developed and one or more samples of 183 of these movies was located on file sharing networks, for a total of 285 movie samples. Seventy-seven percent of these samples appear to have been leaked by industry insiders. Most of the samples appeared on file sharing networks prior to their official consumer DVD release date. Indeed, of the movies that had been released on DVD as of the time of this study, only 5% first appeared after their DVD release date on a web site that indexes file sharing networks, indicating that consumer DVD copying currently represents a relatively minor factor compared with insider leaks. A brief analysis of the movie production and distribution process was performed and potential security vulnerabilities were identified that may lead to unauthorized copies becoming available to those who may wish to redistribute them. Finally, recommendations are offered for reducing security vulnerabilities in the movie production and distribution process.

Suggested Citation

  • Byers, Simon & Cranor, Lorrie Faith & Cronin, Eric & Korman, Dave & McDaniel, Patrick, 0. "An analysis of security vulnerabilities in the movie production and distribution process," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(7-8), pages 619-644, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:telpol:v:28:y::i:7-8:p:619-644
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030859610400059X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Domenico Sardanelli & Agostino Vollero & Alfonso Siano & Gianmaria Bottoni, 2019. "Lowering the pirate flag: a TPB study of the factors influencing the intention to pay for movie streaming services," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 549-574, September.
    2. Gordon H. Hanson & Chong Xiang, 2009. "International Trade in Motion Picture Services," NBER Chapters, in: International Trade in Services and Intangibles in the Era of Globalization, pages 203-222, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. David Waterman & Sung Ji & Laura Rochet, 2007. "Enforcement and Control of Piracy, Copying, and Sharing in the Movie Industry," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 30(4), pages 255-289, June.
    4. Schmidt, Andreas U., 2006. "Multi-level markets and incentives for information goods," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 125-138, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:telpol:v:28:y::i:7-8:p:619-644. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/30471/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.