Culture & Religion — April 7, 2010

The Pirate Way

“Contrary to expectations and lamentations, widespread piracy does not kill commercial filmmaking,” writes Kevin Kelly. “Existence proof: the largest movie industries on the planet.”

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Kevin Kelly went to China to find out how local film industries survive in places where everything seems to be pirated. But as he studied China (and India, and Nigeria), he discovered that piracy of local films was not as rampant as that of imported Hollywood fare. “Contrary to expectations and lamentations, widespread piracy does not kill commercial filmmaking,” writes Kelly. “Existence proof: the largest movie industries on the planet. What they are doing today, we’ll be doing tomorrow. Those far-away lands that ignore copy-right laws are rehearsing our future.”

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