Voltage Pictures Vs Australian Downloaders: A Landmark Essay In Film Industry.

The Power of Film Production Houses to Curb Piracy

Discuss about the Legal Battle between Stakeholders for Dallas Buyers.

Films are products of the film industries and makers of the films have to sue complex distribution channels spread all over the world. The film clusters like Hollywood by selling films like Dallas Buyers Club earn immense revenue. The production houses have to acquire the intellectual property rights of the films which are worth billions of dollars. These IPRs give them exclusive rights to distribute the films in the market which generates immense revenue. The film are often subjected to piracy rackets who download films and breach these IPRs. The company holding IPR and distribution rights of the film Dallas Buyers Club slapped legal cases on iiNet, the Australian internet service provider whose service was allegedly used to download the film illegally. The firm tried to impose financial claim on the downloaders. Justice Perram, the judge hearing the case in the Australian Court dismissed the claim of Voltage Pictures, the firm holding the rights to allow them to obtain details of the downloader. The court dismissed the claim on the ground that the firm used threat to intimidate the downloaders with legal cases which was illegal (abc.net.au, 2018). The firm failed to prove the strength of its claim before the Australian Court and thus lost the case to the downloaders.

The Voltage Pictures vs the Australian downloaders would be regarded as a land mark case due to several policy problems:

The most serious problem which the case gave rise to was the power of the producers making film to curb piracy. Voltage Pictures, the company owing the copyrights for the film Dallas Buyers Club filed a case against the internet service provider and illegal downloaders in Australia. It intimidated them with heavy compensation and legal action which the court dismissed as inappropriate. This factor perhaps acted on the side of the downloaders, who were the end customers. This case raised question on power of the production houses top protect their films from being downloaded illegally (news.com.au, 2018).

Voltage Pictures, the production company holding the rights of the films Dallas Buyers Club tried to coerce the illegal downloaders of the film with heavy legal cases. This action of the firm apparently responsible for turning the case against it. The court adjudged this coercive activity of Voltage Pictures as illegal and ‘inappropriate’. The firm could have gained advantageous position in the case had it not resorted to illegal ways of coercion (Hörisch, Freeman & Schaltegger, 2014).

Stakeholders in the Film Industry

The growing power of the end consumers was apparently the most remarkable lesson the case taught the producers of the film Dallas Buyers Club. The court ruled out the claim of the production house to acquire financial compensation from the consumers for downloading the film illegally. The downloaders were among the consumers who downloaded the film to watch. The ruling out of the court to take action against them clearly showed the growing power of the consumers (Mansell, 2015).

The outcome of the case clearly showed that the film makers required to be stricter while distributing their movies. The producers of the films should be more cautious while distributing their films. They should take appropriate actions to prevent piracy to ensure that they can distribute the films and generate revenue (Rothaermel, 2015).

The above discussed case perfectly exemplifies the outcome of confrontation of stakeholder groups. The first stakeholder which the case introduced was the firm holding the copyright of the film Dallas Buyers Club, Voltage Pictures. The company filed a case against another stakeholder, the downloaders who were end viewers of the film. The third stakeholder consisted of the court which dismissed the claim of the company against the downloaders. The case clearly that when two stakeholder groups confront, the outcome is devastating. Voltage Pictures did not only lose the case but also its market image before the competitor production houses (Liu, Liu & Mazumdar, 2014).

The case clearly showed that the viewers of films should exhibit and practice ethical behaviour while downloading films. They should abstain from downloading films illegally which causes financial losses to the production companies making them. Apparently, the consumers won the case against the production house but this would have long term impact on them as well. The production houses making the film would lose money due to piracy which would ultimately eat into its financial liquidity. The firm as a result would not be able to make high quality films that would the consumers in the end. Thus, the consumers should abstain from downloading pirated versions of films and enable the production houses to get their deserved profits (news.com.au, 2018).

As pointed out above, the stakeholders play very significant role in the operations and sustainability of the film industries.  They film industry engages a variety of stakeholders owing to its global expanse and turnover worth trillions of dollars. The stakeholders which impact the film industry are the firm producing the films, the actors, directors, the distributors, suppliers and consumers. For example, the stakeholders of Voltage Pictures, the production company owning the IPR of the film consist of internet service providers, the judicial systems, the internet users downloading the films and the distributors. The advancement of technology has made companies owing the digital platforms like Google and YouTube are important stakeholders. (Hörisch, Freeman & Schaltegger, 2014). The stakeholders of Voltage Pictures also include suppliers of the costumes, props, set buildings and all the firms which provides it with resources, both human resources and materials. Today, the producers releasing films in countries like the US face stiff competition from with their own industry (Hollywood in this case) and also other film industry. This competition necessitates them, to release their films worldwide. This brings the production companies under influences of government bodies like censor boards both of their home countries and in their host countries. This also brings them under influence of overseas distributors and counterparts of the stakeholders in their home countries (Mansell, 2015).

Impact of Stakeholder Groups on Film Production Companies

The stakeholders of production companies like Voltage Pictures can be divided into two categories namely, internal external stakeholders and external stakeholders. The apex management and employees of the company are the internal stakeholders. The interests of the apex management lies in the profit of the production house while the interests of the employees lies in high salary and professional growth. The first group of external stakeholders consist of internet service providers like iiNet which enable viewers to download films. Their interests lies in generating revenue from the downloaders by allowing them to surf the internet and stream movies (Liu, Liu & Mazumdar, 2014). The company owning the social media websites are important stakeholders of film production houses like Voltage Pictures. When downloaders download or view movies, they earn revenue. Moreover, they charge immense amount of money for allowing film producing companies promote their digital platforms for promoting and distributing movies. The media distributors also generate revenue by distributing movies worldwide and hence have profit interests in the operations of film production companies like Voltage Pictures. The judicial systems consists of censor boards which certify films including foreign films and regulate the film market. The courts help in resolving conflicts which arises between stakeholder groups like film production companies and internet service providers.

The stakeholder groups discussed above are important and are considered while making films. However, similar stakeholder groups in host countries with which the country of origin of the film has weak relationships are excluded. For example, in the given case, countries like the United Kingdom and India have strong ties with the USA, the home country of Hollywood. Hence, the stakeholders like distributors are included among the stakeholders of Hollywood films. Again, countries not having strong cultural ties or not being significant Hollywood markets are not considered important stakeholders (Hörisch, Freeman & Schaltegger, 2014).

The stakeholders exercise great powers on the operations of the film production companies like Voltage Pictures. The internal stakeholders, the apex management and the employees make and execute strategies respectively. Thus exercise great power because they actually control the operations of the film production company. The internet service providers and website owners enable the film producing companies distribute films and thus have power to control the revenue generation of the production companies. The media distributors too have similar power to control the revenue generation of the film production companies. The judicial systems exercise great power in settling of disputes between these stakeholders and thus occupy important place among stakeholders. The home government (the US in this case) and the host governments allow film production companies like Voltage Pictures sell their film in different countries to generate revenue. The end consumers to watch the films also have great powers. they are the end consumers who download films or watch them in the  theatres and generate revenue for all the stakeholders mentioned above except the judicial system and the governments. Thus, they exercise the ultimate power and decide the revenue generation film production companies earn by releasing films.

Conclusion:

The above discussion shows that stakeholders have very significant role in the film industry. The stakeholder groups like the governments and the viewers have impact the making of films. The producers should be very careful while operating in the market and making films. Wrong steps can lead them to lose their viewer or consumer loyalty. This can lead to loss worth millions. One can also point that consumers on their part should exercise loyalty towards the film makers and abstain from downloaded pirated films. The companies which offer digital platforms should ensure that their platforms are not exploited for movie piracy.

References:

Dallas Buyers Club pirates are off the hook, but for how long?. (2018). ABC News. Retrieved 26 April 2018, from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-12/dallas-buyers-club-case-abandoned-illegal-dowloads-pirate/7162180

Hörisch, J., Freeman, R. E., & Schaltegger, S. (2014). Applying stakeholder theory in sustainability management: Links, similarities, dissimilarities, and a conceptual framework. Organization & Environment, 27(4), 328-346.

Liu, A., Liu, Y., & Mazumdar, T. (2014). Star power in the eye of the beholder: A study of the influence of stars in the movie industry. Marketing Letters, 25(4), 385-396.

Mansell, S. (2015). Book Review: Rejoinder to Veldman’s review of Capitalism, Corporations and the Social Contract: A Critique of Stakeholder Theory (Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 271-275). Sage UK: London, England: Sage Publications.

Rothaermel, F. T. (2015). Strategic management. McGraw-Hill Education.

The pirates have officially won. (2018). NewsComAu. Retrieved 26 April 2018, from https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/piracy/dallas-buyers-club-war-with-iinet-downloaders-finally-comes-to-an-end/news-story/a51ba7091b090be07a559a3cab8ad7f1