shouting loudly

Michael Moore profiting from P2P trading?

As if Sicko needed more publicity, Moore’s movie has sparked a debate about whether peer-to-peer trading has helped or hurt the film’s take.

CNet’s Greg Sandoval points out that the film was downloaded by tens of thousands of fans before its premiere but still pulled in an average of $10,204 per theater–second only to the weekend’s #1 movie, Ratatouille, with $11,987. (Sicko was 9th in total take but opened on far fewer theaters than any of the movies above it.)

P2P may help movies make bigger debuts by building buzz, Sandoval argues. EFF lawyer Fred von Lohmann highlights the industry’s record profits despite online trading. Yet industry types, including attorney Nancy Prager, think there is no benefit:

“No, no, no, no,” Prager seethed. “This is depressing. We’re not seeing a rise in the peer-to-peer influence market. Anything positive they may bring is instantly canceled. These guys aren’t just spreading their opinions. They’re spreading the actual movies.”

The best insight, though, is in this comment:

While the industry is quick to banter about definitive statistics about how badly they are hurt by piracy, when it comes to measuring the benefits the response is: “Nobody really knows and it can’t be measured”.

A bit of a double standard, no?

In addition to the promotion value, consider the value of market research data. The music industry in particular has a long and public track record of buying data from P2P measurement firm Big Champagne, and the movie studios are surely doing the same. This is very valuable data that is very expensive to create via traditional methods such as surveys but much more economically available via P2P surveillance.

But other than that, P2P is the greatest social crisis since the hobo rebellion of the 1940’s. (For more on the latter, listen to this interview. Right now.)