This is why Australians pirate movies

DVD Quality copies of films such as *Spotlight* are already availible on torrenting websites.

It is awards season in the United States. The Golden Globes have been and gone and all the hype is now on the Oscars (if anyone actually attends). Yet some movies expected to win big at this years awards have only been released in Australian cinemas these past few days, if at all yet.

Spotlight, a film about journalists uncovering child sexual abuse in the cathloic church and a film I am very keen to see, is yet to be released in Australian cinemas, though it was released in US cinemas on November 6 2015. It is set to be released here January 28 2016, almost three months after the US release.

Though why should I wait for the cinema release (which would cost me $12) when I can download a DVD quality copy of the film for free off torrenting websites and watch it as many times as I want? Other films such as Room, The Danish Girl and Suffragette are also available illegally.

This generally happens every year around the time of the Oscars. Films that are sent to the Academy ‘for consideration’ leak online and they usually have not been released yet in international markets like Australia. It poses the question, if film studios know this is going to happen, why do they hold back release dates of films?

The X-Files reboot will not air on Australian TV until a week after the US.

It is not just movies that Australians have to wait for. Despite the introduction of services like Netflix and Stan into the Australian market, as well as most television networks having their own catch-up systems, Network 10 are still choosing to hold back the new X-Files reboot (due out this weekend in the US) by a week.

What!? That is absurd. Why would they hold back what will probably be one of the biggest TV shows of 2016 by a week? When 32 per-cent of all Game of Thrones viewers in Australia illegally download the program, for a free-to-air network like Network 10 to hold back the X-Files by a week, I’d say they should be worried about the ad revenue they would be losing.

If movie studios and TV studios do not want us to pirate their content, why not make it availible at the same time? It is just common sense. Until then you will still have the X Files fans, Game of Thrones fans, movie buffs, etc, downloading illegally. I want to be able to watch content legally, not to be spoiled by posts on Facebook, or Twitter, or Tumblr, but it is not easy to avoid them without watching content illegally.

Come on international corporations (and local broadcasters) releasing content in Australia, get your act together!