The Holdback Policy as a Counter-Attack Method Against Piracy

To counter-attack against piracy, the movie industry is continuously developing new technologies for the protection of intellectual properties, only to find them instantly useless especially in the digital age. This study shifts the focus from technology to customer behavior, and analyzes customer behaviors vis-à-vis piracy using economic models. The theoretical model of optimal holdback strategy under the threat of piracy was derived and the result shows that holdback can be used as a tool not only for hedging the loss due to piracy, but also for reducing piracy. Based on the theoretical model, we suggested proper holdback strategy for each type of movie piracy.