http://www.cnbc.com/id/35189365

Sony Pictures Entertainment is feeling the pinch of online piracy and the decline of DVD sales. The movie studio announced on Monday that it will lay off 450 employees, or 6.5 percent of its workforce, and also plans to close 100 open positions. It will start handing out pink slips in March.

The layoffs are in addition to an earlier round of cuts last year of 250 people and 100 open spots, bringing the studio's workforce down to about 6300 from about 7000 before the financial crisis.

These job cuts are not attributed to the economic downturn, but to the movie's new economic model -- a less profitable one.

What does it all mean? Sony is suffering from the same issue which has pressured the entire movie industry: piracy. DVD sales, which gave the movie industry an unprecedented boost over the past decade, are suffering double-digit declines. Marketing costs are soaring. Social media is powerful, which means word travels incredibly fast, and even the best advertising campaign can yield a flop

Well it sucks, DVDs are a declining market, and even with Blu-ray doing well its not enough.

physical media is slowly dying .you like it or not. gamestop is next

this is exctly why i DESPISE piracy, i know pirates are not totally to blame, but its different when your the one being layed off, all because some jerk off cant get off his lazy ass and buy a ten dollar dvd >_>

I think it's got a lot more to do with the changing market and the move to online distribution and Sony's own Blu-Ray. People recorded the hell out of VHS and casette tapes and burned the crap out of CD's and DVD's for a long time and they all did just fine during that time. 

but everybody has acces to an internet connection now,  even in third world countries. that didnt happened 6 years ago. you dont need to buy a dvd anymore.

Yeah, and a lot of people are using that internet to buy and rent digital copies of movies. A lot of people also have digital TV, which they're using to watch movies on demand.

I'm not saying there isn't piracy and it isn't a problem. I'm just saying that the model is shifting. Digital cable movie on demand, itunes and other movie download stores, netflix and even blu-ray are all very succesful and growing markets. And all of those take away directly from DVD.

Movies just aren't that interesting to buy. Rent them and be done with them.