Pirates are not their competitor. Nabisco is. General Mills is. Kraft is. Movies companies don’t understand that most American households are on a budget, hence the popularity of cd/dvd buy-back shops.

On a different note, a question:
Say for example, you were on trial for downloading an ‘illegally distributed’ movie to your pc. Couldn’t it be argued that it is not illegal since the copy in your possession [and the torrent you got it from] had no FBI or Copyright Warning?

While the entertainment industries push for harsher copyright laws, public opinion steers in the opposite direction. Two recent studies from Canada and Spain found that half of the Internet users use p2p networks to download music, software and films. …

And for the children that will immediately suppose I’m on the side of the **AA, the truth is that I’m actually amongst the 45% referred to in the article. I leave it to your fevered imaginations as to which article I mean.

There is no “right to recoup your investment”, although Citigroup, AIG, and the people who dealt with Lehman Brothers appear to think otherwise.

Being an artist has rarely been profitable, throughout history. Deal with it.

Um, yeah. What the paid place, if *PERFECT*, would provide is *authentication* and *quality*. Like, “This is made from the original master tape, as broadcast, by the original producers, with no cuts, in a high-definition copy”. You can’t get that kind of authentication from *most* third-party sources.

The pathetic thing is that the MPAA/RIAA companies have been offering damaged, cut, mangled copies, and the so-called “pirates” are the only place to get good-quality, authenticated copies. However, in those cases you have to track down the dedicated fans who have made the effort to authenticate — and for many things there are no such fans.

Madness……”
——————-

LOL!

my thoughts exactly.

they should do another study and ask fat people if they enjoy cookies and cake. i’m sure the results will be just as riveting.

I feel like if I pay to see a movie and it sucked I would be encouraging the making of crappy movies. So if I download it and watch it and am like “wow that sucked” well at least I didn’t give the people who made a crappy movie money in their pockets for total crap. If the movie is amazing I will go out and buy it on blu-ray.

Same with music. 30 second clips isn’t enough to tell if the song’s good. I’d download the album give it a once through and if it’s good I’ll either buy it in stores or off iTunes. But who wants to buy a cd then have it suck? And nothing beats having the actual CD at 100% quality. so the download isn’t the greatest thing ever anyways. Rarely do I get downloads of music that are 100% copies b/c ppl aren’t smart enough to do it.

And free trials on software aren’t good enough to tell if it’s a good program. What’s the point of a trial version of video converter if it only lets you convert 2 minutes of a video? It’s total crap. I’ve had real video converters that work good unless it’s a 2 hour movie then the video/audio would be way off. If it’s a 2 minute clip you don’t notice this. So I’d download this software see how it works and if it works good I’ll go out and buy it.

Pretty much I use downloading stuff off p2p sites as a buffer of crap. I don’t want to buy something and have it turn out to suck and I’m out money. If I download something that’s really good eventually I’ll go out and buy the product. So why should I get in trouble for making sure I don’t get ripped off? I shouldn’t

And they will never stop p2p sharing. There are way too many smart people out there who will figure out a new way to do stuff. People will always share things free online so stop trying to stop it b/c you make it almost more fun. It’s like speeding, if it wasn’t illegal ppl probably wouldn’t drive way too fast b/c there’s no thrill in following laws.

From the beginning of software people wanted it to be free. Bill Gates was outraged when people wanted him to share his operating systems for free. So back when computers were first starting to be mainstream people wanted free stuff. Computers and free stuff go hand in hand. I understand the companies need the money so they can pay the people who make the products. But too many people actually buy stuff for it to really effect anyone.

and for the record, the internet is by NO means “new” technology. it’s been out for a LONG ass time, and was originally used by the military, but didn’t really come into mainstream usage until the 90’s, when aol was the big dog on campus, and dial-up was the best thing going. how about before you go and say something that stupid, then PLEASE do your homework. i personally don’t care if your job is with a multi-national corporation that has interests in film and music. that doesn’t mean you know ANYTHING when it comes to the fact and truth that the more that corporations try to crack down on piracy, the more it’s going to flourish. what the mpaa and riaa do not realize is that they might as well give up on their old as hell business model, and they SERIOUSLY need to overhaul their ways of doing things. i think the phrase “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” comes perfectly into play right about now.