Monday, April 14, 2008

Film piracy

1 comment:

Jenna said...

I don't see what the big deal is. Obviously it's unethical to pirate music but pirating films is fine.
-Jacob :)

I think part of the problem with film piracy is movie theaters. If a recording artist releases an album, the consumer has a few choices: buy the actual CD (or vinyl), purchase the album (or a few of the songs) online, or pirate the album through services like LimeWire or p2p. When a new movie comes out, there are only two choices: go see it in theaters or get a bootlegged copy that you can watch at home (either for some kind of fee or for free).

In today's world, having to go to a movie theater in order to see a new film (legally) is extremely inconvenient for people who are used to having the world at their fingertips. When you go to the movies, you are not in complete control of where you see the movie, when you see it, how much you have to pay (and tickets have gotten extremely expensive in recent years), who you are seeing it with, the temperature of the theater, or how much you have to pay for refreshments. You can't even pause the movie if you need to go to the bathroom or buy another drink. This may have been acceptable for people in the past, who did not grow up with videotapes and DVDs, but a trip to the movie theater today tends to be an expensive hassle that often leaves the viewer unsatisfied (at least in my experience).

In many ways, the movie industry (like the music industry) is trying to hold on to a practice that is quickly becoming obsolete. I think if the movie industry embraced new technology and released movies on DVD rather than in theaters (or even in addition to the theatrical release?) much of the incentive to pirate films would be destroyed (I would much rather pay up for the professional DVD).