Monday, June 6, 2011

How the entertainment industry encourages piracy

I have always been respectful of rules and regulations. I respect the artists, and I am glad to provide them with a compensation for their work.

I buy movie DVDs, and music CDs.

And then I get angry.



More and more times it happens that, inserting a brand new DVD in the player, I am given a nasty advertising against illegal copies, warning me that piracy is a crime.

Why me? I am the one who bought this bloody DVD, am I not? So why are you inflicting this punishment on me, with this stupid advertising that my player can't skip?

I know why. Because you can't inflict that on the ones who are actually doing the illegal copying. And what's more annoying is the thought that the illegal copies don't have this advertising.

I, the one who have paid good money for this movie, can't watch the movie the way I want it. And you know what I need to do to watch the movie again without the additional pain? Why, rip it, of course! Once I convert the legal copy into an illegal one, I can do whatever I want with the movie.

Some other things that drive me mad? Go to a movie theater, pay 8 EUR, and you have to endure 25 solid minutes of advertising. Hey! The movie theater was supposed to be for the movies. Ads are for TV! No way. Nobody is listening. And the illegal copies are ads free ...

And then there is the prices. I bought DVDs ten years ago. They cost 15,000 lire, or about 7.5 EUR. That was in the period when few people had DVD players, so I suppose that they would sell much less than what they sell today. And what's the price today? Regular price is 16 EUR, for a movie just out of the theaters schedule. The top performers at the box office cost even 25 EUR. WTF?

It's really hard to stay honest. Piracy seems very appealing, and it's the entertaining industry that is pushing me in that direction.

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