Another thread for talking about the morality of downloading films

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now that most people have Netflix where they pay a flat rate every month for basically an unlimited amount of movies, i don't see how downloading films can really be seen as 'stealing'. whether or not i download films, i'm still paying the exact same amount of money out every month for watching films that i otherwise would have.

what i'm trying to say is i don't download films to save money. i'm still paying every month the exact same amount i would have. i download films for two main reasons: 1-so that i can maximize my viewing pleasure, and 2-because a lot of what i want to watch is not available on Netflix.



there's a frog in my snake oil
This seemed like the most recent thread on this topic...

'Miramax CEO: our biggest threat is online distribution monopolies, not piracy'

Netflix CEO Mike Lang, speaking a the MIPCOM conference, discussed the problems facing his industry and suggested that while piracy isn't a big deal, chokepoints in the distribution chain were, because when there isn't enough diversity in distribution, you get intermediaries that end up totally controlling your business...
Some paraphrasing going on here, so I'm not sure what his actual quotes on piracy are. The cited site brings up an 'untrusted' warning for me so I've not gone trawling (and the vid is mammoth). Possibly some kind of cyberwar started by Warner
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Movie Forums Stage-Hand
I mostly agree, but you can definitely make a bit of a case the other way. Specifically, that while the film you steal by sitting in the theater is one instance of theft, it doesn't enable anyone else to follow you, while downloading often does (if you're re-seeding a torrent with what you download, for example).



I'm more for the cinema experience. Although I have to say there were times when I was seriously mislead by trailers and I would had rather downloaded the damn thing to see at least the first 30 minutes, so I won't make a trip to the cinema and get really bored or ashamed someone known could spot me seeing that movie.



or ashamed someone known could spot me seeing that movie.
Why care what other people think? if you end up not liking the film, tell the person who spots you. If you ended up liking the film and everyone else hates it, would you be embarrassed to own up to enjoying it?



Sit Ubu Sit.... Good Dog
Here's a question: I just recently on another thread remembered a movie that I saw a long time ago, the only way to get it is to pay close to 50 dollars for a used VHS copy because the movie has never been released on DVD and it's not a old movie or anything like that, is it morally okay to download this movie, which by the way I can't even find it to download it so this is all just hypothetical.
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Morally, it's the same as if it was a new release you couldn't be bothered to wait for/see at cinema/whatever, but morally I don't have a problem with people d/ling and even less so when it's in the situation you've described.



If the creator(s) of that film aren't twits, they would want you to see it. It sucks for them and you there is no distribution for it at the moment but that cannot stop one from viewing it. I can't buy Svidd Neger because no Region 1/0 exists, doesn't mean I'm not gonna download it as opposed to buying a new dvd player as well as expensive shipping.



Not true HK, not true. There's a few players that can be made to "fool themselves" into playing anything but those players still won't play a PAL formatted disc if they are from a NTSC region. They can't handle the frame rate adjustment.

Region free players are just as cheap as regular players and a must have for hardcore movie fans that like to put everything onto a disc like I do.
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Wow what a bummer for you US film fans. I've hacked five UK bought dvd players to region 0 now, and they play everything. Slight drop in frame rate from NTSC to PAL, but the difference is negligible to the casual viewer. You really do have it good in the US for dvd availability. Here in the UK we either get budget priced dvd's with crap transfers, mid-priced dvd's with no extras, or extortionately priced special edition dvd's.



Is that right? How funny, so a player in England can play NTSC discs but not the other way around? I guess that makes sense because the PAL frame rate is a bit faster so maybe its easier to get a PAL player to slow down but not so much for an NTSC player to speed up. I know there's going to be guys that come in here and say they've gotten theirs to play PAL discs and that may be true but I bet there won't be a lot of them.

6 of one and a half dozen of the other is true though UF, as yeah, we have DVD's coming out of our eyes here.



now that most people have Netflix where they pay a flat rate every month for basically an unlimited amount of movies, i don't see how downloading films can really be seen as 'stealing'. whether or not i download films, i'm still paying the exact same amount of money out every month for watching films that i otherwise would have.

what i'm trying to say is i don't download films to save money. i'm still paying every month the exact same amount i would have. i download films for two main reasons: 1-so that i can maximize my viewing pleasure, and 2-because a lot of what i want to watch is not available on Netflix.
That's a good point. Netflix selection of streamable movies is rather limited and their ques for newest releases are enoromous and too lon a wait. Also, they have a relatively small sample of Asian movies.
Have you ever tried Cinflix? They are out of Denver and specialize in Korean and Chinese movies.



As long as ridiculous things like "regions" for DVDs exist, people should have the right download all the movies they please.



i wouldn't use internet without piracy really



Is that right? How funny, so a player in England can play NTSC discs but not the other way around? I guess that makes sense because the PAL frame rate is a bit faster so maybe its easier to get a PAL player to slow down but not so much for an NTSC player to speed up. I know there's going to be guys that come in here and say they've gotten theirs to play PAL discs and that may be true but I bet there won't be a lot of them.
A lot of dvd players can be hacked in the UK especially now, it was harder to get one when they first came out though. I've had two dvd players over time and both could play any dvd region, and now I have a blu-ray player and it plays any region dvd and any region blu-ray disc which is excellent because a lot of blu-rays from America are cheaper than here or not avaliable on blu-ray here but out in America(Natural Born Killers: Unrated Director's Cut for example, it's only avaliable on DVD here)

You really do have it good in the US for dvd availability. Here in the UK we either get budget priced dvd's with crap transfers, mid-priced dvd's with no extras, or extortionately priced special edition dvd's.
If you have multi region player, this isn't a problem. Don't know where you are shopping but special edition dvds are not extortionately priced last time I looked. It's blu-rays that are 'extortionately priced' if you shop offline, HMV are disgusting for it.



If you have multi region player, this isn't a problem. Don't know where you are shopping but special edition dvds are not extortionately priced last time I looked. It's blu-rays that are 'extortionately priced' if you shop offline, HMV are disgusting for it.

I'm refering to older cult movies and expensive UK labels like Arrow Cult Labs, Salvation/Redemtion, Network, Shameless (new releases), and Odeon Entertainment. These labels are not cheap, and by that I mean a tenner plus on Amazon for newer remastered special editions.

Often budget editions (labels like Prism, The Roger Corman Collection, Film 2000, Boulevard Entertainment etc etc) of lesser know cult flicks are available in the UK but have awful unmastered pan and scan transfers - not to mention BBFC cuts i.e. they were released on dvd either before the BBFC waived cuts on the film, or they're derived from a pre-cut MPAA transfer.

I don't think we watch the same kind of movies for the most part so you probably haven't experienced the same problem- at least not as often. As an avid collector of cult cinema I naturally have multi-region equipped dvd players.