Downloading Movies

I do. I haven't been to the video store in yonks, I have the best one right at home...God bless who ever invented it, otherwise I would have been deprived of innumerous incredible films...

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I don't.

I think if someone really needs to see a movie so badly that they'd steal it to see it, then they can probably scratch up 4 bucks to rent it.

I have maybe a different perspective on it though as I am in software and write code for a living. I'd be pretty bothered by it if someone grabbed my code and exploited it for their own purposes without my permission. Downloading movies/software etc is stealing intellectual property no matter what the excuse is for doing it.

By the by, you know WHY this stuff is getting more expensive? It's because people who are illegally downloading watching/listening are not purchasing the end product so it only stands to reason that as the pool of buyers becomes smaller each individual will have to pay more. It shouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out.

And for an "in depth" discussion on the morality of the thing, clickety click.

I shoulda just said no and shut up here is what you're telling me, right

It depends. I have a friend who works in a cinema so I can go and see all the latest movies for free . But sometimes there are films that are not in cinemas anymore and I don't know if there are going to be great so they may be not worth buying so I download them first.
I mean I wasn't expecting much from 'Manic' so I downloaded it and I loved it so I went to dvd store and bought it because I wanted to have it in my collection.

On the other hands, I own around 500 original dvds. These are films that I love and I want to have them in my collection. The ones that I want to see special features for and stuff.

I do download films, which actually contributes to me buying more films then I normally would. If I download a film and watch it and like it, I am much more apt to end up buying it. I rarely if ever rent films, even prior to when I started downloading films, so I end up spending more money on films now, because of downloading, then I did before. Is it still illegal and immoral, yeah, but when one is a college student and a private school (read expensive as hell) or just graduated from one (read paying off debts) I don't have money to spend on all the movies that I would probably get if I had the money that I am currently downloading, but because I am downloading I do buy more films because I know which of the ones that I would have been potentially interested in getting that I actually want to get. Because $4 is a lot for someone who is poor (read trying to pay off loans as quickly as possible).

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"As I was walking up the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today,
I wish, I wish he'd go away."
-From Identity

I understand the money aspect as I've said, but I still stand by what I also said and that is that I believe that most people who download don't buy the film/music later, particularly if they don't like it. That absolutely cuts into the revenue of the company who made the film, which in turn makes guys like me, who don't illegally download anything end up paying more.

In the old days, (mine), if someone couldn't shell out the dough to see a film then they just went without seeing it until they could afford to rent it or buy it. You are putting your 'need' to be entertained by something above other's needs to make a living by producing it which is selfish and wrong (read feeding their families).

But I am probably one of the few odd people who would never actually end up seeing a film. No matter how long after the fact and how much extra money I ended up getting there are some movies, a lot of movies in fact, that I would never end up seeing or buying because of downloading, so therefore I am actually putting more money into the pool, so to speak, but I do agree with you that most people who download films generally don't follow this system, they look more at it as a way to get a movie for free instead of paying to see it.

I'm with the great and powerful Toose on this one... I'm in the camp of not downloading illegal copies. However, there are movies, especially older ones, that are available to download for free, legally. Someone posted a link to a site for this on the forum a little while back, but I'm not sure where it was. If I find it I'll repost it here...

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You might be surprised to see who posted that

I do download films but buy more on DVD anyway. I feel cinema should be done for art not money, if a filmmaker is directing a film to make money it has no artistic integrity and is just exploiting the audience paying to see it anyway and a great film made outside of studios with limited distribution will probably be way expensive on DVD but if one person downloaded and saw it word of mouth would probably equal the films marketing, also i'd assume the director made the film to be watched thus happy if anyone sees his film at all.

Obviously there is a vicious circle but if Transformers wasn't made, could the money not have instead been used to cure Third World debt etc or something useful to society (just to put the odd person not paying to see a massive film into a context).

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I read that the majority of people who download movies and music are more likely to go out and buy the finished product or atleast that goes for the morons who only download like one song per album

I'm kinda anal about wanting to own and physically hold and stroke a movie that I've been thinking of buying...

That's not to say I'm not gonna resort to shiver-me-timbers-arrr-Jim-Lad type action if needs must. I don't do it very often, though, and the reason for that is contained in my first sentence.

Let he who has never taped a film off the telly and lent it to a friend cast the first stone!

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

Yup i love downloading movies. I use torrent

" Let he who has never taped a film off the telly and lent it to a friend cast the first stone! "
========AGREE AGREE
Don't be hypocrites guys! :P

I personally do make a distinction between those that have, on occasion, taped something that was on TV, and those that purposely use a program on their PC to search for and download whatever they want, whenever they want, and build up a library of illegally downloaded material, that they then, with the help of that same program, allow anyone else who happens along to then copy it from them.
Those are the ones that are most often the type that try desperately to defend their illegal downloading with rhetoric, trying to show how its somehow "not so bad", or since they think it should be legal, then it really is OK for them to do it - I have honestly heard people say that.

As a side note, I've wondered what the ratio was of people who do illegal downloading of movies/music is to how many of them think using someone else's unencrypted wireless network without permission is perfectly OK... but that is a totally different topic.


I don't consider myself to be "casting the first stone" on this, but I also haven't even (physically) taped anything on TV in probably 8 or more years. Even when I did, it wasn't intended for me to then make copies and copies of, for me to then go out to a street corner and give to anyone who happens to want it - which is what I would consider the equivalent of people downloading illegally today with the peer to peer network setups. I do currently own a DVR, but once I am done watching whatever I recorded, I delete it.

Actually, this is now legal. Heard of TiVo? DVR? Cable companies provide you with a way to record programs on television these days, and it is clearly legal to do so. Charter even offers a "Record to VCR" on their DVR service, allowing you to archive copies of your films and television shows.

As Memnon pointed out above, there is a vast difference in the two methods of obtaining content.

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Is there also not a vast difference between the first and second halves of my sentence?

There's nowt wrong with recording something from the telly for your own viewing pleasure, heck I've got 80gigs unwatched on my PVR but is it legal in your country allow you to share those recordings in other people's homes?



I remember that campaign from when I was a kid... Didn't pay any heed, mind.

In short, no.

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