Quote Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime View Post
The other thing is deception. Counterfeits by their very nature attempt to deceive consumers into believing that they're the legitimate product. This doesn't happen w/ the kind of downloading that we're talking about.
I do have to call bullshit on this statement. There are a tonne of places that use these encodes and pirated copies as the basis of pirate DVDs. If you go to Bali (and yes, an Australian traveller won't be fooled), you'll see every film up for an academy award on sale for $2, with the better transfers being from pirated downloads, same with recent tv shows.

As someone who has been a production manager on an independent film that was pirated, and who took a deferred payment, I'm going to ask... are those pirates going to buy a copy of the film so that the film goes into profit and I get paid the $4,000 I'm owed?

No, they are not.

Now, I'm not deceiving myself into thinking I was ever going to get paid on that film - I knew it wouldn't make enough profit, etc (even though you can buy it at JB Hi-Fi and Amazon.com) but the reality is what it is. Don't deceive yourself that you're not part of a billion dollar problem.

That being said, I may or may not shop at the torrent store. But I do accept what I am doing and that there are consequences of it, regardless of how they affect me in little or no manner.