At least the people who spent time and money producing the movies actually got some money out of it, from the rentals.
We all know that people would tape shows or copy Video Tapes/DVDs from other people or from rental places, but those were a fraction of the copies being made now... so at least before internet piracy, 1 or 2 copies were made from purchased copies, so more money per duplicate was going to the people who own the material. Now, there are thousands and millions of copies being made and shared from a purchased copy (and from hacked copies), meaning the owners get one sale per thousand-plus viewers instead of one sale per 2-3 viewers.
And that level of individual copying (and limited mass copying & sale of physical copies) is something that they don't care as much about because it involves a LOT more legal purchases per copy than digital downloads do. It's a bit like shoplifting - stores know that they will never completely stop it without spending more money than they'd save, so they take measures to prevent wholesale stealing by everyone, and then just factor in the small amount of losses into their prices.
After working with a number of people over the years who have been notorious free-loaders among their friends and relatives, I've never been a fan of free-loading. If there are options available to pay for something, I believe people should earn what they get... not get something as a handout or by actively avoiding to pay for it. That's like getting a $20 toy from a store for $1 by sticking a different barcode over, just because you think the big, nasty, soulless corporation makes too much money. But two wrongs don't make it right to justify it. We can survive without material possessions, so there is never a justification to avoid paying for something you don't need for your own survival.
I personally spend many many hours AND dollars running this site, so when I see people using it's resources for free without contributing anything in return (like interaction, info or sightings), it bugs me... but it would bug me more if this was a website that I was earning my living from, through subscription or advertising. It's the same with these music and TV/Movie producers, in that there are thousands of people behind the scenes involved in each project that are earning a living from it (just look at the list of credits at the end of a movie), but they only have a job if people pay for it. If too many people don't pay for it, then there are a lot of people on the production side that are out of a job, and since there is no face to the consequences to digital theft, people would rather focus on an associated mega-corporation that is tied to the project.
As a story writer, if I eventually have books published and people were downloading them without paying for it, I'd do the same as the "Dallas Buyers Club" movie producers... in that I'd be pursuing those people who are reading my books from unauthorised sources. And if the internet service providers have records of those people because they were the middle-men, it would be no different than asking the internet service providers to list who has been interacting on a paedophilia site.
/end rant.
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Originally Posted by theshape
