Concerning media piracy.

I read an article on CNN today about the leak of the recent Xmen movie before it was even in theaters. It was a real sad story, about how an industry with over a 10 BILLION dollar surplus was going to lose box office sales because some tech theifs manage to steal their movie and release it on the web.

It is true, I speak with an element of sarcasm in that last paragraph. The reason is because I do not feel bad for Hollywood and in general I do not feel bad for people getting their digital property stolen.

Call me a renegade, but the fact is times have changed. If people ask me why I pirate a song, the simple truth is because to me, the value of music in monetary terms is not what it used to be. In fact it is incredibly low, next to nothing. The thing about it is, music used to be records, tapes, cds. Physical objects that one had tangible ownership to them. Plus there was validity in the idea of having a physical, viewable collection of tunes.

Then came the Mp3 file and everything changed. Music was no longer a physical object, it was a tiny section of memory on a computers hard drive. At that moment, music would never be the same again especially in price. Yet the artists didn't lower the price for awhile after the release of music trading sites. Even now music is still overpriced.

I relate it to the PC itself. Back in the day a personal computer was a big deal. It was hard not to spend like 1000.00 on a machine, that in today's standards was absolute basic. Now you can get a PC to do the same thing, for like 450.00 Why? Because the technology behind making computers changed, they were easier to produce and their value (for the most part) fell in place for what they are actually worth.

Music and movies have never done that.

What I said about mp3s can also be applied to AVI/MPG files. In my mind, they decreased the real value of movies. And what have the movie theaters done? The JACKED up their prices even more. I'm now required to view a movie in theaters for the absolute asinine price of 9.00. That is a complete ripoff, for something that (given services like netflix) I can watch at home on my PC for a fair price.

I understand the value in going to the theaters for the screens and concessions, the whole "experience of it" But come on... 9 bucks is stupid.

The industry needs to realize that times and monetary value of movies/music has changed. Unfortunately the thought of them losing even a tiny bit of their plush empire keeps the prices way to high.

So, people will keep pirating, and I will keep supporting that.




Sam

-Internet Revolutionary Soldier ;-)