To let your offspring have access to pirated material?

[Tak3n]

On Friday I had a text from one of my friends saying how their kids teacher had come to school with a pirated copy of Avengers in for the kids to watch on the last day of term.. (they were 14 years old)

Which got me thinking; do you now think Piracy is so "the norm" that by not letting your kids see the films early etc etc that you are almost excluding them from school ground talk..

I know I have to put my hands up and say I always get my 4 year old the latest films for kids, but obviously he does not understand where they come from, and I am not sure when he is old enough if I should stop and explain to him how things work properly.. i.e cinema/rental or if it is now the way of the world to watch pirated material.

Totally with you there squeaky

No-ones making a profit from my home downloading except for the creators when I cough up for the nice shiney box set and I've lost count of the CD's I've bought because someone taped me a song and I loved it, but I wouldn't actually pay someone who'd pirated a film ... Miles better to see it at the pictures anyway.

I have a real bee in my bonnet about this type of thing. I don't illegally download nor do I allow anyone else to do it on equipment I own, nor would I even borrow it from someone else.

I wouldn't walk into hmv and walk out with a cd or DVD, so why would I do the equivalent at home?

I know plenty will disagree with me, but theft is theft is theft and I want no part of it.

I have no problem with people who download films. What can I say, I am honest.

There are so few sites now that you can do it from due to all of the legalities and court cases against various sites that Pirate Bay is the only one around really. They have nothing to do with exploitation as the site is run by ordinary people who have films etc that they wish to upload and vice versa.

Re the argument of budgets being cut for films I do understand, but when the downloaded films have actors in them earning $10m for the part, I truly feel no guilt!

Re the OP - I think it is wrong for a teacher to bring in something which is pirated and if he or she let it be known that it was pirated, then that is just dumb. And that person is a teacher.....?!

Interesting article Jumping, but the bit that sticks out to me is where they talk about reminding people how good the cinema experience is. Which personally, I think is a load of bollocks.

If the entertainment industry wants to help prevent piracy by encouraging people to use cinemas, then they shouldn't make cinemas so bloody expensive.

I realise that piracy is wrong and very damaging to the film industry, but a family of four can spend £50 on a trip to the cinema if they buy popcorn or whatever. £50 compared to £5 or £10 to see the same film, and the cinema experience isn't that great that it's worth so much more money. For many people the choice is use a pirate or don't see the film at all, so I really don't think the industry is doing itself any favours by being so expensive to access.

I can honestly say I have never illegally watched anything - I think it is theft and wrong - sorry

For many people the choice is use a pirate or don't see the film at all

Or wait until it's out on DVD

What rhondajean says.

Companies spend a lot of money developing/creating films and expect a return. If the return is less the budgets are less or the company goes bust. I work in IT and recently I was asked to add some software to a PC. I was handed a copied disk which in the original form came with a £100k PC for reading DNA. Each additional copy of the disk was £5k. The person who asked me to load the software told me she was 'saving' the company money. My oint to her was a firm has spent time/money developing the material. What if she spent 5 years working on a project then someone copied her work and won a Nobel prize?
Microsoft can withdraw their licence if they found my employers used pirated MS software so we might as well close as everything is done in Windows. The teacher was in flagrant disregard of the terms of the licence. Downloading material is one thing but downloading pirated/unlicensed material is theft

Just so you are all aware, if you bought a CD legitimately from somewhere like HMV/Amazon etc and then copy that onto your iPod you are breaking the law

Even though you own the CD you have no right to copy the contents onto an iPod/MP3/Mobile phone.

See format shifting

And for those old enough to remember, did you not, put your 80's tape recorder next to the radio and tape songs off the charts? Or tape a program off the TV because those too were illegal.

Piracy is illegal and I would not let anyone in my house watch a pirated film.If a teacher brought the DVD in they would be very wrong and it would count as gross misconduct. I have downloaded films but have paid for them first and only from legal sites.

It's interesting that so many people are trying to justify it. It doesn't matter if you think going to the cinema is too expensive or that the film industry makes too much money. You wouldn't steal a bottle of wine from Tesco and claim that it's okay because they make too much money so why would you use that argument when stealing a film?

And films are so cheap to buy on DVD now that the argument barely stands up anyway.

OutragedAtThePriceOfFreddos 100% with you there. But then we are told that the cinemas have to charge a lot for the food as that is where they make their money. To my mind, that is the cinema's and studio's problem, not ours.

I should also mention that I work for a big budget film producer - he is not short of cash I can tell you! And when he has a moan about so-called illegal downloading I literally switch off. The guy has a 100ft yacht for God's sake and 5 homes in europe. Yeah....I'm really sympathetic to his plight! Maybe if the fat cats took a smaller slice there would be more to go around for the other workers. Just sayin'.....

watching pirated films is stealing. Why the fuck should my husband be working his arse off right this minute in the hope that his film will make some money when it gets released when people will think it is fine to just steal it? It hurts the while industry, destroys jobs and frankly when dvds are available to buy and rent very cheaply post cinema release there it's no excuse.

I will out myself as a geek but please watch this video on TED, they have amazing and diverse topics, this one is about the $8 billion iPod. It is related to this topic.

$8 billion iPod

I buy DVDs and I pirate films.

Woah, what now?

Interesting video, Fizzylemonade. I think he's right that the creative industries need to fight piracy by providing content in a way the people want to consume it rather than by using laws to try and stop it because the laws never work (as this thread shows). But piracy is still theft, even if the copyright holders are overstating their losses from it.

Fizzylemonade I think we all know that, hence the brilliant debate going on!

I for one don't like paying 18quid for a DVD which I will watch once and may even be rubbish. If the studio execs took a lesser slice so that more money could be re-invested back in the studio, the cost of a DVD would only be 5quid. THAT I would gladly pay. But 18? No chance.

The studios only have themselves to blame - I feel. And sadly that reflects on other less high-up workers in the studios. That's the real crime! The execs are not worried about the studios - they are worried that they are missing out personally. Sad but true.

Just so you are all aware, if you bought a CD legitimately from somewhere like HMV/Amazon etc and then copy that onto your iPod you are breaking the law

Maybe, but I am not funding something that is causing pain to others, and that is my issue with buying dodgy pirated material.

I also prefer to watch or listen something that is of decent quality, and would rather spend money on something that doesnt have the heads of the people a few rows in front on it, or shit quality sound.

But piracy is still theft

It really isn't.
What does the act of piracy take from the original owner?
Nothing.

squeakytoy
I don't think anyone is talking about buying dodgy DVDs on a street corner. No one but the worlds biggest idiots do that.
And really, very few people download pirated movies that were recorded on a shitty videocamera in the cinema, either. I've never sat through a CAM version of anything, as far as I remember.

Squeakytoy You're doing it wrong if you are watching films taken from a cam in the cinema! Go for DVD rips.....the clue is in the description. :)

Sunscorch It IS theft - copyright theft.

To be honest, if I couldn't DL, I wouldn't bother buying the DVD or go to the cinema so I guess from my perspective I really am not stealing anything IYSWIM. Precarious ground, but that is the truth for me anyway.

I am not doing it wrong, because I dont do it at all.

If I want to watch a film, I either go to Blockbusters, or I buy the DVD, but I know people who do buy dodgy dvds and the quality is very hit and miss.

I don't think most of the people who download would go to the cinema anyway, so they aren't taking money away from the industry. I don't see how they can put a 'cost' on piracy.

Sunscorch It's a weird one isn't it? Pirate Bay is online and easy to use. It doesn't feel illegal when you use it. But then I suppose some peodo would say that about kiddie porn.

Also, a chunk of downloading would stop if the TV producers scheduled the US and UK releases at the same time. There are 6 month delays for some shows.