Why I Steal Movies (Even Ones I'm In)

Jamie found a link saying "Like a billion other people, I download things illegally. I'm also an actor, writer, and director whose income depends on revenue from DVDs, movies, and books.This leads to many conflicts in my head, in my heart, and in bars."

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Actor is Peter Serafinowicz

[damona]

In case it isn't clear from the summary and you don't wanna read tfa. The actor is Peter Serafinowicz.

Never heard of him.

Re:Actor is Peter Serafinowicz

[unts]

He was the voice of Darth Maul. He also created the fantastically funny "science" show Look Around You, and has been involved in various comedies including Shaun of the Dead.

Unskippable previews? Not anymore...

[Kozz]

Best DVD Easter Egg ever, and this really works on nearly all discs and all players. When you pop in the disc and the auto-preview garbage starts up, hit STOP, STOP, and then PLAY. In most players, this automatically starts the main feature on the disc. I found this info in a youtube vid some weeks ago. I'd credit it, but don't have the URL.

Re:Actor is Peter Serafinowicz

[elrous0]

He was the asshole who stole Simon Pegg's girl on Spaced [wikipedia.org]. He's done a ton of other stuff too (mostly in Britain). He's one of those guys who pops up on a ton of BBC shows, mostly comedies. I had certainly heard of him, but then I've seen a lot of BBC comedies.

Royalties

[tepples]

Steam showed that halving the game's price results is more than twice the sales. Which in the end means more profit.

Not necessarily. Sometimes the publisher of a video game based on a licensed underlying work is required to pay a fixed royalty per copy to this underlying work's copyright owner. This means that whether the game costs $20 per copy or $10 per copy, the underlying work's copyright owner still gets its $2 or more per copy.

Re:Why??

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, and unskippable previews. There's been a few DVDs where I've had to sit there a good 15-20mins before I could even start the movie I paid good money to OWN and watch as I please, not after endlessly getting previews of some shitty movies that have been out for awhile.

Despite the number of times I've seen comments like this over the years, I have NEVER come across a single DVD where I couldn't skip the previews by either using the track skip button or by pressing the DVD menu button. Sure, there are a handful of screens that can't be skipped no matter what (FBI/copyright warnings mostly), but people saying they have to sit there for 10-15 minutes simply aren't pressing the right buttons. And no, I don't have a fancy player that bypasses the "don't skip" codes. You'd think that after 10 years of using Netflix heavily that I'd find one of these "impossible to skip the preview" discs...

Re:Why??

[Nos.]

The cost to develop the game is fixed. It doesn't vary with the number of games sold. There may be some incremental costs associated with distribution and licensing, but those would be minuscule, especially when you consider and electronic distribution method like Steam. You're not paying for boxes, manuals, and media.

Re:You're not stealing the movies

[Anonymous Coward]

What countries laws are you talking about? In the US, it is illegal to BOTH copy and distribute copyrighted material without authorization (ignoring fair use cases). It is a common misconception that only distribution is illegal.

You CAN skip those!

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't watch DVD's on your Xbox, or on any system made by Microsoft or Sony.

Plenty of non-name-brand DVD players don't implement the 'user can't skip' feature. Mine doesn't implement that. I can skip all that crap, and always do.

Re:Just cos he does it - doesnt make it right

[thePowerOfGrayskull]

Steeling movies is very different, when you steal somethings you deprive the owner of it. When you "steal" a movie you are not stealing it, you are copying it.

Phew, good thing we had you to point that out to us -- surely nobody has ever made that point before!

I actually agree with you in part. Steeling is very different from stealing.

As for the rest, I would call it more "theft of services" than "theft of goods". (But then this tired reply has been made just about as often as your argument.)

Re:Why??

[networkBoy]

My Phillips DVD player has a nice 'feature'.Once the previews start press 'stop','stop','play', all about 500mS apart. The main title starts immediately.

What are you talking about?

[GuruBuckaroo]

I just re-watched Firefly, and there are no previews, forced or unforced, on any of the DVDs.

Not that there aren't on other sets. I'm sure there are. But please, when you use a demonstrably false example, you undermine your own argument.

Re:Why??

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't understand why we have IP laws? It takes a lot of time, effort and money to produce certain things. Without the ability to receive credit and resources from that work - people won't do it.

It's your risk, it's your problem. Don't do it.

There were a lot of medics and artists that did their work before IP laws existed. We lived without IP laws and we can live without them.

Re:Nice article

[Spad]

While he's probably not very well known outside of the UK, it's a bit harsh to call him an "actor"; he's been in quite a lot of successful stuff [imdb.com] including Star Wars: Episode One, Shaun of the Dead, Spaced, Black Books, The IT Crowd, Look Around You, etc.

Re:Why??

[Cait Sith]

Maybe 5-10 years ago, on bittorrent you can get bluray quality 1080p easy

Re:Why??

[chromas]

All the DVD players I've encountered allow that, even the cheap crap ones. You can also substitute Menu for Play on TV shows without Play All (Viacom).

Re:You dont steal, you copy.

[ElectricTurtle]

Actually, if he were in court on trial for any variation of "theft" (eg robbery, burglary, etc.) for simply violating a copyright, the case would be dismissed. These are not the same terms, they are not the same crimes, and they cannot be tried as such. Copyright infringement is not, has not been, and hopefully never will be considered in legal terms theft. People need to stop conflating these terms.

Re:Why??

[commodore64_love]

The newer codecs produce very nice quality on VCD (700 megabyte)-sized movies. It's standard 720x480 DVD resolution, but instead of MPEG2 they use MPEG4.

 

Re:Why??

[bar-agent]

Piracy is stealing. You take something you want or value without paying for it. That's stealing. You can try to justify it anyway you like, but it is stealing.

No. Some things are free. Air, friends, the great outdoors. I want them, I take them, I don't pay for them. That is not stealing. And if a friend of mine has a nice desktop image, and I like it and want it, and he gives me a copy, that is not stealing either.

Stealing is when someone puts a price on something, and you don't pay that price. But not anyone can put a price on something. I can charge you $20/hr for air, but you don't have to pay for it. You can breathe and it isn't theft. The air isn't mine.

Ownership is the key. In order for me to put a price on something, it has to be mine. But if I make a movie, and sell the DVD, the DVD isn't mine anymore. The DVD belongs to whoever bought it. They can do what they want with it.

Hence, copyright. Which is different from ownership. And thus, illegal copies are different from theft.