To try and counter that, though… keep in mind that aquiring artistic works, such as films, for free when the person who created the work demands money in exchange for the right to experience or aquire the work is illegal and, not only that, easily arguably immoral. The fact is that many, many people are turning to aquiring artistic works for free simply because they can. Why would one spend money when one can get (almost) the same thing for free?

That said, a growing majority of people steal artistic works. Stealing music broke out like crazy with the release of Napster, and has further developed into the stealing of movies. If people were to stop paying to see moives all together, how would they actually get made (unless we completely turned away from the capitalist system, which I wouldn’t mind so much myself).

The problem is that the majority of people are stealing. Therefore, is it really wrong to have someone tell us that we are stealing? There is no way to enforce a law that says that we can’t steal in this fasion, so the only recourse these artists have that are worried about their livelihoods is to say “Dude, stop stealing”. And, quite frankly, they DO go about it in a rather polite way. Certainly, the place where they present there message is ironic, but is there anywhere else that would spread the message to people?

It’s a guilt thing. We don’t feel guilty about stealing. We don’t feel guilty about doing illegal things. All they’re doing is reminding us that we should feel guilty, and consider what we’re doing. If people still want to steal after knowing full well that we ARE stealing… well, there’s no where to go after that. But at least this way, it might stop a few people, enough to keep this black dude in a job.

when i steal a candy bar from the store (which i don’t) i now have one and they have one less. they paid for it and now they can’t sell it because i ate it or sold it to someone else.

when i download a movie off the internet i take nothing from the owner as such. they SOLD the dvd that was ripped, and the bandwidth was paid for by the sharing community i got the file off of.

you say “we steal so why shouldn’t they tell us that we steal”, but there is an assumption about theft that is not necessarily true, and, really, if you WERENT going to buy it anyway, then you haven’t stolen shit all.

the piracy laws are set in place because in the days when they were written only someone with intent to sell had the assets to print a whole book (which required massive expensive presses), there was no possibility (other than hand copied manuscripts, which i suppose would have been legal) for the kind of sharing or free copying that exists today.

not to say that it’s all fine and dandy to take all the movies you want off the net, but rather that the way the MPAA presents the subject, as if it were an absolute and simple fact of the matter that downloads are theft, is counter-progressive at best and culturally destructive at worst.

(Yep… I still support your side, Jer… I just like arguing)

sounds like a pretty reasonable right, right? but this is just the kind of thing that has become totally grey in a legal sense. in this digital age of our we have no rights. They have been taken from us because we have to much power.

the PRIVILEGE that you talk about is what the media giants enjoyed until now because of their effective monopoly over what they produced (which is essentially everything.. wasn’t titanic great?)

They DO NOT like it when this monopoly is challenged and they fight it, like when the fought real hard to have BETAMAX banned, and this is the exact same thing, except we have empowered ourselves to an even greater degree.

i think an important right here is the right to not be sued for all the money in the world (effectively) just for thinking about it.

Yeah, you have the right to backup your DVD’s , but if you take the time to read the legal notices on those DVD’s I’m sure you’ll notice that copying and distributing them without the makers permission is illegal. That’s the bottom line.

You can argue about the law all you want. But the laws are there for a reason. We as the consumer can argue about it back and forth all we want. But the law is there and there’s not much we can do about it.

as consumers and creators we can keep ourselves informed and make the best of our situation.

the answer when faced with unfair laws in not to throw our hands in the air and learn to deal with it, especially when these laws are written and funded by the private interests that make use of them to abuse us.

Try living in the 3rd world for a while where people starve to death everyday. When you get back I’m sure you’ll be happy to dish out 20 or 30 bucks for a DVD.