I think no one should download movies just to watch them for free! Period. There is absolutely no reason to do so (test drive or not, either you take the risk or you wait for it to appear on TV or the music on radio).
But I hate the attitude of the MPAA! I have to watch these insulting "you are a thief" adverts and have to wait on my DVD player until they think I've read an FBI warning (which doesn't apply here in Switzerland and I couldn't care less about). I have to put up with their insane licensing practices (I can only have English sound if I also have German subtitles?!). I always have to choose my country when I start my DVD in a list of 1 million languages, which hardly make a percentage of the whole market in Europe (or Switzerland for that). I have to pay for extras which don't interest me the least (give them in a special version, all I want is a movie). And still, with all this, I only buy a right to see the movie on my TV and not to have it and watch it the way I want (on my computer, put it on my media server, ...). I can't get a new DVD if mine is broken or scratched or if it is uneven (I have several DVDs which make my DVD player jump because they are crap in production).
Still, I own over 500 DVDs and no download, because movies are an important part in my life and I want them to keep up producing them (not necessarily Hollywood). Please stop calling me a thief. Give me the right to do with the media what I want (as long as I keep it for myself) and stop selling me crap quality (I'm not talking about the story, I talk about hardware). Give me a user friendly product which I can enjoy and don't get angry every time I try to watch it!
So that's what sucks about MPAA, not that they sue people who download movies, I actually support that, as long as it wouldn't make DVDs more expensive or crippled with copy protections. Admit that all these measures don't grip and keep suing but leave me alone with my bought stuff! I decided to put up with these insults and stupidity for now, but whoever decides not to, should also not download the movie! But I understnad that these people don't give a crap about what I say so I just wrote this to unload my frustration about the situation and if anyone has an idea how we can make the movie industry to produce user friendly products then I am more than happy to help making it come true!
Michael - I totally understand your gripes about being told you're a thief by the MPAA and being frustrated about not being able to watch the DVD you purchased the way you want on your computer or other multimedia devices. I completely share your frustrations, I just thought I'd add something that I heard while talking to a like-minded person in LA who just happened to be the head of Warner Brothers' anti-piracy devision. The reason those warnings are up there and why studios haven't tolerated/accepted the use of DVDs on multimedia devices is not that they don't want you to watch them on those devices, it's not because they're behind the times - it's all due to legalities. Let's use an example of that old classic, "Streetcar Named Desire." When that film was made, no one had a magic crystal ball that could tell them that some day, there would be these magic devices that would allow people to watch this new movie on a tiny little handheld thing called an "iPod." So when they were drafting up the contracts between the film maker, the studio, and the distributor, they didn't include rights to distribution on futuristic multimedia devices. They didn't know they would ever exist, so they didn't include clauses in the contracts to lay out who owned what right to what distribution network. It used to be just clean and simple - it went to a theater, and that was that. This problem has been in existence ever since movies were first released ages ago through betamax, laserdisc, VHS, and DVD. Whenever a new form of distribution develops, the lawyers have to debate ownership all over again - it's like starting over from scratch as if the old contracts never existed. Most of the time, it takes them months - if not years - to figure out who to even negotiate with because with some old films and TV shows, they don't even know who owns what rights anymore. Perfect example, the Cosby Show: fans kept screaming for years, blaming studios for not releasing DVDs soon enough. The simple fact was - there were so many people involved, it proved almost impossible to track them all down to get all the legalities straight in order to release the 80's TV show on technology from the 90's. That took long enough and now that we're dealing with such rapidly changing technology from the new millenium, the lawyers just can't keep up. By the time they've figured out the contracts for one multimedia form of distribution, it's already become outdated and the consumer is screaming for their favorite show or movie on a new personal media player.
Anyway, that's how I heard it, and from a legal stand point, it really makes sense. So even though it really pains me to say this - let's cut them some slack. A lot of the lawyers I've talked to aren't out there just to screw us geeks over. They're really just trying to make sure that everything's legal, that the artists and owners get what rights and royalties they deserve, and unfortunately that process takes so long, they're all a bit behind the times when it comes to technology.
So anyway, just thought I'd add that point of view since no one else had brought it up yet. This topic is so complicated and has so many facets to it that, sure it'd be easier to just scream and rant and rave and say they're all out to get us. But we're intelligent beings, we should realize that maybe we don't know the whole story. And when we realize that, we can stop, take a minute, and then reevaluate the situation and only end up learning more about the system. Anyway. That's my bit. I'm sure I'll be flamed for it, but I hope at least somebody got something out of it.
While its tablet world topping pixel density, Tegra 2 silicon, and fresh to death OS certainly sound awesome, we had to get our grubby mitts on one to see if it's as good as its spec sheet would have us believe.
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I think no one should download movies just to watch them for free! Period. There is absolutely no reason to do so (test drive or not, either you take the risk or you wait for it to appear on TV or the music on radio).
But I hate the attitude of the MPAA! I have to watch these insulting "you are a thief" adverts and have to wait on my DVD player until they think I've read an FBI warning (which doesn't apply here in Switzerland and I couldn't care less about). I have to put up with their insane licensing practices (I can only have English sound if I also have German subtitles?!). I always have to choose my country when I start my DVD in a list of 1 million languages, which hardly make a percentage of the whole market in Europe (or Switzerland for that). I have to pay for extras which don't interest me the least (give them in a special version, all I want is a movie). And still, with all this, I only buy a right to see the movie on my TV and not to have it and watch it the way I want (on my computer, put it on my media server, ...). I can't get a new DVD if mine is broken or scratched or if it is uneven (I have several DVDs which make my DVD player jump because they are crap in production).
Still, I own over 500 DVDs and no download, because movies are an important part in my life and I want them to keep up producing them (not necessarily Hollywood). Please stop calling me a thief. Give me the right to do with the media what I want (as long as I keep it for myself) and stop selling me crap quality (I'm not talking about the story, I talk about hardware). Give me a user friendly product which I can enjoy and don't get angry every time I try to watch it!
So that's what sucks about MPAA, not that they sue people who download movies, I actually support that, as long as it wouldn't make DVDs more expensive or crippled with copy protections. Admit that all these measures don't grip and keep suing but leave me alone with my bought stuff! I decided to put up with these insults and stupidity for now, but whoever decides not to, should also not download the movie! But I understnad that these people don't give a crap about what I say so I just wrote this to unload my frustration about the situation and if anyone has an idea how we can make the movie industry to produce user friendly products then I am more than happy to help making it come true!
Cheers,
Michael
Michael - I totally understand your gripes about being told you're a thief by the MPAA and being frustrated about not being able to watch the DVD you purchased the way you want on your computer or other multimedia devices. I completely share your frustrations, I just thought I'd add something that I heard while talking to a like-minded person in LA who just happened to be the head of Warner Brothers' anti-piracy devision.
The reason those warnings are up there and why studios haven't tolerated/accepted the use of DVDs on multimedia devices is not that they don't want you to watch them on those devices, it's not because they're behind the times - it's all due to legalities. Let's use an example of that old classic, "Streetcar Named Desire." When that film was made, no one had a magic crystal ball that could tell them that some day, there would be these magic devices that would allow people to watch this new movie on a tiny little handheld thing called an "iPod." So when they were drafting up the contracts between the film maker, the studio, and the distributor, they didn't include rights to distribution on futuristic multimedia devices. They didn't know they would ever exist, so they didn't include clauses in the contracts to lay out who owned what right to what distribution network. It used to be just clean and simple - it went to a theater, and that was that.
This problem has been in existence ever since movies were first released ages ago through betamax, laserdisc, VHS, and DVD. Whenever a new form of distribution develops, the lawyers have to debate ownership all over again - it's like starting over from scratch as if the old contracts never existed. Most of the time, it takes them months - if not years - to figure out who to even negotiate with because with some old films and TV shows, they don't even know who owns what rights anymore. Perfect example, the Cosby Show: fans kept screaming for years, blaming studios for not releasing DVDs soon enough. The simple fact was - there were so many people involved, it proved almost impossible to track them all down to get all the legalities straight in order to release the 80's TV show on technology from the 90's. That took long enough and now that we're dealing with such rapidly changing technology from the new millenium, the lawyers just can't keep up. By the time they've figured out the contracts for one multimedia form of distribution, it's already become outdated and the consumer is screaming for their favorite show or movie on a new personal media player.
Anyway, that's how I heard it, and from a legal stand point, it really makes sense. So even though it really pains me to say this - let's cut them some slack. A lot of the lawyers I've talked to aren't out there just to screw us geeks over. They're really just trying to make sure that everything's legal, that the artists and owners get what rights and royalties they deserve, and unfortunately that process takes so long, they're all a bit behind the times when it comes to technology.
So anyway, just thought I'd add that point of view since no one else had brought it up yet. This topic is so complicated and has so many facets to it that, sure it'd be easier to just scream and rant and rave and say they're all out to get us. But we're intelligent beings, we should realize that maybe we don't know the whole story. And when we realize that, we can stop, take a minute, and then reevaluate the situation and only end up learning more about the system.
Anyway. That's my bit. I'm sure I'll be flamed for it, but I hope at least somebody got something out of it.