JBG wrote:I'm with Dawson with this and he is correct about the economics of film production.
Small films are risky in that many of them don't turn a profit. If it becomes a cult hit then the distributors will eventually turn a profit from DVD and tv sales. However, a lot of small films lose money. Small films are usually financed from the profits of blockbusters. If these profits go down, small films suffer.
Who here thinks downloading Lost is piracy? You could argue that its shown for free on tv, so downloading it is "free".
In actual fact, its not. The production of Lost is financed directly and indirectly by advertising. The American company which makes it sells it to European tv networks in order to make money from it. These European tv networks in turn make money off Lost from advertising time. However, if a lot of people download it from the internet while it is running in America there is a potential ripple effect of European viewing figures going down because people have already seen it.
I say "potential" because its only a drop in the ocean at the moment, but say, in 10 years time we'll all probably have 250Mbit broadband connections where an episode can be downloaded almost incidentally (or streamed) and people will watch US shows at their leisure from their computer, without the ads. This WILL effect shows like Lost. The producers will say sod it, and won't bother.
The arguement that "we are being ripped off" is a bit immature. If you think a DVD is too expensive, don't buy it. Its a simple as that. Nobody is putting a gun to your head. However, that doesn't give you the licence to go out and nick it.
People can't have it both ways. Shop around and buy it - legally - as cheap as possible but if you don't like the price then don't buy it.
Its a bit like saying, Mercedes cars are a rip off and too expensive, I'll steal one from a showroom, test drive it, and return it if I don't like it, but I'll keep it if I do.
I agree again with your sentiment JBG, but I refer to a previous point that in order to overcome some of these issues, use the technology you have available to you.
Why release something in the US months before the rest of the world, then do the same with the DVD? The same goes for TV shows. There are more economics there that aren't being taken into account in your argument.
I am not saying you are morally wrong. I just don't think that industry operates with the best morals either.