Discussing pirated movies - Page 2

Fixed.

I wasn't implicating myself with or providing support for the described actions, merely illustrating a point. The second one probably was a bad example, though...

Sorry, you're just too cute...
Can we cyber?

Try Fancast?

http://www.fancast.com/tv/The-Tonigh.../full-episodes

or

NBC.com - Tonight Show

Not sure of legalities for other countries but there are the links for you to investigate.

the Chinese!

To echo Erix's posts, I've been living in China for the past 3 or so years. I think most of you guys would have a heart-attack at the sight of how rampant and casual movie piracy is here. Transformers 2 is available in every DVD shop here for 6RMB (1$). It is playing in theaters here for 50RMB. Finding real DVDs is actually difficult here and costly. Even the foreign supermarket chains here (like French giant Carrefoure) have bootlegs on sale.

Some of these DVD shops have a selection that blow away the best DVD shops in my hometown in Canada (Montreal). I have seen movies that I would never otherwise have had the chance to see and to be completely honest, at a tiny fraction of the price. All kinds of films from around the world, some DVDs that are out of print, documentaries, entire TV shows (you can the entire run of any HBO show for about 12RMB.

But that's not the worst: most people here watch movies on the internet and not torrented - instantly streamed movies. For example, go to www.youku.com and search for Terminator 2. The entire Director's Cut film loads instantly.

I'm not defending it - I'm just saying you have no idea how easily accessible and widespread it is outside the "1st world countries". People here don't give a shit about no WTO.

I can see Punchinello's point. Working close as a critic or what not in and for the film industry there is a sense of loyalty.

The "every man" and pretty much anyone out of the country could care less.

I've never seen the point in trying to torrent a movie, you always end up with shit quality, and I enjoy owning the real thing.
But like many on this site, I'm guilty of downloading a few movies in my past.

My biggest annoyance with the casual ease of piracy is that I can't recommend anything to anyone anymore. I tell someone about Slumdog Millionare after my second viewing, back when it was new in theaters, and they thank me for it a few days later. The bastards watched it on their laptop. I even had someone else offering to give me the movie on DVD as a gift less than a month after its theatrical release.

And it's even worse with music; there are loads of people who still don't want to download movies but have zero problem torrenting an musician's entire catalogue. There's one person I trust to tell about new bands I find, and he never listens to my recommendations anyway.

Too many people only have morals when there's a risk of getting caught.

I live in an igloo surrounded by an army of polar bears and their penguin overlords

is it ok then?

I've had the opposite happen to me. A movie that's not even out yet, someone would tell me I should see it. But, I tell them it's not even out yet. Then they offer me a copy the next day.

WTF has happened to people nowadays?

Haven't you guys ever heard the phrase "A man is as faithful as his options"? I'm not condoning it, I don't personally download movies because:
A: I don't want to get caught
B: The quality is usually pretty shitty
C: My laptop sucks for downloading or watching any kind of legal video, so I can only imagine how bad a full length movie would be

I have plenty of reasons not to download movies before morality plays into it. But a shitload of people aren't worried about getting caught, have nice computers, and don't care about sound and video quality. That's why I don't get the "OMG why do people do this??" sentiment. Casual movie fans generally don't understand or care about the impact. They tend not to care even after you explain it to them, either. Same with casual music fans, though, I view music downloading a little different, and that's a topic for another thread.

I was at a party, talking about some Wii games we wanted to get. I said I'd buy it through Amazon or some such. This friend of a friend places a hand on my arm, genuinely concerned, and says "Oh, if you buy the copy, it will be cheaper," like I didn't realize this. He was lending a helping hand.

Another time, I'm in a Korean video game alley, a bunch of sellers altogether, and I buy a real copy of Hotel Dusk for my DS. I show it to my friend as we stand before another seller. The seller laughs at me for not buying the ROM card rip thing he does. I was more curt with that fellow that I tend to be.

Also, I'm guessing a lot of the shocked (SHOCKED!) people in here have never been to a barbershop. Christ, I used to work with a guy whose brother owned one, they did more business is shaky cam bootlegs then they did cutting hair. Those guys must hate torrents cutting their profits too, ironically.

People who are happy to watch some shitty quality torrented rip of a film, be it badly copied, shaky cammed or whatever, must just not like movies all that much. That's all I can put it down to.

My barber has never offered me some bullshit he shoplifted online. I must not look like the type.

Honestly, I don't know if they still do it, and back when I saw it all the time, it was well before torrenting existed. I do remember being really impressed that when I was in line to see Phantom Menace opening night, there was a dude selling multiple shaky cam bootlegs of it in the alley. Guy was quick, I'll give him that.

Ultimate Barbershop Bootleg? Barbershop.

For me it's all moral. I've got the system to download it quickly and play it in better quality than I would get from a DVD. I want to support the artists and industries, but I'm not under the delusion that the little I spend makes a difference to them either way (with the exception of some independent types whom I know noticed and appreciated the money). It's something I value, and I'm more than happy to pay for something I value. (Which reminds me...)

But I completely get why someone who doesn't feel as I do would download. It's easy and consequence-free. Hell, I indulged back in the day. When I first realized what the Internet made possible, I downloaded without spending half a second on what it meant.

A thread about NOT discussing pirated movies with 66 replies?

I brought my PS2 back with me during my second year here, and I quickly realized that many of my LEGIT game discs were no longer functional. So, I brought my PS2 down to the mod the shop, had it modded for 30RMB, and bought precious gems that I only had on Dreamcast (also bought legit!) such as SF3 and Marvel VS Capcom 2 that I would've never found in the shops back home and would've cost me absurd amounts online. I mean, really. There's a point where I just can't defend paying 100$ for a copy of Capcom VS SNK 2. It's just absurd.

Did the same things to my PS2 after my other console went DRE. If the medium is faulty, then fuck em I say (obviously this doesn't apply to movies - the options available are pretty impressive). I personally think this is one of the reasons music piracy became so huge so fast - CDs are a garbage medium. Seriously. What a joke.

I know what you're talking about...back in the day before the internet... you'd go to conventions (Sci-fi, Star Trek, computer, gun, whatever) and there would ALWAYS be some guy(s) selling bootleg VHS tapes for $5-20. They dealt mostly with 'rare' vhs copies or laserdisc transfers like the full cut of Aliens (with the parents on the colony at the start) and the directors cut of blade runner. They've had these things going on forever and it is very easy to buy them and watch them, the hard part is dealing with the quality. Sure there are some amazing copies now (as technology has advanced) that you can download or watch on the internet but there will always be a loss in transfer, just like those VHS tapes. Speckles, distortions, audio fading or (now) out of sync. The real question is, how do you want to watch a movie? Much like when you meet someone for the first time, there can only be ONE first impression. Sure you can revisit the well and get some fresh perspective on a movie or change your opinion but there will always be an underlining emotional attachment to your first viewing of any film. The question people who pirate need to ask themselves is this; Do you want it to be some pixilated \ out of sync audio \ tin like sound \ etc... version of the film? or do you want the full movie going experience. Does it suck to spend 9 bucks on a shitty movie? Hell YES but when you hit that gem, that golden moment of greatness on the screen... it's just pure magic and that is priceless.

I get that people try to save money and they probably only download movies that they consider to be 'shitty' and not worth the money... but honestly... what's more worth your time? watching a shitty movie or checking out one of the tens of thousands of already made classic movies. Get a library card, you can check movies out for free if cash is the problem.

Saying Warren Peace shouldnt bootleg a copy of a movie he has already bought because he's dealing with other people 'who are stealing the movie' sounds a lot like the reasoning that suggests because you smoke weed, you are supporting terrorism and drug violence. I understand they are both largely technically correct (ohhh, but I only buy homegrown locally grown hydroponic greens! give me a fucking break), but drug cartel violence is substantially more important than peripherally dealing with probable movie thieves.

I get it, it's a movie board. Don't steal movies! But you can trick movies, if you buy a ticket to some art house crap and sneak into Transformers!

I agree wholeheartedly, by the way, that people who go off and get bootlegs of movies that are shot with a DVCAM off a movie screen probably don't give a shit about film.

It always boggles me how someone can enjoy a movie that way. It looks like shit, sounds like shit. I don't understand the impatience behind this.

Thanks for the links Sanieke... I'll look into it.

(If it works out, thanks again. I hope you didn't take me too seriously back there, though.)

The fact that downloading movies is shitty is self evident, but I think the important fthing here is that if you're going to do it don't talk about it on the boards, for the love of god. Save the moral qualms for whatever, it's best if you don't admit you committed an illegal act, regardless of your justifications. No one's trying to be a moral police, or a police police.

And if criminal repercussions aren't enough to ward you off talking about it, people involved with the film industry read the boards. You're being rude to them.

This is a very good point.

I mentioned that piracy was rampant here in Bolivia. One thing I didn't mention is how you never see bootlegs of Bolivian films. If you do, they're "authorized" bootlegs made by the filmmakers themselves. It's an "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" mentality.

I was actually encouraged to bootleg my own film.

I didn't follow his advice.

Jeez. You answer a guy's question as to how some one could have seen a film early (which is the only fucking thing I did) and everybody's heads explode.

I'm all for banning the topic. Most are utterly incapable of discussing it without breaking into insults and wild self righteousness, so it's just a waste of time.

If I reveal that I actually did get the film legitimately (through shipping) can everyone chill the fuck out? I didn't mention it because I didn't anyone cared, but I guess I was wrong.

All I did was answer the man's question. That's the total sum of my comments on the matter in the Watchmen thread. Assumptions were made, cunt hairs were measured and everyone turned into chicken little.

Yeeeeeeeeeeesh. This internet thingy is much more dramatic than it should be. If people could try not breaking out into a slobbering rage over every little thing, it would help. Let's try working up to the "fuck your mother!" argument instead of jumping to it right away.

In other words: If you're posting on here just to get into pissy fights, do us all a favor and fuck off from the board.

No, it's not that, it's not that at all, and you seem to have no understanding of the situation, on a number of levels.

I knew a guy who was fired from his job for drinking on it. I couldn't believe it, but what I couldn't also believe was that he brought a bottle into work. If you're going to do something illegal/problematic/stupid, shouldn't you try and be covert about it? If you're going to drink at work, shouldn't you at least already mix your drink ahead of time, or do it in a toilet stall, or some shit so you don't get caught? Why couldn't you wait to comment on this until the film streeted? And why, when busted, would you admit to piracy? The crime is bad enough, but have the decency to lie about it. I'm not advocating piracy, I'm advocating not being a complete and utter obvious criminal about it.

Take it up with UPS, or whomever it was that did it. Unless you also consider luckiness to be a sin it's got nothing to do with me.

Wow, you're ability to miss the point when it comes to this subject is actually quite spectacular.

Who are you talking to?

Christ. The poster above me in that thread talked about the shipping error (not Amazon), I mentioned another way someone could have gotten it, since that was your question.

I don't have to justify myself to you. That's what happened, I don't give a shit if you believe me.

Dre already said it best(and Devin was pretty clear from the get-go), so I don't know why people are arguing. Pirating movies is retarded, but that's not even what this is about. Just don't fucking flaunt the fact that you pirated a movie on the boards. It's pretty simple.

Watchmen is out, but only review copies as far as I know. My buddy got his review copy in the mail just the other day. There's no point in arguing anymore, but no store(online or otherwise) would break street this early.

It's not as if I'm the only one who's talked about this...

...just spectacular.

I smell another meltdown in the foreseeable future!

You make it too easy!

Dude, if you really want to stop this kind of discussion you need to work on your people skills. Look at the way Andre laid it out- frank, sensible, respectful. You come come running in with your hypocritical guns blazing, and of course you're going to reap the moronic whirlwind. Use some common sense, man!

Just for the record, that was actually my point. People in this thread seem mystified about how other people in their lives can be so cavalier about these sorts of matters, so I was (admittedly clumisily) trying to point out that if you're an active member of this board, you probably have a stricter sensibility than other people around you when it comes to downloading movies.

Thank you for that.

Cutthroat Island was pretty bad.

you talk to me? In the night, in my dreams?

You had me at hello, having watched Wolverine or not. The question of touching Jason should be on the Voight Kampff test. It could in fact be the only question you'd ever need.

Believe it or not, I have recently destroyed all contraband in my home. The bullshit excuses I had for partaking in goods for free don't really mesh with my ability to pay for said goods. It sucks a little bit, as there are now some horror movies that have come to my attention that I may only be able to get in bootleg form, but I feel stragely liberated now that it's all gone. Of course, it's been fun replacing things through shopping too. Forcing myself to prioritize what I simply must own VS things I have a mild passing interest in is in itself highly educational.

Well thought out. Will be utterly ignored.

Yeah, it's not like this is a sequence of people taking turns communicating.

Forget I said anything, several places broke street date, including some Costco stores.

*shrug*

most likely because it's you who's bringing them up. I'm not saying you always do it in a bad way, but for some reason it seems that many people perceive it as provocative when it comes from your mouth.