General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: According to your values, is illegally downloading a song, TV show, or movie immoral? [View all]vi5
(13,305 posts)Was it illegal or me to record TV shows on my VHS all those years?
Was it illegal for me to make duped copies of my friends cassettes in high school?
Is it illegal for me to borrow a movie from the library and copy it to watch it later? Or even just to watch it at all without paying?
Is it illegal for my friend to let me borrow their copy of a Blu Ray?
Bottom line is that I try to never pirate. My first choice is to either stream something on Netflix or Hulu, and then if not available in either of those formats, to buy or rent it on Itunes.
Have I or do I on occassion pirate something? Sure. Usually it's either something I have or had on another format and want a digital copy of. Or if it's something that the content owner is making it prohibitive for me to see without jumping through hoops. And by taht I'm pretty much only referring to something like Game of Thrones for which my option is to either pay for HBO to watch only that show for 10 weeks, or to wait a year to get it on DVD or itunes. Network shows or even basic cable shows are available to purchase or stream the day after in most cases, and when they are I'm more than happy to use the legal methods.
I know that doesn't make it morally correct or even justifiable, but the industries we are talking about here engage in all manner of shady, consumer-unfriendly practices that are just as immoral in some ways. If we're going to play the morality game then pretty much the only solution is for all of us to boycot most forms of entertainment. I don't think Hollywood wants us doing that either.