PIRACY IS NOT A VICTIMLESS CRIME

PIRACY IS NOT A VICTIMLESS CRIME

How often have you seen this when you are playing a DVD or a Blu-Ray movie? Probably the question I should ask is have you ever seen this and do you care? I know that every time I see it I think about Long John Silver, Captain Kidd, Blackbeard and of course Jack Sparrow and how little they would care about the studios losing money. I have to say that I tend to agree with them.

Yes, if the studios don’t make money they will stop making movies or will only make movies that they know have a built in audience and sure to make money. Oh…wait…that’s what they do already. I’m sure that lots of movies are made that are worthy of my interest, but at $12/person I have to be pretty sure that I am going to like the movie. Not only that, but I have to be sure that I can’t wait three to six months before it comes out on DVD or Blu-Ray. Why have a big screen TV if you aren’t going to enjoy movies made for the big screens.

I grew up going to the movies every week. Mom and dad would drop me off at the Golden Mile Theatre where I would meet my buddies and we would go in to watch the show while our parents had a couple of hours off to shop, clean, rest or drink. We would get a Coke and some popcorn, argue about where the best seat in the house was and then settle in for an afternoon of fun. There would be a cartoon followed by a newsreel (sometimes), maybe another cartoon, and then the first movie would play. There would be an intermission to give us a chance to go to the bathroom and buy more popcorn if we had enough money. The second movie had another cartoon first and this movie was probably the one everyone really wanted to see. When all was said and done, we would wait outside until we were picked up to go home for supper. Mom and dad always seemed relaxed and ready to deal with kids for another week.

When I grew into my teen years, going to the movies was part of becoming an adult. It was through movies that we became aware of the important movements of our time. Woodstock, Easy Rider, Apocalypse Now, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Rocky, Star Wars, The Sting, The Godfather, American Graffiti, All The Presidents Men, Blazing Saddles, Deliverance, Soylent Green, Planet of the Apes, Patton, Smokey and the Bandit, Logan’s Run, Billy Jack and every Saturday night we would get herbed up and watch Reefer Madness and Marx Bros movies at the 99¢ Roxy. Good times…good times.

I don’t know when my love affair with the theatres ended, but I am sure it had something to do with pop and popcorn costing more than the movie. If going to the movies becomes an affordable alternative to staying home and renting or downloading, there would be a lot more people in the seats. What the industry needs to do is take a good long look at why and where that money is going instead of threatening their customers with fines and jail terms.

Piracy is a crime, but so is treating your customers like shit.