Recently one of our writers wrote a story from Wired that stated the largest copyright infringement lawsuit in US history was being filed that could name up to 23,000 defendants for downloading a copy of last year’s action hit The Expendibles. This post was removed because of the rampant off topic discussion that degenerated from the legitimate news story.

This off topic discussion sidestepped the story itself and some people chose to defend or justify movie piracy. This of course resulted in comments being deleted and people getting offended. No offense was intended, but it did inspire me to write a post about why TMB is so against discussion of piracy. Quite the opposite. We encourage discussion, but piracy cannot be “defended”. Discussion on the issue of piracy is supported. Defending or justifying piracy is an endorsement of the act, and has no place here.

I wanted to address a few things about piracy that are the FINAL WORD on the topic here at TMB regardless of what actions you choose.

Piracy is illegal. No matter how you try to dance around it, justify it or make excuses for WHY you committed this act, it still remains illegal. Even if you don’t want it to be.



I wanted to break this down into simple terms to explain why we do not tolerate the promotion or endoresment of piracy here at TMB.

ITS THE LAW

This is not opinion. It is fact. Copyright exists purely to protect the Intellectual Property owner. Something created belongs to its creator. If that creator attempts to benefit financially from that property, Copyright Law allows that creator alone to reap the benefit of that product.

It is not only the RIGHT of that copyright owner to pursue legal action against those who would acquire, duplicate and redistribute their property (for financial gain or not), it is their DUTY to do so.

If the copyright holder does NOT enforce its copyright, then the copyright has no value.

The Copyright Notice at the beginning of every DVD that we always try to skip (and often cannot) clearly states that purchasing that DVD allows you to own that copy – in that format – for personal viewing purposes. If you buy a copy that comes with a digital copy, you have the right to own and view that as well. Distrubtion or duplication of the DVD is illegal. There is even an intimidating $250,000 fine warning should you ignore these terms.

To put it simply, if the product was not paid for, you stole it.

THE PENALTY

We just talked about the scary threats the copyright warnings issue. Mostly we don’t care because we bought the movie and just want to get on to viewing it.

What surprises me is that people are suddenly in shock and awe when they find out a studio or organization is filing lawsuits against people who have illegally acquired the movie or infringing on their copyright. How is this not expected?

Yes, I believe that the fine is exaggerated. It is meant to be. In most parts of the world you can receive a lesser charge for commiting sexual assault than commiting copyright infringement. Let me be clear about this – this is not a fault of copyright law, but a shortcoming of abuse laws That you or I have an opinion that the punishment does not “fit” this crime is irrelevant to the situation. It does not make it “ok” because the punishment is “too steep”.

The impact that piracy makes on the copyright holder is immeasurable. It cannot be definitively quantified into a specific number. They could make the fine a thousand dollars or a billion. It does not matter.

THE EXCUSES

Excuse is a tricky word. As a noun it means “a reason or explanation put forward to defend or justify a fault or offense” however as a VERB, it means “Attempt to lessen the blame attaching to an offense, to seek to defend or justify”

When I say Excuses here, I am talking about the attempt to reason why this clearly illegal act is acceptable. Trust me, I have heard them all in my many years of writing for this site.

DVDs/Theaters cost too much!! This excuse gets to the core of why most people pirate movies, but they say it in a way that makes it sound like they DESERVE this financial break. They don’t want to pay for it. They do want to watch it, even own a copy. But they just can’t bring themselves to pay for it. Sorry. Not justification at all.

I own the DVD and want it in a different format While there is a tiny bit of fuzz in this logic, purchasing a dvd grants you a dvd copy. While digital copies are becoming far more popular on new releases this is not permission to illegally acquire a copy through piracy. In some countries you are permitted to make another copy for yourself for PERSONAL use (laptops/tablets and ipods etc) but this still doesn’t permit you to acquire them through illegal means.

They show it for free on TV that I pay for You don’t exactly “pay” for TV. You pay for a company to deliver that signal to your home. How you “pay” for the content is enduring exposure to commercials. More modern efforts allow us to bypass or ignore the commercials (or go pee) which I guarantee you the advertisers are well aware of. Commercial free movie channels and On Demand services are available at a premium. Again, you are paying for legal delivery. This does not justify pirating something you percieve is being freely broadcast. Even when TV episodes or events are streaming online from the official network’s website, you are exposed to sidebar ads and pre-roll commercials.

I can’t get it any other way This is the excuse that I sympathize with the most, however it doesn’t make it legal or even justifiable. Sometimes there is just no other way to get your hands on some forgotten gem of the past that doesn’t exist in any format you can purchase legitimately and you just HAVE to have it, or crave to watch it again. Sadly this does not excuse you because someone might understand the frustration you feel. Its your motive for the crime, but its still a crime.

Everyone does it This is the deflection I hear most often, and it is a symptom of the widespread activity, not its justification. Its a weasling trying to point a finger at mob mentality assuming that what you are doing is acceptable because everyone else is guilty of it as well. Everyone speeds in their car, but you cannot defend yourself if you get pulled over and get a ticket either.

It doesn’t hurt anyone. Dead wrong. There is a constant struggle for artists to get their work out there, to make a living and to get noticed. People assume that because the studios are swimming in money, it won’t hurt them if a handful of people steal a copy of the movie. Just like any business, they have to assume a certain degree of theft. Every retail organization budgets for product to be stolen. Doesn’t make it acceptable. You might think it doesn’t hurt the thief because the most obvious result is that DVDs and theaters are more expensive to compensate for this immeasurable loss of income. Thieves don’t care. They didn’t pay in the first place.

Consider this possibility. They make movies to make money. No mystery there. The studios are going to bank their money on films that they feel will reap the BIGGEST rewards at the boxoffice and other revenue streams (home video, merchandising etc) And you know what that means? Reboots, Adaptations and sequels. Existing fan bases with a measurable audience that is willing to spend money on these properties. People cry that there is no creativity left in Hollywood? To some degree, I suspect we can than the movie pirates for this.

CRITICISM

There are some valid points brought up about piracy. Not in justifying it, but addressing piracy as a whole. Its affect on the industry, why it exists and discussing how people would address a solution. I have always felt that the best way to curb piracy is simply to provide your customers with an easy, affordable and effective way to aquire these films legitimately. Despite what some people have expressed, I guarantee you that the Studios are looking at this very seriously. Inevitably there will still be those who are unwilling to pay money and will still steal it.

The problem is like a gunfight. To end the fight, both parties have to lower their guns and put them away. The problem is that no one wants to go first. There is no trust here. The studios want to offer digital copies and easy access to their product. Of course they do. Its an alternative revenue stream. Digital copies cost far less to produce (hosting and bandwidth being the biggest expenses) but allowing one person to purchase a digital copy leaves that vulnerable pristine quality product in the hands of someone who might just leak it on the net for everyone to illegally acquire. Do you blame them for being reluctant? They are making the efforts, however this is coming slowly. Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a bad word, but only for pirates.

These piracy websites also try to dodge the bullet of responsiblity. They all list disclaimers stating they do not host the files themselves but simply point to where the files are for you to pirate. And if you do not understand the protocol of torrents, when you download, you are also sharing. You ARE the distributor before you even completely download the file you are not paying for.

BOTTOM LINE

The whole point of this is to illustrate that you cannot justify or defend piracy. At the end of the day, people pirate products because they don’t want to pay for it. Regardless of what motive or excuse they present or clever deflection they provide, it is still illegal.

And this is purely why we delete comments that point to torrent sites, or when a commenter says they will not go see the movie in the theater but they might download it, or when someone tries to make a case for why they feel it is acceptable to steal a movie.

Removing these weak rationalizations from the comment section is not to pass judgement on you. You are responsible for your own actions. This is simply not something that has ANY place on our website. And will continuously be removed.

Don’t be offended if you support piracy in a comment and the comment disappears. EXPECT IT.

We love movies and we come here to share the love of movies. The money I pay for DVDs and Theater Tickets is entirely out of a love for the artform and to financially support the people who create them. I will not dishonour this by allowing people to promote piracy here.

That is what this site is about. It is a testament that others are as passionate about Hollywood films as I am. We love Movies. We hate some movies. Some movies we love to hate.

I might feel ripped off if I pay for a movie that sucks, but I will never deny a filmmaker the right to make a living trying to convince me to see a movie.