Some basics for people that seem to be confused.
(A) It is illegal to upload your own purchased copies of films to the internet or to share them over the internet. By the way, this has never been legal. Some people think it's just fine because they think it's just the same as them loaning a copy of their DVD to a friend. Well, guess what, it is legal to loan your copy to a friend. It is not legal however to upload your copy to the internet so that it can be shared with millions of people.
(B) It is illegal to go into a movie theater and pirate the film by recording it. Most people seem to know this. People that do this are committing a crime. If you get caught doing this, expect to be in a lot of trouble. We are talking huge fines and prison time. International treaties and laws are in place to handle people caught doing this. If you see someone doing this, you should report it to an usher immediately.
(C) It is illegal to make a copy of movies and give them away or sell them. Yep! You read that correctly. People always seem to think that it's ok as long as you don't sell it. WRONG! It is illegal to make the copy. US Copyright law permits anyone who legally obtains optical data (DVD) or magnetic data (VHS) to make an archival copy (now virtually impossible with all of the copy protection) to store in case the original is destroyed. Beyond that, no copying is legal. Giving away a copy or selling a copy is an even more serious crime.
Why is all of this illegal?
I am constantly asked why should this stuff be illegal? Why shouldn't people just be able to post up their copy of Spider-Man 2 to the YouTube broken into bite-sized segments for all their friends to watch? It's no different than having them over and eating pizza and watching it together is it? Well, yes, because it of (C) above. You see, you cannot upload the film because that is making a copy of it, and the owner of the film did not give you the right to make a copy on a computer server somewhere, even in your own house. It may not, in some ways be different from inviting friends over to watch it, however, the principle notion here is based on the concept that the artists involved in the creation of the film are entitled to royalties. When you buy a DVD of a film, the artists are all sharing in the price you paid. Given that it may have only cost you $15 and there may be over 250 people in the credits, even if they all got an equal share of the $15 (which they don't becaus the store which sold it gets a big share, etc.) that would be a pretty small amount of money per artist. If you make a copy and give it to a friend, the artists are getting zilch. If you invite 10 people over to watch the film, the artist is also gettin zilch. But that's only 10 people, it's not the millions that can be reached from your YouTube post. The current agreements take into account that most people do not buy a DVD and watch it alone. It presumes a few others will watch that copy. If every person had to have his or her own copy to watch it, guess what, they would sell DVDs at a lower price! It's sort of like the movie ticket concept. Every person that goes in has to buy a ticket. And because every person pays, every person pays a lower price. If everyone got to bring along 10 friends, the ticket would have to cost a lot more. Makes sense?
But the artists are all so rich and make so much money anyway, why should I care?
Well, first of all, the headliners may be rich. But they derive their income from many other sources than their salaries in movies. But, stay and watch the credits and see how many people are really involved. And these people are not rich, and these people are working hard to earn a living for their families. And they may not even be getting royalties, but they are hurt if you pirate films because movie studios make less money, and have less money to make more movies therefore that could be the 250th person in the credit's next meal ticket in an industry that is pretty fickle, hit and miss, work when you can get it in the first place.
But if they'd charge less I'd buy rather than pirate or try to download for free.
Ironically, this is the very attitude that forces the industry to charge more. They are charging more to try to offset some of the the theft. As they have no way of knowing how much theft there is, only that there is some theft, they charge the honest people an upcharge to offset the cost of the money lost to pirates. Again, it's easier, probably to think about a movie theater again. They charge everyone who comes in a fee for a ticket. If suddenly every person who went to the movies had the attitude of the person who made the statement above and decided to let in their friend through the back door, the theater would see the ticket sales cut in half. Eventually, to stave themselves from bankruptcy, they'd have to raise ticket prices. So, it people would stop pirating, prices could and would come down to more affordable levels. Pirates don't quite get that they are not just stealing then from the companies that make movies, they are really stealing from everyone as the honest people pay more and more to offset the piracy. I've had good friend tell me that they see nothing wrong with pirating a movie or buying a dupe of a DVD from a street vendor. Huh? It's hurting me! Are we still friends?
For much more on this topic, the Motion Picture Association of America® (MPAA) has a lot of great info on movie piracy and who it hurts and why. Here is a link to their site: http://www.mpaa.org/piracy.asp. They also have a way to report piracy.
On to the second part: The Sites with Links
Lately, I've been growing more and more annoyed by the huge number of sites people are creating that are directories to sites that display or download movies illegally. Oh sure, a lot of them have huge disclaimers "We do not host these films, we just provide the links." That's supposed to make it all good. Worse, these people are making a lot of money off these link sites. I checked out 3 today. Two of three had disclaimers, the third didn't bother. One of them had a bunch of comments about how unfair it was that Google® was threatening to close their blog and not let them carry ads. Well, honestly, I'm not a huge fan of any site that is nothing more than links to other sites unless it is a directory site or search engine. But a site with links to illegal sites, run by people who say, "I'm not doing anything wrong," seem silly to me. Is it illegal to have such sites? No. Is it moral? To me it's like a person that knows there's a market in town that if you ask "Can I see your Oriental rugs?" and that's code for "let me into the back room to check out the stolen merchandise you have for sale" and puts up a big sign advertising this market in their own shop with the password "Can I see your Oriental rugs?" just under the sign. Sure, it's true, you aren't selling the illegal merchandise. But you are drawing people to your site to direct them to the illegal sites. Make no mistake, these sites that allow the uploading and transmission of copyrighted materials or movies are illegal. So, it may not be illegal to use your site to direct people to illegal sites, but it's certainly a very morally questionable concept. If all you can do with your site for content is post up links to illegal sites, one has to wonder why you are bothering to have a site. Unless, of course, you are making a good deal of money off your site, in which case, one would say, "Hmm, aren't you profiting indirectly, therefore, off the illegal movie sites?" Again, this is a legal gray area, but it is not gray morally. Morally, it is wrong. A person that assists people in finding ways to break the law, is not much different from the people that break it.
In conclusion, as there are so many excellent and legal ways to obtain films that reward the people involved in the making of the films in the first place, and the industry would be able to charge less were it not having to offset losses due to piracy, I would like to encourage all movie watchers to consider the consequences of either seeking pirated movies to watch or download or taking part in the proliferation of pirated movies. Second, I would like to ask everyone running a blog or site of links to pirated movies to consider the morality behind their actions. This is a stunningly bad and particularly distasteful endeavor.
Some Perfectly Excellent and Legal Options for You:
MovieLink
iTunes™
Amazon.com UnBox
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