Thank You MPAA

I was wondering what the best sites are for downloading pirated movies. Now I know.

https://www.yahoo.com/movies/mpaa-names-top-online-sites-pirating-movies-101092934322.html

LOL

KAT is really good. Extratorrent sucks because it doesn’t let you sort and search as freely, but it seems to have older legacy stuff

Why are we ok stealing movies but not, say, $25 worth of socks. I doubt Itera would go into Macy’s and nab some socks on his lunch break, so why will he steal the same value of movies. I think it breaks down into a few possibilities: 1) Movies are intangible so people struggle implying value to them. 2) “Everyone” does it, so its not viewed as socially deviant. 3) The likelihood of getting caught/facing consequences is low. I imagine all three are at play. I do find this issue really interesting though, how theft has become so mainstream and not even viewed as unethical.

^ I don’t really download movies/TV anymore because I can get much of what I want from streaming services.

I think your 1-3 are accurate, but I’d add that since it’s both intangible and the fact that it’s already made and the film is effectively a sunk cost. If I steal socks, nobody else can buy those physical socks and the retailer can’t make the money selling them to somebody else. If I download a movie without paying, it has no bearing on their ability to sell it to somebody else.

Except for the fact that your stealing it makes others feel like a sucker for not stealing it too, and increases the likelihood that no one will will ever pay for it…

I haven’t pirated music or movies off of networks in over a decade, as far as I know. In general, if it’s available inexpensively enough (i.e. iTunes store), I’ll try to buy it there. If it’s expensive, I guess it’s tempting, but I haven’t seen anything I want so much that I’m not willing to pay a bit but will go through all the effort to pirate it.

EDIT: Ok, I forgot. I did find a PDF copy of “Margin of Safety” about 5 years back. I was not willing to pay $1500-$3000 or whatever it’s going for for a used copy, but was curious what all the fuss was about. I’m not even sure where it is anymore or if it survived any of my computer upgrades. It doesn’t seem to show up on an HD search right now.

sounds like the online CFA curriculum…

If enough people download versus buy, eventually there will be no more quality movies made though. So while in the short run you’re right, in the long run there are implications.

BSD needs movies for free?

^ He also drinks Gallo wine. That’s how he got so rich.

Itera is Asian, and Asian’s have zero respect for copyright law.

The book “The Cheating Culture” addresses this.

No, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt will see no variance in their total compensation if we were to illegally copy/download their movies. What happens is profitability is hurt for the movie producers, budgets are cut and productions are down, and now the new starry eyed actor/acress may not get a shot in a movie that they otherwise would have.

Much like music, Metallic is not starving. That up and coming garage band that is looking to get signed is out of luck due to the record label being down on their profits.

Based on the article, the same can be said about people from Toronto.

I download movies/shows occasionally. If I pay for cable and miss an airing of a show I wanted to watch, and it isn’t available on demand, I download it, as I’ve already paid for that content. Same with a movie. If a movie has been on HBO, I’ll download it if it’s not available on demand. I stream out of market college basketball and football games from time to time as well. For a long time, I couldn’t watch ESPN3(or ESPN360, it’s predecessor) because my cable company didn’t offer it. I streamed those games because I was paying for ESPN.

Pirating is a problem, but so to is the distribution system. Let people buy what they want to buy without forcing them to buy 10 things they don’t want to buy, and they’ll be much less likely to steal. I haven’t stolen music in a long time(although I contend that stealing something that is broadcast for free is hardly stealing) because I can buy a track that I like without buying 10 that I don’t. HBO is going to offer a non-subscription plan. Netflix/Hulu/Amazon/Apple are breaking down the walls of bundling as well. Giving consumers the ability to pay for what they want is the number one way to prevent them from stealing what they want.

Not that I support this racial stereotype, but there is significant overlap between the two demographics quoted here…

that would suck

I am guilty of buying pirated DVD’s when I visit Bolivia. I justify it based on the following:

  1. I don’t like any movie enough that I would pay $20+ for a legit DVD, so absent the pirated DVD I’ll either wait for it to come on HBO, regular TV, or I just won’t see it. So, they have not actually lost my legit purchase.

  2. I will also purchase pirated kids’ movies for my little ones and absent a pirated version, I likely would end up buying some of them. But, kids destroy DVD’s very quickly. If the MPAA would let me legally backup my legit DVD purchases instead of shutting down every company that publishes decent, easy-to-use DVD backup software, I’d be more inclined to buy the legit movie and make a backup copy for my kids to watch. Some Disney stuff now comes with a digital download code, but that’s only good for iTunes and I don’t like iTunes.

  3. By purchasing pirated DVD’s in a 3rd world country, I’m transferring my ill-gotten, white guy, capitalist wealth to poor, oppressed, down-trodden brownish people.

beat me to it!

I think that’s a sensible approach. The distribution system is also about trying to build barriers so that something with near-zero marginal costs to produce can be sold for much more. If you’ve paid for the content anyway (bought a DVD that kids scratched up, etc.) it seems that it’s fairly harmless to get a pirated copy to replace it. The fact that 15 or 20 years ago, this wasn’t an option and you would have had to buy a second copy doesn’t seem to change the ethics of the situation, although the legal process tends to lag these kinds of things.

There is some concern that the fact that one is not entitled to you to steal the work of others simply because one would be willing to transact for it at a lower price (that nice shiny ring at Tiffany’s for example). However, the fact that pirating a movie does not take away from someone else’s ability to enjoy it is certainly a mitigating factor here.

In my case, where I downloaded Margin of Safety some years ago, I rationalize it by saying that new copies of MoS aren’t being produced, so Seth Klarman isn’t being deprived of any royalties, which have already been paid to him for all copies currently in existence. To the extent that my download hurts other people, it is only those people who are sitting on their used copies, trying to resell them at $1500-$3000 a pop. It’s hard to figure out which one of those people has lost out. In some sense it’s a victimless crime, and similar in nature to insider trading, where one person’s action possibly shaves a few dollars off of a class of largely-unidentified and possibly unidentifiable people. The fact that - for Margin of Safety - those people are primarily the low-tech version of cybersquatters makes it hard to feel sorry for them.

That’s my rationalization, though I generally try not to pirate stuff if there is any other reasonable option. IMHO, while Margin of Safety is a good book, there’s no way it’s value is worth several thousand dollars per copy, when there are a number of alternatives that are pretty similar available at vastly lower prices.

Yet the founders of most file sharing sites are exclusively caucasian.

Amusing seeing the mental gymnastics in full swing.

British ISPs have now blocked all the torrent websites. I’m sure there are ways to get things but it’s not worth the hassle and the inevitable viruses.

Hats off to iTunes,Netflix et al for bringing people back into paying for content again. They played that out masterfully.