Movie Industry Asks Grandpa for $600,000 for Four Movies
A 67-year-old man was sued by the movie industry for his 12 year
old grandson's movie downloads. Apparently, the kid downloaded
four movies - three of which they already owned. For this, the
movie industry asked for a settlement of four thousand dollars.
When the man refused, mainly because he didn't have four grand,
they then sued for $600,000 to make an example of the poor old
guy. Personally, I think it is an outrage that legal
technicalities would be placed above human beings. Hollywood is
always big on raising taxes to support the poor, but download
their movies and they'll take grandpa and grandson out. I know
they don't want people watching their movies for free, I get
that, but hopefully reason will prevail in this case and grandpa
will be let off the hook. If not, Hollywood has just taken up
tactics reminiscent of the Nazi Gestapo.
It has been reported that illegal downloading costs the movie
industry an estimated $5.4 billion a year, but I don't see how.
The quality that I've seen in the past on movies that my friends
downloaded is so bad I really don't see the point. I have spent
a lot of money to have a big screen high definition television
set. Why would I download a blurry movie? I mean if you are
going to spend the money for a fancy TV, it's a pretty big waste
not to have the store bought high quality DVD of your favorite
movie. Most downloaded movies are caught by a camcorder in
theatres. So you have to imagine the guy doing the recording is
wavering back and forth the whole time. You also have to deal
with noises from the audience. If you ask, me it's too nerve
wracking to even sit through that.
As much as I empathize with Hollywood on protecting their turf,
attacking their potential customers is not the way to go.
Producing great products is the most logical course. Hollywood's
movie box office slump this year is not caused by a bunch of 12
year olds downloading movies on the net. DVD sales, after all,
are still very high. People want to watch movies on their big
screen TV at home at their leisure. Besides, you pay the same
amount to take your family to the movies as you do to buy a DVD
you can watch over and over again. You can't have your cake and
eat it too. Either you sell a product to your audience in the
theatres or for their home use. The movie industry can't expect
to have people paying to see all their movies at the theatre and
turn around and buy the DVD too, unless the movie they are
selling is of superior quality like a "Passion of the Christ",
"Batman Begins", "Star Wars", etc. An increasing number of
people are not going to rush to the theatre to get the same
experience they can get at home.