Is watching pirated movies and/or television unethical?

Of course it’s unethical, it’s stolen. But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t do it.

I generally think any time someone asks, “Is doing (blank) ethical?” it probably isn’t.

I pretty much do it everyday.

I know all the managers at the theaters in town so I can watch them there for free and I pay for Netflix. I don’t feel bad.

It’s not ethical, it’s stealing. Plus, if you try to pirate anything, you risk getting a computer virus.

I’m with @math_nerd on this one. We do it, if it’s ethical or not. We also pay for Netflix, cable and going to the movies.

Very often the movies I want to see do not make it to theaters anywhere near me. If studios provided a PPV option to legally see their films on first release, I would do that.

If they won’t and I have no other choice, it’s Pirate Bay for me.

I asked a similar question long ago and got some great answers.

Yes, but like many things we rationalize unethical behavior by how uncomfortable it makes us feel weighted against how we perceive the value of the outcome of the behavior. In this case, I do it because that ratio isn’t too close for me.

Is it equally unethical to charge $11 to see a movie that sucks?
If I see a pirated DVD that I like, I usually buy a legit copy.

It’s not ethical.

Well…I guess by definition it is…lol.

Yeah, sorry, I don’t think it’s ethical either, and I refuse to do so…

Hell no.

It’s about on a par with buying goods you know are stolen.

If my friend bought a cd/dvd and lent it to me and I watched it, is it unethical? I dont think so.
I look at the the internet as a web of friends sharing information, music, video, etc.

It seems unethical to me. I don’t think I’ve ever done it, and don’t foresee doing it anytime soon.

Ethics are highly individual. For myself, I weigh issues in terms of how much harm is being done to others.

When VCRs first came on the market the movie and TV Aindustry did their best legally to outlaw them altogether. Little did they realize how much of a boon it would be.

Even with Internet distribution, I don’t see the movie industry going out of business anytime soon. Watching a movie on the Internet does little to harm anyone so even tho I haven’t yet done it due to being rather a technotard, if I ever do figure it out, I won’t be losing any sleep about it.

There are far larger more important issues around.

On a scale from 0 (ethical) to 100 (morally abhorrent), I would put pirating media at a 0.1. Like @Buttonstc said, there are far more important issues.

My personal feeling is that once I have paid for it in some capacity, either by seeing in the theater, renting it or buying it on demand, then I don’t think it’s unethical to watch a pirated version because I have contributed money to it in some way.

This sense of entitlement people feel about being able to watch movies for free doesn’t thrill me all that much. Movies are a luxury and since hundreds of people work on a movie with the exception being independent films when a lot of people pirate films, a lot of people lose money. I know that the big stars and the director and the producers will still make a fair amount, but what about the lighting guys and the sound mixers and the production assistants? If a studio loses a lot of money because fewer people are paying for their films but still watching them, they may cut down the number of PA’s from, say, twenty to fifteen. That’s five people who are without jobs. The screenwriter generally gets paid between two and five percent of the budget of a film. If a film has a lower budget because they haven’t made as much money as they could have on other pictures, then the screenwriter’s livelihood is threatened as well. Caterers, set builders, assistants, extras, animals trainers, electricians and dozens of others will be cut or their pay will go down.

@filmfann: I’ve heard that argument before and, quite frankly, I’m sick of it. If you don’t like a movie, you’re not going to pay for it? Does that mean all those people I mentioned don’t deserve another job because they happened to work on a film that you don’t like? There are plenty of ways to see a film that cost less than eleven dollars and guarantee that all those little people will still have a job in the future.

@Buttonstc: I think that people losing jobs is a very important issue, especially with the state of the economy. However, I think people don’t understand that movies employ more than just actors, directors and producers.

@KatawaGrey I disagree on this point: I’ve heard that argument before and, quite frankly, I’m sick of it. If you don’t like a movie, you’re not going to pay for it?

When I want to buy an single or a whole CD, I get to listen to some or all of it first. When I want to buy a book, I can read many chapters on my Kindle first. I often do exactly what @filmfann does….or I rent it via Netflix first. Movies are one of the only medias that you can’t “sample” to decide if it’s worth your time or money.

@SpatzieLover: The difference between pirating a whole movie and pirating music or reading a few chapters of a book online is that a movie has many more people working on it than a book or a song and you can sample both books and songs in many more ways that are both legal and beneficial to the people who made them. You can listen to songs on the radio or go to a band’s website where you can often listen to a song or even a whole album. You can get a book out of the library or read sample chapters on an author’s website. Also, I think there is nothing wrong with renting a movie through netflix. In fact, renting movies is a good idea. I think people should rent movies or wait for them on tv rather than watching a pirated copy online while it is still in theaters. In fact, movies used to come out on video 6 months to a year after they appeared in theaters. Now, they come out in a much shorter amount of time in response to the overwhelming number of people who feel entitled to experience something right now just because they don’t want to wait.

@KatetheGreat

Should it be illegal to borrow a dvd or cd from a friend and watch or listen to it?

@KatawaGrey I don’t watch pirated movies that are currently in theaters. File sharing, I see as nothing more than sampling.

Half the time, the DVDs I want/need aren’t even available to the public any longer, same with CDs. I could pay $75 for a CD/DVD on ebay. Once & a while I will. But, I will definitely be reselling it to get my money back, and I will still be watching or listening to it at home.

Disney DVDs are a great example of a dilemma. Yep, we buy the ones we want. Then we give away the “bonus DVDs” or sell them. Is that illegal or unethical? One DVD now comes with three ways to watch. We want one of those three.

@SpatzieLover: If you can’t get a hold of it anymore, I don’t see a problem. No one is making money off it anymore so no jobs or livelihoods are in danger. My issue is when someone just doesn’t feel like paying for a movie because they think they have a right to see it. Seeing movies is a luxury, not a right. Do you walk into a store, see a nice leather purse and say, “Oh, this is nice, but it’s too expensive. I’m just going to take it because I don’t feel like paying for it,” or do you try and find the purse at a more reasonable price? Just because the actual video is not a physical thing doesn’t mean it’s okay to just take it. Also, I’m confused about the “reselling DVD’s” part of your answer. How does that relate to illegal downloading?

Some artists (Madonna comes to mind), some states (Florida & Utah, not certain of the others) and some music/movie associations frown on resale as much as they do on pirating…that’s why I mentioned it. When you buy used, the artists receive no royalties.

@SpatzieLover: I don’t have a problem with reselling because the artist or production company did receive some money at some point for the item. To me, that’s akin to going to a used bookstore. It’s when people download a movie because they are too lazy/cheap/impatient to experience it in a legitimate way that I find unethical. You can see a movie right now but you have to pay for a ticket and actually leave your house, you can watch it for cheap but then you have to wait for it to be released, sometimes, or you can wait for you local video rental place or library to have it but you want to see it right now.

@Katawgrey Libraries & rental places pay special fees to have their media (Netflix has to abide by the rules set by the movie companies,too as to when/how long they can release movies) Resellers do not. I only brought it into this discussion because of the fact that many in the biz, think resale is akin to pirating.

And if the industry had had it’s way, none of us would have ever had the opportunity to buy and use a VCR (unless we went to Japan to buy one.)

The truth is that the VCR (and the entire rental market which it made possible) revived the industry. That’s the plain historic truth. How shortsighted their greed made them.

And nowadays if a movie does not make that much money it’s not because so many people are downloading it. It’s generally because it’s a crappy or low quality movie or it’s just not popular enough.

If a movie is a hit, everybody makes money, regardless of what the industry propoganda tries to say. It’s the marketplace in action.

For me personally, it’s a moot point since i really dont know how to do it without putting my computer at risk We pay for cable and will possibly be getting Netflix soon.

However, I just read that there will be significantly fewer TV series available than previously because certain studios are feeling threatened by it’s popularity and the fact that the numbersof people forsaking cable altogether. So they are jacking up license fees to onerous levels.

Every time these studios and networks feel insecure, the first thing they try for is to reduce or eliminate consumer choice. This is just another version of the crap they tried with prohibiting VCRs. Some of you who grew up with VCRs or DVDs from childhood don’t realize that this right was almost circumvented.

But those of us who remember all the nonsense and court battles and studio propoganda aren’t quite as ready to take the industry’s BS at face value. Because that’s exactly what it is. Total BS.

If a film is popular enough to be downloaded then tons of people are going to buy it as well. That’s just the way the market works.

But the industry want to control everything a consumer can do and people are going to resent it and rebel in one way or another.

When Cable TV first started becoming available it was supposed to give consumers choice and variety and lower prices. But the industry got their sweetheart deals and it’s now a monopoly. Is there anyone here who has dealt with Comcast and NOT resented their attitude.

This is why more people are going over to Netflix and now they want to limit consumer choice there.

But the Internet has created a true democracy and they can’t control that no matter how many thirteen year olds they drag into court and sue for millions.

I’m sure they would like us to believe that computer downloading harms the little guys but the plain fact of the matter is that it’s the greed of the studio and Network systems which only care about lining the pockets of the bigwigs which does the financial damage to the PAs and craft service people, etc.

This is also why they frown on people reselling (or even sharing DVD and tapes). It’s not out of concern for the little guy. If they could control the secondary market they would and force everyone to pay inflated prices for new.

If you doubt what I’m saying about the money grubbing cynicism of the industry, just do a little elementary research about the battles over VCRs and Tape decks. Get a good laugh out of the BS they threw around depicting the collapse of the entire industry if consumers were allowed to copy things freely bla bla bla.

And then tell me it wasn’t good for a laugh :)