I'd like to address the various people who are calling me an "idiot" and whatnot for what I wrote about rent/rip/return and piracy.
I found it particularly interesting to be called "part of the problem". Now, "the problem" is that movies cost too much, is it not? "The problem" is that consumers are getting ripped off with these "less than" rental versions. "The problem" is that the Studios go around whining about piracy while simultaneously posting higher and higher profits every year. "The problem" is that ticket prices keep going up.
The solution here is not to swallow the higher ticket prices. The solution is not to accept these gimped rental versions. The solution is not to pay the ridiculously high retail sale prices on Blu-ray movies. And the solution is not to simply forego all movies altogether.
Here is the situation: the Studios are making a product and they deserve to be compensated for their work. We consumers like their product and want to have it. In a perfect world, the studios would offer it at a price. If the consumers feel that the price is fair and something that they can afford, then the consumers will pay it. If the initial price is set too high, sales numbers will not be high and the Studios will drop the price accordingly until there is a proper balance between supply and demand.
But we do not have this sort of balance and we do not have this sort of fair and reasonable relationship. Anyone who thinks that the Studios are willing to be reasonable and willing to try and work towards the sort of "ideal market" that I have described above is simply naive. It's a nice idea, but in the real world, it is always a fight and a battle between the Studios who are simply out to make as much money as they possibly can and the consumers who want high quality products and reasonable prices. At every turn, the Studios will attempt to charge a higher than reasonable price and they will attempt to sell an inferior quality product. All in the hopes of squeezing out just a few more dollars than a reasonable, fair and honest approach would allow.
Piracy is a tool. Piracy is a weapon on the side of consumers. I'm not in support of theft. I'm not in support of taking the work of the Studios without any compensation. If the people who have thrown insults my way had bothered to actually read my remarks, they would understand that I am for a balanced and fair market in which the Studios provide a high quality product at a fair price and consumers, accordingly, pay that price in order to own the product.
The problem is that the Studios have thrown the balance out of whack. They are subjecting us to either inflated prices or a low quality product. Their motivation is greed and greed alone. My advocation for piracy is no different from my advocation for civil disobedience when a government abuses its position of power. Neither piracy nor civil disobedience is something that I like. I do not want for either to be the norm. I do not want either to every be necessary. But in the real world, the masses, the people, the consumers need weapons and tools in order to keep power in check.
I do not want people to be driven towards piracy. If you read my previous comments, it would be clear that my desire is for the Studios to offer Blu-ray movies for sale at a fair price and at the highest quality. If the Studios were to offer full quality, fully featured, reasonably priced Blu-ray movies, I would gladly, GLADLY purchase them at a retail store. I made that perfectly clear.
My position is simply that when the Studios refuse to set their prices according to ideals of fairness and instead, solely attempt to satisfy their own greed; when the Studios react to lower sales numbers by reducing the quality of their product (which is what the original article is all about); then that is when it is appropriate for consumers to rebel and to bring balance and fairness back into the market by using whatever tools and weapons are at our disposal.
Piracy is a fantastic and powerful weapon. And, like any weapon, it can be abused. There are consumers who expect to obtain all products for free. That is not fair. That is not reasonable. That is going too far in the other direction and expecting the Studios to make and sell their product at a loss. That is not my position at all, but it seems as though my detractors automatically jumped to that conclusion.
I don't want to see piracy. I don't want to be a pirate. I want to pay a fair price - a reasonable price, and I want to receive a fully featured and high quality product in return. But the Studios do not have the same goal. They are greedy and they want to be paid more than a fair price. And they are demonstrating that when they do not get that excess, their approach is to lower the quality of the product rather than move towards fairness. When that is the case, consumers are right to fight back. And piracy is simply a great and effective way to do so.
That is all
