From: Bill Velek <billvelek@alltel.net>
...Probably 99.9% of us, if we were truly honest, have violated copyrights,
but in most instances they are probably what I consider to be harmless to the
author, and about as sinful as a 'white lie'. [...]
Bill, I greatly appreciate your comments.
Here's a puzzler for you.
One of the movies that I almost brought with me was "Pirates of the
Carribean", which came out last summer and that I never sat through. Now, it
so happens that on our first return flight segment -- LAS to ORD, Chicago
O'Hara -- this was the "free" movie on board our United A320 Airbus.
The problem was that the plane's movie screens are 7" diagonal dropdown LCD
screens, and you need their headsets. This laptop has a 17" widescreen --
1440 by 900 pixels, and my movie was in SVCD format. So I could watch the bad
copy in the plane for free... or a good one on the PC.
Decisions, decisions!
And what's the "value" of a 2003 hot Christmas movie release when it's on
"free" network TV next Christmas -- or in the $3.99 bin at Walmart?
I would never go out and buy Sparticus, nor pay to see it in a theatre; mine
is a victimless crime. And I have no idea whether Mr. Gianni is any different
in that regard.
Most of the movies I have I haven't sat through. And I'd never pay a penny to
sit in a theatre, though it's over ten bucks a seat in Manhattan nowadays.
However -- the Chinese movie stuff ("alt.binaries.vcdz") is very different,
mostly because it's practically unobtainable in this country by *any* legal
means. I have no idea what I'm downloading and burning -- or whether it's any
good -- until the person in my household who reads and writes both Mandarin
and Cantonese tells me. She further tells me that members of her family who
live in Vancouver, where they CAN get a lot of the stuff, might have to pay
$160 to rent the 30-40 episodes of a Chinese soap opera serial.
And yet, this relatively high-value material is NOT protected by US copyright
laws to the same extent as the Ben Affleck - JLo disaster flick "Gigli".
Bizarre, or what?!