Hacker News Reader

Comment by evo_9 | Hacker News Reader

This simply isn't true.

I just watched RED a few days ago (in my home) and it just opened 2 weeks ago, if that.

Ditto on Monsters, which I saw before it opened around here.

And tonight I'll be watching Social Network, which is in the theaters everywhere but it's just not convenient for me to drag my gf and her 6 and 9 year old to see a movie they won't want to sit through (well she will, but the kids, not likely).

I'd be willing to pay for this privilege - aka watching in the comfort of my own home - but they leave me no choice in the matter.

View on HN

> I'd be willing to pay for this privilege - aka watching in the comfort of my own home - but they leave me no choice in the matter.

I'm always stunned by this argumentation - because in fact there are other choices: you could just not watch the particular movie at all or wait until it's available for home entertainment. Both perfectly legal and (what I think is the key point) in the latter case the people who worked to produce the stuff you're so eager to consume get some kind of compensation.

But you go the third way and choose to watch a pirated copy - that's up to you, but please don't tell anybody you're "forced" to do that.

I don't think you understand his argument fully: he would like to be able to do it the legal way, but it is simply not possible at the moment. In other words, there is demand which is currently filled only by the illegal channels. While it isn't the most noble way to go about it, it's the only option possible in his case. Compare that to iTunes, for instance: music available at greater convenience than through torrents and the like. Or to games: an easy worry free download versus having to look for ways to obtain the game, wait for it to download, and often mess about with copyright protection.

direct to dvd is back

it's the entitlement defense. He feels that it's his right to watch the movie in any way that he sees fit and because it's so easy to just download it, there isn't much incentive to wait for it to come out on legally.

Well, you're probably not the norm.

The original comment was talking about the video shops' demise due to sanctioned digital distribution, you're talking about piracy. (I'm not debating piracy)

Video shops ran into problems first with Netflix and then with digital distribution. Movie theaters will be okay as long as they maintain their period of studio-sanctioned exclusivity.

2 Years ago I'd agreed with you, but more and more of my regular non-hacker friends are doing this now.

Let's face it, it's just not that hard to install Vuze and hit piratebay for all your torrent needs.

I've never heard of Vuse, and I've never downloaded a torrent of a movie, but maybe I'm not the norm at this point.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com