News Corp Fires Columnist for Reviewing Pirated Movie

It always astounds me when these film companies promote theft, even glorify it (the italian job, gone in 60 seconds, the oceans 11 series etc) and then get annoyed when someone goes ahead and pirates a film.

Here's a thought - stop with the ludicrous distribution agreements and make it easier for someone to pay for a film at home than it is to click "download this torrent" on your favourite torrent sites.

I've said it before and I will say it again, there is something seriously wrong with the system when the path of least resistance is unlawful, especially for those people who WANT to do the right thing and pay for that privilege.

There will always be people who wont pay for content, so why not focus on making it easy and convenient for those people who do?

The job of a distributer is by definition obsolete in the face of the internet. Most intelligent people I've met agree that fighting the ability to copy content has no future. Distributors may not be dead yet, but they are in the ER hooked up to monitors, with lawyers running around trying to defibrillate them with lawsuits.

For the most part they can't change either, because they are often under contract to provide content to certain channels and certain times, so they can't just start offering a pay or advertising based torrent service.

In terms of producing movies, music or other kinds of content, the only real value that remains in the studio model is financing. That is, someone pays to make your movie based on how excited you can make them in 10 minutes. With distribution being replaced, there may yet be a business model in production financing. Maybe "get enough people on facebook to like your script, and we'll give you 60 million dollars to make it...."

Well I can dream can't I?

Wow, I thought there would be more discussion here.

Finally, someone in mainstream acknowledging the problem with piracy is that it's the most convenient, most consumer friendly option available.

Bad headline. This is what the columnist said about pirating movies: "Later tonight I may finally catch up with Paul Rudd in I Love You, Man. It’s so much easier than going out in the rain!”"

Perhaps "News Corp Fires Columnist for Encouraging Piracy"