Ethically challenged

Written by

David Roth:

I would argue that, in many instances, the record companies’ desire to force people to buy (or rent) music in a way that contradicts their desires as consumers “justifies” (in the users’ minds) the continued stealing.

Great post.



  • lucascott

    It’s a great post in a general sense but for the most part the music industry is already on this path and continuing quickly.

    It’s film and TV that need to catch up. The main reasons folks torrent etc movies and tv are 1. my friends on Facebook from the US have already seen it and are talking about it and I don’t want to be spoiled cause it will be six months before we get it 2. quality on iTunes sucks. 3. it’s bull that HBO waits until the disks come out to post it 4. they only post in 480 but I can torrent it in 720 from HD feeds 5. pricing 6 it’s too expensive to go to the movies and there’s always some asshat that talks or worse brings his kid who talks/cries 7. I don’t live in LA or NYC so those limited release movies don’t come here anyway 8. and my personal favorite and I think a huge one. I’m not counted in the ratings so it doesn’t matter what I do. they aren’t making or losing money off me.

    It’s beyond time for the studios and nets to stop thinking of OTA/theatre and digital as the same thing. They aren’t. If they want to stop the ‘stealing’ they need to be faster, cheaper and better quality with legal sources. get the subtitles, alt audio tracks in there. get the same features as the box sets in there. Go global with the releases and yes even fill in the gap between theatre and disk with digital rentals at a reasonable price and quality. Sure there’s the likelihood that I’ll pay that $20 and invite 6 friends over but if we weren’t about to go to the movie theatre to watch it, isn’t $20 for us to legally rent it and you get the money better than us getting a shitty quality cam and you get nothing.

    ANd on the ratings issue it’s time to publicly start counting those funds in keeping or killing shows. If a diehard fan can vote for a show via buying or renting it on something like iTunes they are less likely to torrent and risk it getting cut off before they like. Hell the producers could even just take cancelled shows that they own or shows that didn’t get a pick up and go direct to viewers if they wish.