A Great Imbalance In The Force

Boris posted an innocent (to me anyway) screen grab of software downloading a copy of Revenge of The Sith which got AJ thinking about the whole pirating issue, some interesting stuff in the comments, I’m copying my answer to have “in my stuff”:

I’ve never downloaded a pirated movie and only a few tv shows. Not for some higher moral stance either way, I just don’t take the time to do it. Just mentioning that before going further.

The reason loads of actors work for crappy salaries isn’t pirated movies it’s the 20 millions “stars” are payed or rather, it factors in more heavily than pirated movies. George Lucas is a billionnaire or close to it based on a few good ideas, some imagination, luck and a good sense of the biz. But it’s also based on all the “little people” ’s work. I’m much more disapointed in the millions upon millions he’s making based on merchandising designs that little people created, for which they get nothing, than by the few hundreds of thousands who might download instead of going to the theater.

I sense a great imbalance in the Force AJ and it’s not caused by downloads it’s caused by money grabs from those controlling the business. Musicians are starving but 50cent is having 30 000$ parties, who breaks the system more, people creating “stars” out of not much to make barrel loads of money or those who realize the system is currupt and decide they just don’t give a damn about the whole structure?

Granted, simply grabbing what you can without paying (I’m always hesitant to call an immaterial copy that didn’t cost anything “stealing”) might not be the best way to go about protesting but it’s a twisted act in a infinitely more twisted industry. All the energy anyone spends on battling downloading would be much better placed in battling Disney getting copyright extended to 75 years (who does that help but mega entertainment corporations?) or the inequalities of… pretty much every field than asking people not to grab what advantage they can from a corrupt system.

“The Man” isn’t a nice guy and copying isn’t all that good either but who’s hurting the industry more?

(Comments are closed, add your thoughts to AJ’s post if you want to chime in.)