I have been listening to the cagcast for a bit now and cheapyd often brings up the fact that he downloads movies "illegally". I am currently a college student, and broke at that, and am an avid participator in the torrent world. I am a bit of a movie buff and to be honest I would not have seen a gigantic margin of the films I have seen if it were not for downloading movies via torrents. For one, I could never afford to watch/buy/rent the films that I have downloaded. A lot of the films I download are foreign ones too, sometimes not even available in the states. I do rent films, but mostly if I want a DVD, so i copy them. Now Bluray has been a problem for me, since I cannot copy them I must buy them, which I do, I can't help that, but I'll only shell out no more than $20 for a bluray, typically frpm amazon.com. Now I have recently downloaded a few HD movies, like you have said you have, and have to say, this is the way to go, crisp picture, excellent sound, and well free, except for the extra hard drive space and the fact that it takes a day to DL. Sometimes even getting them early, I downloaded No Country for Old Men a while ago in 720p (3 weeks before the bluray came out) and it was better than what it was at the theatres. I understand that you download Tv shows and movies due to that fact that you cannot watch them in Japan. While your problem is geographical, mine is economical. But I feel we and a lot of other cagcast listeners share a common "interest".
I must admit that I do feel guilty sometimes, mainly when I copy a DVD from one of those $1 machines we have in Albertsons and Ralphs now and returning them on my way back to school the next day. I do not think I will stop doing what I do for a long time to come, since my bank account is down to exactly $354.33, being that $2588 just got removed due to tuition fees for next quarter. It will probably take the MPAA and the CTAA (Chronically Tight Assed Association) marching towards my home with pitchforks and torches to make me stop. Hey! I do my part, I purchase a lot of dvds and blurays, just not ones that I can DL very easily so i don't feel that guilty about it.
My question is, do you think that it is necessarily wrong for an 18 year old freshman in college to "steal" numerous amounts of digital media for his benefiting pleasure? And if yes, why?
Not that this matters, but my overall cheapness in this regard might be due to that fact that I am Japanese and part Jewish. My Father is Jewish, but most people would never guess that since I look mainly Japanese. But with my Japanese genes (technical skills) and Jew genes (cheapness skills), I believe that combo can be very good for using a computer to download free media. "Ninjew" as my friends call me.
Sorry for such a long, rambling post.