[quote name='dmaul1114']With pretty good accuracy, yes. Between reviews, trailers, excerpts, past experience and knowledge of my likes and dislikes I seldom see a movie or read a book or play a game etc. that I end up hating.
And there's just a vast array of free to cheap options for consuming things today. Even if one can't afford the $9 a month for netflix there's $1 Redbox rentals, free checkouts from the library, borrowing from friends or family, etc.
For games there are rentals, waiting for cheap deals, trading on sites like this one rather than buying etc.
Music many big bands stream songs from there new albums (if not the whole album) on there website or myspace pages, allow fans to trade recordings of live shows, up and coming bands often give songs away to build a following.
So no, I don't buy the excuse that it costs too much, and involves too much paying for crappy content, to enjoy media without piracy.
In a world where for $9 a month I can watch as many movies as I have time for in month between disc rentals and streaming video (and the other examples above) that justification just doesn't fly.[/QUOTE]
You do make a good point, but you keep avoiding a major thing I'm talking about: the smaller artists. You haven't acknowledged yet that word of mouth is the most important thing to them, and, in all honesty, downloading an album can help them. How the hell am I supposed to know of some acid jazz band from Osaka? Now, somebody who has heard of the band puts one of their cds up on blogspot, a couple dozen people from around the world try it out, and start talking about said band. Or maybe some noise artist from a small apartment in Tulsa tosses his album on a niche music site for free, and people download it and donate a few bucks, buy a few CD-Rs, or just send a message telling him to keep it up?
Downloading the newest movies is a bit ridiculous. If you can't wait a few weeks for it to come on DVD or even wait until redbox gets it, then go pay $7 in theaters and if it's shit, bitch about it online so you can try to save others the money. Downloading games is useless too, because you run the risk of screwing over playing online or bricking your system when you mod it. But, if you want to see Begotten, go and find it. You'll have to dig and dig to find it on DVD, but somebody is bound to have put a copy somewhere. If you hear great things about Mouse on the Keys, go test out their cd and experience how great it is.
, there, again. Word of mouth. Choose to check them out or not, I'm still essentially helping out the bands and filmmakers. If I love something and have the extra money, I'll buy two copies. I have a U.S. copy and Japan copy of both Silent Hill 2 and 3, because I love them and would kill for Team Silent to come back and wrap up the series. I'm not playing anymore Silent Hill games until then, because they've gone downhill and I refuse to throw away my money. I
ing love Jurassic Park, and I have it on DVD, VHS, and even Laserdisc. Piracy isn't throwing James Cameron out on the streets. It's not even making [enter rapper] give up any of their vehicles. It is a problem, but is it the biggest problem in America?