Are Movie Downloads For Free A Good Thing?

[Dewey Stone]

With the advent of the internet it's now possible to download
practically anything you want, store it on your hard drive and then
squeeze it onto either a dvd, your ipod, your zune or maybe either
your iphone (if you're an early adopter of course!)
This is the time of plenty, the time to gorge yourself on movie, music
and game goodness...but doesn't anyone feel just a little bit guilty
about all of this?
Certainly the movie industry will tell you that it's a terrible crime
to download and share films. They say you should cough up the money to
go and sit in a noisy, smelly cinema complete with a sticky floor and
idiot teenagers on their mobile phones.
With that kind of choice is it any wonder the majority of people would
prefer to sit at home and watch the latest releases. Certainly, a
friend of mine has six children to look after - he simply can't afford
to take them all to the cinema.
Unfortunately it seems that until the movie company bigwigs decide to
offer a better product to the consumer (and the advent of 3D may just
be the thing) people will be content to download to their hearts
content. In any case, is it really any worse that passing around
movies to your friends as you do when you're a kid?
I have a funny feeling that the viral spread of movies, music and
games can actually be a positive thing - but only if the product in
question is any good!
Think about this, if a movie is really, really top notch, it gets
leaked and 14 year old Timmy gets to see it before it's on at the
cinema, what will happen? He's going to go an tell all of his buddies
that the movie is great and they (and possibly he) will all want to go
and watch it on the big screen. Maybe I'm too much of an optimist.
The fact is that downloading to your ipod, your zune, your dvd disc or
your iphone is so advanced, especially with the many premium
membership sites around that it's convenient, slicker and not to
mention cheaper than the cinematic equivalent.
Downloading is not just about finding a spyware infested forum and
hoping that you end up with what you want. Nowadays slick memberships
exist offering you free DVD burning software and easy to use search
tools to get the exact movie or piece of music that you want.
What's more most of these sites offer free membership after a small
initial fee. So for just $30 you can have access to as many movies as
you want.
With competition like this, it's no wonder the movie executives are
annoyed. What's the answer for them? Create a better product and get
people back into the cinemas. 3D maybe the answer to this one...