Count me in the pathetic 90% who haven't, then.

Then again, I never used any p2p or Napster back in the days either ...

Yeah it's funny to hear soccer moms say they saw a bootleg of X movie. IMO The movies are just plain to expensive to see at a theater, I'd rather wait till it hits DVD but weeks before it hits DVD there is a DVD rip on the interwebz. I see guys walking up and down the strip mall selling 2 for $3 new release movies. The businesses model of the entertainment industry as a whole has to change to be competitive of a new pirate world.

The other 9 are lying.

I only had implied verbal consent.

@Daveinva: Aside from narf above, of course :-)

Who would in their state of mind even be answering a line of self-incriminating questions like that? You don't know who's on the other end of that phone line.

It's NOT just "booty and plunder." I've come to consider giving money to the movie and record studios as the equivalent of giving a mugger money so he can use it to go buy a gun, or the nearest equivalent, a congressman.

FYI, I'm sixty, and if the studios want to destroy "respect for the law", when they buy laws the way you and I buy heads of lettuce in the market, that's THEIR problem.

@Michael Ortega: So true! Many people have kick ass home entertainment systems (I envy them) and even those that don't are still loath to spend money on overpriced tickets and concessions just to watch a movie next to a guy texting and talking on his cell phone. If I was given the option to pay to watch a movie AT HOME (either online or via my cable company) for the price of one movie ticket on opening night of the movie I would do it.

I used to love going to the movie theater, but I have to contend with 1) crying babies 2) children 3) overpriced concessions ($4.50 for a soda, $5 for Twizzlers? WTF?) 4) then get subjected to 20+ minutes of crappy previews and commercials before the movie starts.

The last time I went to the theater I sat next to a couple who didn't stop talking the entire time. I moved to another seat halfway through the movie, it was better... but some dude's cellphone kept going off every few minutes.

After that I realized I just didn't care anymore. Going to the movie theaters is an amazing experience, but there's so much hassle.

only 10%? really? That seems extremely low.

I think people don't want to pay for crap. Maybe the people in Hollywood should come up with some actually good product that people are willing to pay for instead of remakes of stuff they have the rights to and other assorted crap.

@Nighthawke:
Im sure it went something like this..........

Have you ever pirated a movie? Y or N
Does you mom know that you pirated a movie? Y or N

@Nighthawke: Obviously, that would be the 10% in question ;)

Meh. If most people are like me, they download movies and tv shows occasioanlly, but still rent and buy plenty of DVDs and occasionally go to a theater when a movie (such as The Dark Knight) comes out that warrants the cost.

@Preyfar: That depends on the kind of movie and the kind of theater. You generally wont find crying babies or kids in the "non young families" kind of movies. I guess i've been lucky on the cellphone part. And you dont necessarily have to buy the overpriced drinks. Get a snack before the movie somewhere. As for twizzlers, they are ridiculously easy to smuggle in.

Only one in ten? I find that quite hard to believe.

What if the downloaded movie does not include the FBI warning?

@I Love New Jersey: Why you have to talk about Ben stiller like that?

The movie theater experience is incomparable -- except for the cost. I went to see Star Trek last week here in NYC: $12.50 for the ticket, $7.00 for popcorn (!!!). Throw in a drink and you're looking at a quarter C. For one person. That's insane.

I stopped my pirating of movies long ago. Signed up for Netflix and really havent had a reason to since thing. Other things are still on the pirating frontier for me, but not movies.

Out of all the crap that's on TV and the movies, I would venture to say that around .05% of it is actually worth your time to watch. Paying for it is the least of my concerns. The real question is, is it worth my TIME. Nearly always, the answer is a resounding 'No'. (of course this applies to the InterTubes as well.)

Since most people don't watch movies alone, can we conclude that less than 10% are actually guilty of the illegal activity?

I don't illegally copy DVDs. I just backup Netflix's library in case they suffer a massive DVD loss.

Seriously, when DVDs cost $3.00 or less count me in for paying for them. Until then, the yacht and caviar gang that are the SAG and MPAA members can deal with it.

I don't get how people can sit and watch a cammed bootleg on the hi-fi setup they spent thousands on. They have to have the newest BluRay player, but quality be dammed if you can watch a new film early.

Hell, I don't get how people can watched cammed movies on any set.

@I Love New Jersey: I've seen some very good movies recently. I don't think it's hollywood. I think it's the theaters that charge $9-$12 for a ticket.

@MostlyHarmless: I recently went to see "Drag me to Hell" where not one but two crying babies sat as there parents just zoned out. It's time for theaters put their foot down and not allow babies in theaters AT ALL.

So I heard that the most anticipated movies of the summer is the Transformers 2 movie and Hollywood wonders why nobody cares anymore. Transformers??????? _________ please!!!!

"The "improved user interface" solution theory seems out of touch. There are plenty of easy-to-use paid download services out there, and it takes some technical knowhow to find and download a copy-protected movie. It's just all about booty and plunder for some people."

Sorry, this is BS. Have you TRIED to use the cable's interface for getting view on demand. You have to navigate 5 levels of a menu system, there's no such thing as keyword search, it's ridiculous. The interfaces are not intuitive at all.

@MostlyHarmless: Dark Knight, Friday the 13th, Underworld 3... all suffered from "crying baby syndrome". Who brings a baby to Friday the 13th? Hell if I know, but I just stopped going after a while.

And no, I know I don't have to buy them (I generally don't) but... those are part of the experience. It's kinda fun to have popcorn and a movie.

Couple them all together and it becomes a bit more aggravating -vs- having watching it at home on a big screen LCD.

The wording is unfair. 10% of people have seen a bootleg - okay but how many of them are still actively downloading illegal material because they feel entitled to get something for nothing? I've watched one pirated movie and I actually did think it was streaming off netflix but I later found out it was a bootleg. Do I think that theaters charge too much? Yep. Do I have the money to see every movie? No. So i dont go to see every movie So why is it that people think it's ok? Cause they don't think they'll get caught?

Pretty funny that music and movie companies complain they are hemmoraging profits at an ever-increasing rate, that piracy is to blame and is spiraling out of control, yet only 10% of people actually pirate music.

Due to increasing costs of dvds and cds, along with drm, exclusive formats, etc... I simply don't buy them.

"There is a huge appetite out there for free on-demand TV, but levels of paid-for activity are still low."

People aren't nearly as interested in the fact that it's free as the fact that you can use BitTorrent to download almost anything you want whenever you want and watch it on any device you please.

Hear that? That's what a DRM-free world is like. Until there are commercial offerings that provide the same freedom, timeliness and quality that BitTorrent does, potential customers will continue to download for free.

@Saboth: "Due to increasing costs of dvds and cds, along with drm, exclusive formats, etc... I simply don't buy them."

Exactly. This is the reason their money tree is wilting. The RIAA suing people into oblivion isn't helping either.

Splitting hairs here, but where's the category for me: I burn a personal copy of (some) movies I rent, but I've never downloaded one.

Ahoy, am I pirate too, or just someone who believes that paying once for content is fair enough?

Totally free doesn't jive in my book, but neither does paying 3,4,5 times for the same freakin' thing.

It's been the same way since the for me since the 70s-- I bought vinyl back then, and I'd be damned if I was going to re-buy the same thing on cassette. No, we made tapes of what we already owned.

Same thing, different century.

@Preyfar: well, i generally don't have problems with #1 & #2 b/c of the types of movies i see. i handle #3 by eating before a movie (i learned long ago that $20 at a restaurant goes a hell of a lot farther than $20 at the movie concession stand).

what kills me is ticket prices. $10.50 for a movie. that's freaking absurd. i'm sorry, but at those prices, i'll sit home & watch 'wall-e' for the umpteenth time on hbo.

i have a "2nd run" down the road from my house that shows movies right before they hit dvd for $4 - i've seen a lot of great flicks there.

@citking: lol! that's great.

@mac-phisto: At a chain here in Massachusetts (and outside I think, but I'm not sure it's national) there are "Directer Halls". For these DH movies, you pay an extra $2.50 to choose your seat when you purchase the ticket and have someone get your food and drink once your seated. Mind you, this is after you walk by the consession stand to get into the theater. Lame.

@pecan 3.14159265:

I don't think theaters can make money if they don't charge that much per ticket because the movie companies fleece them. From what I've heard a million times is that they basically make nothing at the box office but make it all by concessions.

I'm surprised no has mentioned the fact that studios release at least 4 different versions of a DVD, regular/unrated/superbit([en.wikipedia.org])/ and directors cut with X feature and X amount of extra footage. This is ridiculous.

I think it's the theaters that charge $9-$12 for a ticket.

@pecan 3.14159265: But that's still Hollywood's fault, isn't it? The theaters don't get to choose how much it costs to rent the film for the movie.

@flamincheney: so, you're obviously not part of the 10%. i don't pirate movies, but i've been present at less-than-legal showings of pre-dvd movies.

these aren't cammed movies - they're dvd quality. which leads me to believe that insiders at some level within the industry are responsible for the leaking of these films. i'm reminded of the whole final fantasy vii fiasco - that movie was on the net in dvd quality before it even hit theatres.

regardless, the majority of pirates aren't even looking to beat street date - they're just too lazy to drive their ass down the street to rent a movie.

I'm one of the 10%. I've pirated lots of movies in my day. I also buy them later when they come out on DVD if I enjoyed watching it (if I didn't enjoy it, I didn't finish watching and deleted it).

What I do currently is rent from Redbox, rip the DVD, encode it in Divx using DVD Decrypter and AutoGK. Then I can return the disc and watch it whenever I want. Between redbox and the $5 bargain bin at Walmart I've not downloaded movies in about a year.

TV shows that aren't yet on DVD... that's another story :)

Until it's as good as what you can download, movie piracy will reign supreme.

Piracy, because:

- You want it in the format you want it
- You want to watch it 10 years from now
- You want to watch it on anything you own
- You want to watch it at any size you like
- You want to make backups
- You want to keep watching it after the distributor goes bust
- You want to watch the movie, not ads
- You want to watch it in the country you want
- You want to store it in your house, your boat, your car, even your RV (or a minidisc, an SD card, a CD, or even a DAT tape)
- You want to "buy" it once and enjoy it forever
- You want to start watching it now, not after downloading "rights"

Notice I didn't mention being cheap? Because, honestly, that's not the point anymore. I spend more at the movie theatre than all my friends combined. I am not cheap (Although I am somewhat frugal, I won't pay twice the price to see the movie in the more comfy theatre).

Once the movie studios figure out all the above, they'll sell more.

I don't know why movie promos are called "trailers" when their goal is to lead people into thinking a bad movie is good. I started downloading parts of movies to see if they're worth watching, something you cannot know by watching a trailer. If it looks good after 20 minutes, I'll watch, and if it's crap, I want to save my money.

Am I breaking the law? The letter of it, maybe, but not the spirit of it; if it's worth seeing, I fork out for it. If movie companies don't like that, fine; I won't go to theaters anymore, I'll wait until it's on TV. They need my money more than I need their twaddle, and I'm not going to waste it on twaddle.

Why should people risk their money without knowing what they are buying beforehand? You don't hear book authors complaining if somebody reads a chapter before deciding whether to buy it or not. Books would never sell if they shrink-wrapped them. I don't how see watching part of a film constitutes "benefit" of seeing the whole anymore than reading part of a book.

I agree with the theory that the user interface is actually decent. I use Netflix Watch-Instantly with a Roku box and it is pretty freaking easy to use to select a movie to watch.

@Rectilinear Propagation: yeah, & don't forget mandates for upgrades to get certain releases. wasn't lucas trying to force theatres to be thx-certified before showing the new trilogy?

i suspect some of the big production companies will start requiring use of the digital format in the near future - that certainly won't be a cheap retrofit.

what can i say? people are cheap...

Canada has no online pay per use movie service so my only alternative is to download it illegally.

luckily, Canadian law is pretty lax on Piracy, i think the first offense is like $250.00 or so

The technical knowhow required for downloading a movie is being overstated here - the biggest barrier is knowing the technology exists. Once you do, it is certainly not hard to get a bittorrent client and a link to a torrent-search site (for which the interface is "type in what you want into this space, we'll give you a download link if we've got it for you"). And once you've done that: double click on a torrent file, wait for it to complete, then double click on the video file.

What you get when you pay for things is vastly inferior to what you can get for free. It's just the law of the internet. If there was a service I could pay for and watch any movie or tv show, old or new, anytime I wanted, I'd go for it. But that will never happen.