No Ian9outof10,

Ticket prices are not subsidized by ads in movies. Do the math. I’ve written articles about this.

When you buy something, you have to agree what the price is.

When I buy my movie ticket, no where did it say the price was $10 PLUS 20 minutes of commercials.

There are many theaters that do not show commercials.

I paid to be in the movie theater. I bought my seat. I paid for a movie. Not commercials.

Ian9outof10

That’s just ridiculous. So by your logic, if I make $500 bucks profit on a project, and you steal $20 of it… then it’s not really stealing because I still made a profit?

Say this with me: “When I take something without paying for it, it’s stealing”.

A 5 year old knows this. Everything else is just a failed attempt at trying to justify it.

I do know the difference, and you know I do!

My argument is that your ticket price is subsidised by the adverts and food. If you don’t watch the adverts and take your own food, perhaps you should pay more to see the film.

I know we agree John. And I don’t even agree with movie piracy, but I also don’t think it’s theft.

I look at it this way. If a movie is made, everyone gets paid and it makes a profit then whatever happens, it’s all good.

Of course, you can argue that the industry deserves “more” money. But the fact is, most movies these days make a profit – including the ones that utterly suck.

It’s idiotic because I PAID TO BE THERE. This isn’t TV where I’m essentially getting a free TV show and thus have to sit through commercials.

I BOUGHT A TICKET. I PAID for the movie.

The theater’s financial arrangements with the studios is none of my business, nor is it my problem. I paid for a movie. If you want to show me ads, then you have to compensate me for it.

I paid for the movie.
I paid for the movie.
I paid for the movie.

I did not pay to watch 20 minutes of commercials.

If you don’t know the difference, I just don’t know how to help you.

Iam9outof10

You’re arguing against things I haven’t said.

I’ve argued for years that the best way to fight piracy is to make content acquisition easier.

My point here, my only point that I’ve been making this whole time that you can’t refute, is that piracy is theft. Period.

I agree that some people how pirate weren’t going to see the movie anyway… but that doesn’t stop it from being theft. If you take something, without paying for it, it’s theft. Period.

Why is it idiotic?

The fact is, any cinema chain will tell you, they struggle to make money out of movies, especially early in the run.

If you skip the ads or take your own food in, you’re depriving them of money.

In the first weeks of a movie release, a MASSIVE percentage of the ticket sale goes to the Studio, leaving the cinema with no way to make money apart from with other products.

So now I have an apartment, the stuff is all intact, but I can’t make a living out of it because someone has cloned it? Sounds like an incredibly long-winded and irrelevant analogy to me.

Movie piracy isn’t LIKE anything else (except perhaps music piracy). But, as we’ve seen from the music industry, you can make illegal downloads significantly less of a problem by being flexible.

When the film industry gets to grips with this, then perhaps we’ll see cheap, high-quality downloads, and much less piracy.

There will always be piracy. The point being missed here is that many of the people who pirate films would NEVER have paid to see it in the first place. Hollywood always assumes that every pirated copy is a lost sale, and that just isn’t the case.

That’s an idiotic comparison Ian9outof10.

I paid for the movie. I paid to be in the seat. I paid admission. I am getting no compensation for watching their ads.

Hey Ian9outof10

With respect, it’s a perfect analogy.

Your comaprison of “If, however, someone found a way to break into my house and clone all my stuff without taking or depriving me of the original then fair play, they’re welcome to their copy.” is ridiculous… because you don’t earn your living from the stuff in your apartment or the sale of it.

If you worked and invested in and created the stuff in your apartment for sale… and someone just broke in and cloned it for nothing… then you’d be singing a very different song.

I do no disagree that the movie industry needs to make the film more accessible, but for you to say “hard to see their movies” is just plain silly.

Also, if it’s hard to see something, or too expensive… THEN JUST DON’T SEE IT. It doesn’t justify stealing it.

“the only way they “stole” your money is if they fail to show you a movie”

Says the man who claims his time is being stolen by cinemas showing adverts.

If you skip the adverts at the start of a film, are you in effect stealing a movie? You could be accused of stealing from the theatre company who need the revenue from adverts to stay in business. If you take in your own snacks, are you stealing from the theatre company too?