patrick.net

Another thing if it ever straightend out, content providers should not raise their prices just because they can get away with it. I feel. Like EA and the others are a good deal and get a lot of use. Xfinity which some may not have is a great deal it really is. Those that deliver online movies. Blockbuster may have to much real estate. Thats too bad. Most of us love that stuff. Many of us worry about the movie biz and others and their revenue. The fact they just may shut down and not provide content because to many people steal from them. That being said.

I challange any hacker or person that downloads bootleg software to come on here and say that their computer is not screwed up because they have put bad code that does not belong on the os or in the programs they have downloaded. Its licenced content true very tricky stuff to mesh. The software and os people aren't going to tell you much. Even a contract software guy isn't going to have all of it. See needs to be some changes. Nothing can be done as a populace. However there are measures I am sure they have failed to bring forward. I am not so much for the computer manufacturers in this. But the software people that have taken such a beating in this. It goes round for sure. So maybe this bootleg stuff is loved by the computer manufacturers and software people more than you know. Because new stuff gets sold more frequently than you think because of that. Otherwise computers would last longer.

terriDeaner says

Fuck 'em. Just say 'no'.

I was never a big EA fan, even back in C64 days. EA is always saying the whole computer game industry is on the verge of collapse from piracy, they've been saying that since the 1980s. Torrents today, "Fast Hack 'em" in 1988.

Never really buy EA games, I'm more of a grognard strategy/wargamer type. War in the Pacific, Europa Universalis, Hearts of Iron. Most of the titles on my machine are made by Paradox and Matrix Games. I also like Bethesda. Don't like FPS much, although I'll play some hardcore RPGs like the Witcher series.

Speaking of the Witcher, the series is made by a little Polish developer and the second title in the series sold 1 Million copies in a few months. They are not in danger of going out of business.

What puts little developers out of business is pressure by big distributors (like EA!) to release titles before they are ready, full of bugs and dropped content, and/or broken gameplay to meet an arbitrary deadline. Unlike the big boys, they only make a title or two a year, and one flop is enough to put them under.

Most of the people who pirate games are kids with no money to buy the title anyway, or hackers with more interest in the challenge and prestige of breaking the protection than playing the game, so it's a wash for the most part. Those with money just go out and buy the game to avoid all the torrent BS so they can start playing.

Patching and Updating is also a bear with pirated copies.

Plus, as said above by Artimus, you never know what virus or malware you're going to get along with your download.

See some people think its a virus that is deliberatly put into the software that gets on the computer. A whole lot of times. What it really is, is code. See those programs they make like the ones you mentioned are written whole. When you insert code that does not belong there. It becomes virus. It undoes the integrety of that program. Then when you get out on the internet. Other bad code finds it can insert itself where the integrity of those programs written and licenced. (lot of work put into that-licenced software not part of the OS) has to be-believe it. See you break the software and the security of it your screwed so is your computer. I can go into hard drives overheating and getting gouged and everything else that goes along with bad code.

True everyone can't be Microsoft. However how can you raise the bar when all the people that are not told about bad code put it on their computer. There needs to be some integrity on the part of the computer manufactures and software industry. Some software people have given up trying to make it all work. So whats the problem bad code sells computers see also the software on them I would not accuse Microsoft of putting in their software. However they let this shit go on they make out well on it.

DVDs sold in China (legally or not) have the option for Chinese subtitles. This is a nice feature for those who have overseas relatives visiting. I don't get why the studios don't put Chinese subtitles on the US-sold DVDs; it can't take much space, and if the work is already done, why not make the official product as good as the bootleg?

Dvds, how quaint!

In related news Philips files for patent to force ad viewing. Yeah, I'm sure I'll buy their products.

When will the dumb asses in marketing realize that the reason no one pays attention to ads is that they are all lies. If ads contained truthful, unbiased information people would listen to them, but they are written to deceive in every legal way possible. No amount of harassing the masses will change that perception.

The problem for me with advertising is not TRUTH versus LIES.

It's that I don't want to spend my valuable time watching them!

What was the pull of HBO originally? Movies without commercials.

Why do people like TiVo? Badip badip BADIP just skip through them.

I gotta disagree... My favorite part of going to the movies is the PREVIEWS... (maybe i'm biased because i work in the film industry). But as a child I HATED ever missing the trailers for movies before the main attraction... Sometimes I was actually let down when the trailers ended and the movie began.

The trailers were more exciting than the feature film sometimes!

Now the Diet Coke commericals or Sprite commercials.. i can live with out them.. but the concession commericals are fun still sometimes.. it's all part of the movie-going experience.

A fun little discussion. As a new-ish parent, I don't want our children to even know that pirating exists. However, I usually recode our DVD's for the very reasons cleverly illustrated in the flowchart, and also to sometimes edit out the scary scenes for my little drama queen.

See I would pay not to have commercial interrupt. I don't hate commercials. I despise them. That said. I don't despise the people that make them a lot of people put up with it and like you. I personally don't hate you.

However I have a nice alternative. And I really, really like that. I have completely dropped all commercial television. I just can't take it. Something went way, way wrong with it. Repitition and the commercials well very similar. If you could encode your commercials into the movie or program I am watching I would appreciate that.

I am a big fan of pictures. I could start talking actors here but I won't. What happened to commercial TV they are loosing. Xfinity and the lot are making out well now. I adore HBO and the like. Get me a snack. All night long sometimes. So I don't hate people that helped it get to HBO and Xfinity. The entertainment in this nation is superb. Best in the world I would guess.

pianist says

However, I usually recode our DVD's for the very reasons cleverly illustrated in the flowchart, and also to sometimes edit out the scary scenes for my little drama queen.

Hear hear! I own Nemo and other movies but encoded them. Also, then it's much easier to load them up on the iPad or whatever for a plane/car ride.

ArtimusMaxtor says

If you could encode your commercials into the movie or program I am watching I would appreciate that.

Don't they already do this with product placement in movies? Start looking for it and you will see that you favorite shows are full of mini-commercials.

I have not see "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold", but Iit covers the topic of product placment.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1743720/

Hey I'm all for it. If I don't have to change the channel every time a commercial comes on. Everybody buys the same crap anyway. It's not like your getting anything new or anything. Or their is really anything stupid like competition going on. Whats the diff bettween a grocery store and a drug store. They both have the same damn soda in there. I mean the same guys that make the Wiffy Wiffer probably have something to do with the other product you buy. To tell you the truth I think they are crazy.

I don't want to see and more GD Wiffy Wiffers. I got Wiffy Wiffers blowing out of my orifices. During the Bush election I got to watch that coal industry commercial where the eagle fly's over and craps on a rock. The one on CNN they ran that about 7000 times. So I gave up Christianty after that one.

It's just insane to have everything locked up competition wise and keep slinging those shitball commercials at us.

What I learned from TV Shows:

All Detectives, Federal, State, City, or Military, work out of big, light, airy buildings with cutting edge technologies and where everything from a machine shop to medical x-ray machines are just a few floors down on the elevator.

Police Academies are state of the art facilities.

Police, whether based in Miami, Honolulu, or New York, refer to all murders and robberies by the California Penal Code. "We got a 187 in Maui!" In fact, apparently the entire city of Detroit has adopted the numbering of the California State Penal Code.

NY Detectives, Boston Lawyers, and Paranormal FBI Investigators based in DC call their highways "The 22" or "The 95".

In fact, when Paranormal FBI teams visit San Diego, it is often gloomy and overcast, with fallen brown leaves blowing over wet streets.

Meanwhile, in Tampa, people regularly eat outside in cafes in the middle of the summer without breaking a sweat, and there are never any afternoon thunderstorms and the ground is never wet. In West Palm Beach and Miami, the sun sets in the West over the Ocean, and when you see the beach, you notice surfers wearing wet suits in the warm Gulfstream waters.

People in NYC who work as bus drivers, coffee shop waitresses, etc have huge, multibedroom apartments new appliances and modern decor, with tons of space. Must be Rent Control.

Instead of Art Deco, Miami Beach predominantly feature 60s and 70s modernist buildings. Villains live in the Miami Hills, in mansions built on cliffs. The Cuban and South American characters all speak with a thick Mexican Accent.

To get to Las Vegas, two guys from Manhattan drive over the East River on the Brooklyn Bridge

Ancient Romans invented the Pizza, including tomato sauce.

Most East Coast cities, including Baltimore, Boston, Philly, and New York feature broad, 6 lane avenues. People wear t-shirts year round, and it's rare to see fallen leaves or snow there.

Half the businesses and law enforcement agencies in the country use Mac Books.

and of course, it only takes a computer geek 10 seconds to crack a suspect's password.

It's the X-Files episode where Scully goes back to "San Diego" to visit her family and thinks she's discovered her dead sister's baby. If you see it again, you'll see what I mean.

Here's another fun geographical inaccuracy: The Kookooburra Bird Call used in as a background sound in just about every Amazon/African Jungle movie/film.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc_-icFHwQo

The Kookooburra is found only in Australia.

Nomograph says

I think it was gloomy and overcast in almost every X-Files episode.

That's because it was filmed in and around Vancouver. :)

On the other hand, the only time I drove through Central California was right after the deluge of rains a few months ago, so in my mind I see California as it very rarely is: Flooded.

thunderlips11 says

What I learned from TV Shows:

You MUST have a bunch of blinding lights right inside all astronaut helmets to illuminate their faces. They don't need to see out, as the ones who are not slated for death this episode are immortal.

I have an over the air movie channel (ThisTV!) and I have skipped past commercial breaks that were > 5 minutes long.

Vicente says

You MUST have a bunch of blinding lights right inside all astronaut helmets to illuminate their faces. They don't need to see out, as the ones who are not slated for death this episode are immortal.

Ha! Never noticed that!

elliemae says

I went to the showhouse this weekend - saw "The Help." (wonderful flick!). There were 10 full minutes of commercials - the kind that I fast forward thru at home.

It sucked.

I have to wonder why anyone actually goes to a movie these days when waiting until it's on DVD than buying that is way cheaper. The whole theater experience is highly overrated, and I'm not going to step in gum or spilled soft drinks or pickup bed bugs at home either.

The previews are amazing these days... Every movie is an "event" worthy of the dude with the raspy voice, loud music, chase scenes and drama, drama, drama. You can see the whole movie during the previews.

UAVMX says

hopefully the feds don't check this website. I can't remember the last time I've purchased a movie....5 or more years probably.

I'm in the same boat, I go to the movies and pay (almost sounds like a dirty word to me) to see a movie once or twice a year. "Obtain" about 50 movies a year. I've also "obtain" Ebooks and a few games. I see no pressing need to pay when I can get it for free. I guess I'm going to hell.

thunderlips11 says

EA is always saying the whole computer game industry is on the verge of collapse from piracy, they've been saying that since the 1980s.

The losses due to pirates are vastly over estimated. I've stressed this point before. If a company makes 50 copies of one software program they purchased, then yes, the software company lost money. But if say a teenager downloads 100 movies over the course of a year, and normally only pays to see 10 movies a year, then can you really claim that the movie studios lost income on the other 90 movies the teenage never would have paid for in the first place.

My point is if the person never would have purchased the product in the first place, how can you claim it's a loss of a sale? It's like a teenager making 50 copies of an expensive program like Autocad Architecture 2013 (a $5,000 program), how can you say you lost $250,000 to software piracy when you never would have had even one sale in the first place from this customer?

Does piracy cost these companies money? Absolutely, but there estimates of losses are grossly inflated.

"... global music piracy causes $12.5 billion of economic losses every year, 71,060 U.S. jobs lost...

I would estimate the real figure is closer to $1 billion dollars a year, if someone downloads 1000 songs and normally can only afford 100 if they would have purchased them, the rest is phantom losses.

IPI says

As shown in Table A-3 of Appendix A, this quantity was 1.398 billion units in 2005. If these units could have been sold at the average retail price that prevailed in each market, the global industry would have earned an additional $6.460 billion...

Source: http://www.ipi.org/ipi_issues/detail/the-true-cost-of-sound-recording-piracy-to-the-us-economy

This is a perfect example. The IPI is considering the quantity of units pirated equals the loss of a full price sale, but they are forgetting that even if someone paid for each pirated copy, they can afford to buy far more pirated copies at a discounted price then they would normally be able to do so if they had purchased a full priced copy from a legit retail outlet.

This line of thinking is flawed. It makes for a good argument by media companies trying to press for more protections for there products, but it's all smoke and mirrors data.

ssri says

Rented movies treat you as a potential criminal, pirated movies just treat you.

nice one

I find many of the older or foreign movies I'm trying to find are no longer in print on DVD or never made the transition from VHS. With deeper research, most of these titles turn out to be tied up in distribution rights. So I say fuck them if they don't want to make a sale, I'll just pirate it instead. It's not always about the money; sometimes it's the sheer availability.

Nomograph says

Actually, it tends to be gloomy and overcast here for months at a time. We call it May grey, June gloom, etc.

I went to SD in June and realized that Nomo was pulling my leg. God it was gorgeous. I ALMOST understand why people pay ludicrous sums for 1000 sq ft houses around there.