Most Americans regard the illegal downloading and distributing of Hollywood movies as something on par with minor parking offenses, according to a report issued Wednesday.

“There is a Robin Hood effect. Most people perceive celebrities and studios to be rich already and as a result don’t think of movie downloading as a big deal,” said Kaan Yigit, study director at Solutions Research Group.

The survey found that 59 percent of Americans polled considered “parking in a fire lane” a more serious offense than movie downloading.

No surprises here. More validation of the perception most have of the MPAA and their kissing cousins in the RIAA.



  1. George of the city says:

    As I understand it I an rip my CDs to a ipod but like you this is one format i am avoiding. I am still paying for CDs of groups I like.

  2. JoaoPT says:

    Buy a Cd and Rip it to iPod. – Legal.
    iPod gets run over by truck, you buy Sansa (or Creative, whatever…), get the same CD and rip it to Sansa – Legal.

    Buy at iTunes play on iPod – Legal
    iPod gets run over, same truck. You buy Sansa (or Zune, lol…): Buy it all over again or return Sansa and buy iPod. – Legal ripoff.

    That’s why France and Denmark are against Apple…

    They are out to get you. Soon your iPod will come with a fingerprint reader so you have to pay each time you press play.

  3. Lauren the Ghoti says:

    #25, 27 – smartalix & TJGeezer

    “When prices are reasonable, people don’t steal.”

    “It’s such a stupidly reasonable solution – but most entertainment moguls will have to be dragged kicking and screaming into such a system.”

    Never underestimate the power of greed to banish rational thought…

    _ _ _

    #33 – Dennis

    “Puppet Masters – Robert Heinlein

    The best and ORIGINAL.”

    I’d go farther and argue that the film is the best of all those mentioned, if only because of the presence of the inimitable Donald Sutherland, whose picture should be in the dictionary next to the definition of ‘actor’…

    _ _ _

    #37 – Oh, pedro there you go again…

    “buying $800 ipods”

    If you find me anyone who’s paid $800 for an iPod, introduce me, please. I have some land in Florida… 10% to you right off the top, whaddaya say, ol’ pal?

    _ _ _

    #39 – JoaoPT –

    “Buy it all over again or return Sansa and buy iPod. – Legal ripoff.”

    You said the same falsehood elsewhere. Repeating it won’t make it true.

    I’ll paraphrase what I said before, in case you missed it (but you didn’t, you just can’t come up with a reply):

    If you are capable of turning on a computer, opening a browser, navigating to DU, and posting a comment – which you have done numerous times – then you have just done something MORE COMPLICATED than burning your songs to CD and reripping them for your Zen, Zune, whatever. Your statement that you have to “buy it all over again” is a lie, plain and simple.

    Was your momma scared by a picture of Steve J. when she was carrying you? What’s the story?

    _ _ _

    #40 – pedro, encore

    “#39, you left out the part where ipod is not ran over a truck but you have to replace its battery.”

    Geez, pedro, I wouldn’t know about that. Maybe I’m unique, but each of the ‘Pods I’ve owned, I’ve replaced with a better one before either the battery or the warranty expired… for me, that issue is a nonstarter. But it is possible that I’m the only person to have done this… I guess.

  4. JoaoPT says:

    Oh your Sainthood Mr. Lauren the Ghoti, pray tell how do you end up using your protected DRMd songs bought on iTunes on other players.

    I know one. In fact it’s advised by Apple. You burn a CD and then re-rip it. Cool. So why DRM it on the first place?

    PS.Good to know you’re noticing my posts. Guess they rub you in either a good or bad way…

  5. doug says:

    #39. “Buy a Cd and Rip it to iPod. – Legal.”

    Last I heard, the RIAA no longer considers this fair use. they want you to buy the CD and buy on iTunes. Because without everyone paying twice, what will happen to the poor, underprivileged rock stars?

    The base position of the RIAA and MPAA , is in fact, defensible – sharing copies of movies and music deprives the creators (or rights holders) of money that they earned. However, they take it to such extremes – by insisting upon DRM-crippled hardware and demanding pay-per-copy for stuff that is even not shared among users, that they discredit pretty much everything they say.

  6. Lauren the Ghoti says:

    #42 – JoaoPT

    “I know one. In fact it’s advised by Apple. You burn a CD and then re-rip it. Cool.”

    EXcellent, you know how to strip DRM. Guess you’re one of those ‘techies’ that TheGlobalWarmer envies so much. Now, do you know how to back up your music files?

    How does a Sansa differ from an iPod?
    Rip CD > Sansa.
    Rip CD > iPod.

    Buy from iTMS, put on Sansa.
    Buy from iTMS, put on iPod.

    Sansa gets run over, restore from backup.
    iPod gets run over, restore from backup.

    I’m still trying to figure out exactly how that makes the iPod inferior – and how, in your words, “That’s why France and Denmark are against Apple”

    In the immortal words of Phil Donahue, “Help me out here…”

  7. JoaoPT says:

    Because the DRMd file you buy on the iTMS will not play on the Sansa. iTunes will just interface to the iPod. That’s why it’s protected.
    But don’t trust my words for it. I might be wrong. See, I don’t own an iPod nor a Sansa. But guess I’ll check it online…

  8. JoaoPT says:

    check on Wikipedia:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes

    “iTunes supports a number of other popular portable music players with some limitations, most notably the inability to play music purchased from the iTunes Music Store. Supported players include a number of NOMAD players from Creative Labs, some players from Rio Audio and Archos, and the Nakamichi SoundSpace 2 device. Other manufacturers may also offer integration by way of a device plugin. A number of third party programs have been created to help a user of iTunes to synchronize songs with any music player that can be mounted as an external drive.”

  9. Lauren the Ghoti says:

    #43 – doug

    Like they say in N’Awlins, ‘yeah you right.’ They just want to see how much they can get away with. If it comes down to what constitutes ‘fair use’ I’ll take the Supremes’ word over the RIAA any day AND the horse they rode in on. I bought it, I own it and if it pleases me to put it on my musical toilet-paper holder, I’ll do so..

    ‘Course, something I keep forgetting to mention – what the vast majority d/ls from the Net, legally or otherwise, is not the same thing they sell on CD. The quality diff doesn’t matter to a lot of people, but it does to others.

    Personally, I don’t buy from iTMS. When they start offering (or have they?) uncompressed (or lossless) music, I’ll reconsider. When anyone starts selling music in 24/96 5.1ch or better, 24/192 2ch (which is just a matter of time), I’m there.

  10. JoaoPT says:

    So you are agreeing with me on my first assumption that buying DRM’d compressed online music is a Bad Thing… That’s just what I’m saying.

    Let me correct your earlier post:

    How does a Sansa differ from an iPod?
    Rip CD > Sansa.
    Rip CD > iPod.

    Buy from iTMS, CAN’T put on Sansa. – Make Audio CD and Rip it to Sansa.
    Buy from iTMS, put on iPod.

    France and Denmark want to break that. They say if you buy a product online you are entiteled to it. The product is a song, so you should be able to play it on every device you own. Apple sells music, but it’s not what makes the money. The iPod is. They want you to get stuck with iPods, buying them over and over every 2 years. It’s not on the interest of protecting the music industry… (heck, you can download all the pirated mp3 you want and they will play on the iPod…)

  11. Mr. Fusion says:

    #17, doug

    downloading a movie to watch once is every bit as immoral as borrowing the DVD from a friend.

    Nope.

    The purchased DVD is licensed for Home Entertainment use and may be enjoyed by as many people as they can fit into their living room. As many times as they want to visit. You may even take it home with you. That is called Fair Use. What you can not do is rent the movie or charge admission to viewers.

    When you watch something NOT purchased then you haven’t obtained any use of the product. Or if you go commercial and make money from it, that is also wrong. It is called piracy.

    Most visitors to http://thepiratebay.org/ are bad people and deserve to be scolded.

  12. doug says:

    #50. Gotta disagree here Mr. Fusion. If you download a DVD rip from the intertubes, odds are somebody paid for it, orignally.

  13. jon7272 says:

    get a ordinary mp3 player download your mp3 music and put on mp3 player. stuff itunes and crappy ipod which is the most complaned about consumer product for reliability and price apple makes money out of idiots and wanting to keep up with the joneses lol


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