And just like all these Hollywood stars keep telling me – nobody needs that much money. And so in the spirit of all that they tell me – why should I care about them making money.

If I’m entitled to free health care, I’ll entitled to free or low cost entertainment – because the US Constitution says “promote the general welfare” and movies make me feel better.

Make sense – not really – but then again I’m just thinking like the poor folks aka Will Ferrell, Michael Moore and Jim Carrey.

But seriously there is no doubt Redbox cuts down on bootleg movie purchases.
New movie at Walmart: $20′ish
Rental at Redbox: $1
High Quality Bootleg from the street of any city: $5.

In every instance of my examples I clearly referred to legally owning or purchasing a copy of the movie so there’s do debate there. I agree with your statement on borrowing stolen goods.

I do however find fault with how they are essentially selling you the right to watch the movie and not the right to own it. If it was truly yours to own you wouldn’t be required to purchase different formats of the same media. If there is a moral and legal issue in how you come to watch the movie should there not also be the same over your right of ownership of that same media?

No one questions you lending a friend your “legally purchased” copy of a movie. If you rented a movie and took it to a friends house no one would think twice. If you purchased a digital copy and put it on a flash drive and let a friend borrow it, have you crossed a line? Assume he didn’t save a copy for himself and returned your flash drive, is that considered within your rights as the owner of the media? If you have a 3 night rental and you watch it the first night and let a friend borrow it the second have you broken the law?

Hollywood is trying to scrape up every last dime they can before having to confront the change that is inevitable and currently passing them by.

I some how find it odd that there have always been bootleggers out there essentially picking the pockets of Hollywood, being prosecuted when caught but never sought out to be abrogated. But the moment someone finds a “Legal” way to distribute their media for less than their perceived market value it is an all out effort to seek an destroy.

I believe that the studios legitimately own the content, but once they accept payment for delivering that content to a user, the user can legitimately reformat the content according to their desire to display it on their ipod, on their computer or their tv. In other words, I believe the studio’s attempt to force consumers to buy a separate copy for their tv than for their ipod is unjustified legally, ethically and morally. They do NOT own copyright for format, only for content. Thus, making copies for your own use of content that you legitimately paid for is completely justified.

The studios claim that they are losing a sale everytime somebody downloads illegal content is ludicrous. I’m willing to bet that most downloaders wouldn’t pay for most of the crap they download if it were only available through retail outlets. Furthermore, I’ll bet that people are watching (paying for) movies at redbox kiosks that they never would have rented at Blockbuster or Hollywood video prices – increasing sales for a lot of the crap that comes out of hollywood today.

Although I don’t out rightly condone downloading free movies from P2P and I know this is a rare example it is a breach of my freedom to tell me I can’t watch it if it’s given to me by a friend regardless of it’s format or time in my possession.

I bought less movies before redbox. They now allow me to watch and decide whether I’ll purchase without a large investment beforehand. I think they are afraid, and rightfully so, that if they turn out crap people will be able to “preview” and not buy junk without feeling bad for spending a dollar to see it.

As for this delay window, the movie industry has tried it before and it did not work on me. All that it did is delay WHEN I rented it. I even waited at the video store for the rental to go in the not so new release section for cheaper. A little patience allows me to rent and watch a lot more movies for my buck or even watch movies that I wouldn’t give a second thought but will rent for $1. This was long before Redbox came around so there goes that argument. When the local video store went from $1 rentals to $4 rentals to compete with Blockbuster, I went from renting 10 movies a week to ZERO. $10 X 52 weeks = $520. $0 x 52 = $0. Do the math. Higher prices means I rent less. Delayed releases mean I wait longer to spend my money. We live in an instant gratification society. People demand it now, then get it now, and they pay a lot more. If more people were patient like me, the studios’ little scam would not matter to any of us, and then they would be forced to listen to the consumer. If they do not want my money now, they can wait until it is affordable.

if they sold the movies for say 5 buck each they would sell more at 5 then they sell at 15… hell look at all of the people who was grabbing anything they could get their hands on at walmart black friday for 2 to 5 bucks