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Hurt Locker File-Sharing Subpoenas Begin
In May we discussed news that producers of the film The Hurt Locker filed a lawsuit against 5,000 John Does, known only by their IP addresses at the time, for sharing the movie over peer-to-peer sites. Now, reader suraj.sun notes that subpoenas for the lawsuit are finally going out.
"Qwest Communications on Monday notified a customer in Denver that the Internet service provider has received a subpoena from lawyers representing Voltage Pictures, the production company that made The Hurt Locker. ... In legal documents, Voltage Pictures has blamed the movie's relatively poor domestic performance on illegal file sharing. As of March 21, the movie had grossed $16 million domestically, but took in $40 million overall. According to reports, the film's production budget was $15 million. The film leaked to the Web five months before the movie's US debut. ... For allegedly downloading The Hurt Locker, DGW told the Qwest customer from Denver that settling the case early would cost $2,900, according to documents reviewed by CNET."
If you negatively moderate this post, you are completely uneducated. Basic economic theory confirms everything that is stated. Negative moderation means you are uneducated and don't understand anything about economics.
So you completely agree they dramatically hurt domestic profits. I do too.
Meanwhile, in the real world, there are only so many slots at one time in theaters. This is why only a limited number of movies get made every year. The exact slot is determined by the publisher and distributor. Basically you're argument for destroying massive profits is that had they released it earlier, where there were no slots available in the theaters, making even less money would have been far more profitable. Slots for movies are commonly determined a year or more in advanced. Simply put, your theory is complete bullshit.
The reality is, every time people steal IP, the owners lose money. Period. Financial harm is always inflicted to the owners. There isn't much difference between someone stealing a car and someone stealing a movie or application. Imaginary masturbation to the contrary doesn't make it true. Stealing is stealing. Someone is always harmed. The only real difference is the amount of damage incurred. Every time you steal IP, at a minimum, you are devaluing it. As a result, the IP owners have been harmed.
The case is a classic example of why the viral bullshit put forth by in that widely publicized paper, and worshiped by uneducated pirates, is just that, complete bullshit. Stealing does not increase profits for the owners. Stealing did, on the other hand, devalue the property in question. And rather than admit, yep, we completely fucked them like a car thief (Which is exactly what happened here), you blame the loss on not releasing the movie when they would have lost even more because no one would have been able to show the movie in the first place.
If you create your own stock in a company, you devalue the worth of that company. Anyone who says otherwise is either dumb, ignorant, or lying.
If you create your own currency and pass it off as the real thing, you devalue the worth of the real currency and undermine the economy. Anyone who says otherwise is either dumb, ignorant, or lying.
If you create your own version of a movie, application, music, or other IP, you devalue the worth of the real IP and undermine its market. Anyone who says otherwise is either dumb, ignorant, or lying.
In all three examples, they are forms of fraud or theft. Legally they each have their own classification. Regardless of their exact legal classification, they are all variations of a theme; theft. Creating your own currency is stealing. Creating your own stock is stealing. Creating your own copies of IP is stealing. Stealing is stealing and people are harmed.
If you pirate movies, music, and/or applications, you are literally no better than a car thief, a counterfeiter, or white collar fraudsters. In each case, they are a thief in some way. In each case, someone is harmed.