Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Censorship, Pirates, and Dollar Bills.

Did you know it only costs the movie theater about $1 dollar to make a $4.50 bag of popcorn? Did you know that is the only way for theater's to make money now-a-days? Did you pay more than 10 dollars to go see a movie in the theatre recently? Did you know that same movie is probably available on your mobile device or your home computer for free? Did you know that the production studios making these movies are losing piles of money as a result of this situation?

The Love Guru, starring Mike Myers, was illegally uploaded onto a website then downloaded 85,000 times by the earthlings smart enough not to pay 10 dollars to watch it in the theater.
With my Blockbuster Rewards pass, I paid about $1.17 for the privilege of watching that movie, and I feel like I got my moneys worth. If I could have seen it for free I would have felt even better.

Hollywood is hurting and its not because people are pirating movies. Its because the movies they are making aren't worth the spit stuck on the bottom of a piece of gum clinging to the shoe of the one being pillaged at the box office. So people are finding other ways of getting their product at a price those products are worth. Pirating. I won't admit to pirating publicly, but I can name at least three websites off the top of my head that stream current movies earning top and bottom dollar at the box office.

Enter Netflix, Redbox, iTunes and a few other pioneers, the relatively unsung heroes of this battlefield. They are forging a path that others will soon join. It's genius. I pay approximately a dollar per movie and I'm happy with that. It balances out the good and the bad and I don't feel like I've been pilfered. They've had their share of difficulties, but they've found a need within the public and have filled it. What is that need? Valuing movies we watch within the comfort of our homes at what they are actually worth. About 1 dollar. And I think that valuation will only go down.

Hollywood hates it. Writers are striking, Actors are demanding, and the public is "pirating", So what do limping studio executives do to compensate for the poor quality of their product, they whine and complain to Congress. They want our government to make it so we can't watch crappy movies on the internet. The legislation is actually so vague, in fact, that if you had a website and published an unapproved 30 second clip of the movie you watched over the weekend you could be considered contributing to the piracy of a film and sent to jail for 5 years or fined 250,000 dollars. That's more than I'm willing to pay to watch The Love Guru. Coneheads maybe, but not The Love Guru.

Internet giants are standing up for you today regarding this bill and its arrival on the congressional floor. They claim it will give congress and movie studios the right to censor the internet. Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia, Craigslist, and many more have made a variety of changes to their websites to show their disapproval, and it's being called the SOPA blackout. Here! Here!
the Catholic Church in the middle ages, Nazi germany, China, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Burma, Cuba, and my 7th grade English class all have one thing in common; they all contribute to censorship. Our freedom of speech is a treasure that we shouldn't take lightly.
Don't let the bullies in Los Angelos take it away from you because they can't make a decent movie. Stand up for your rights.
The Polar Bear says, "Take it easy, Hollywood. Be kind. Rewind."

Click Here if you want to learn more and notify your congressman of your displeasure.


Here's another link I've added for your review and as a reference:
http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2010/02/movie-piracy-crime-and-punishment-in-one-lousy-upload.html

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