I talk to lots of people who say they pirate music movies and more off the internet. It really astounds me that people think this is okay. Its really no different from going to a store and stealing a disc other than they won't get caught. They justify it by saying it's overpriced and the people who make The movies or music are rich and won't miss the money. I don't understand how their conscience doesn't bother them. Has anyone here ever illegally downloaded media? If you have, why. Do you regret it? If not, why?

I haven't in awhile but I used to all the time. Pirates Bay was my homepage lol
I did it mainly for weekly tv shows. Made it easier to binge watch. I didn't care if it was morally wrong or against the law.

Only music, I have a great site from news days for ripping. Movies have never really interested me. Got to see it theater first. OD my fri be has a super theater at home if i want to watch that.

When it comes to music, I mean actually downloading it and listening to it without ads. So Youtube, Pandora, Spotify, etc. do not count as stealing music, unless of course the music is illegally on the site.

I download music, TV, and film. Actually I download anything that I need. If I need some software, I download it. But it's not illegal here. You have to work within the laws of the country you are in. I think an artist (an actor or a musician) would much rather me be listening or watching their work than not, regardless of if I paid for it.

If the circumstances were better; like, if all films were released in the cinema here, then I would never download another movie. But they aren't. I'm not going to miss out on my enjoyment because of a shitty government. And research shows that people that download movies are actually movie lovers and they also attend the cinema much more than regular folk, which is especially true of me. So piracy isn't such a bad thing. I see all of the movies in the cinema if I can.

yes it is

I can definitely understand Algren's reasoning for it.

In the US, there aren't any excuses anymore considering the options we have.

I do not download movies because I like to see them in theatres or if not, then to own them in their original versions. And now with Netflix, I barely need to wath TV shows illegally.

But this has nothing to do with conscience, lol. I also would not have a bad conscience if I were stealing something from the store. As Johnny Depp says in Black Mass: if no one sees it, never happened.

I used to download from Limewire. Haven't in 10+ years.

I don't download. But I do stream some hard-to-find tv shows/movies and other non-US media on Youtube and other sites.

I must just add that in the UK, I never downloaded a thing. I bought DVDs, watched TV, watched YouTube, bought CDs, and went to the cinema. Basically I will just adapt to whatever is possible in the environment I am in. In China, CDs and DVDs are not really available - anyway I don't have a DVD player or even a laptop with a disc drive anymore. It's just not a market for collectors. People just want what they want, and they want it now. That's the mentality out here. It will be interesting when I go back to the UK to see if I can drop the downloading movies and TV. I would hope so, but by that time the convenience may have such a hold on me. We'll see.

I use to download music, but then the whole Napster thing happened and that pretty much scared me off. I've downloaded a few tracks off of YouTube, but only from unreleased albums or extremely rare/expensive albums. For instance, awhile ago I downloaded the Hollywood Blvd. Chase track from some anniversary edition of the Lethal Weapon soundtrack by Michael Kamen. I think they only released something like 3,000 copies and now it's a collector's item. If they ever released a proper (expanded) soundtrack I'd buy it in a second.

I also have a PC and because of that don't trust any torrents or downloading websites. There isn't much I'd download though. I can get all the TV I want, and if I want to see a movie, I'll see it in theaters, iTunes, or Blu-ray.

Only porn.


For music I watch/listen to the videos on youtube.

I only download TV shows by episode only because I don't have time to watched them on tv

People still download porn? Gotta stream man

Yes.

Movies=never
Youtube videos=occasionally
Music Albums/Song=not anymore
Other sites videos like youtube such as Liveleak or others=occasionally

Hell yeah

No.

I used to use Napster before they said it was illegal.

While I sure don't want to be caught and lose my law license, I also know what it's like on the other end...my books have shown up on pirate sites, which doesn't make me happy, of course.

I suppose maybe if some of you actually created something like music or a book and found that people were just downloading it for free, you might feel differently about stealing it.

I'd actually be glad that people are consuming my content. You shouldn't create just to see a financial benefit.

Yep. Thieves always have some rationale to make them not feel bad about stealing. (Trust me, I'm a lawyer, I've represented many!)

If it was stealing, I'd agree with you. But it's not. It is sharing. You are a telegram in the digital age. Time to modernize your ideals.

Yeah. Music. But usually songs that I created in my privacy that found their way to recording behind my backside. And then usually just to verify the borrowing by others who are considered to be...pros. I've never been paid a dime for it. They're family...in name only.

Else, I've downloaded the 5.1 DVD Audio versions of The Doobies, and Queen/A Night at the Opera because they are out of print. The used copies are rare and going for too much money.

There are many in the trade around me who are very careful about hiding their employment in the biz. So they arrange for OSCAR Screeners in the form of "bootlegs sold door-to-door for $5 each" so that they can be watched and shared without being obvious to the neighbors. I found a copy of "Gran Torino" on top of the dumpsters in 2008 while it was new in theaters. And the same with "The Two Towers" and RotK. The last two have the "For Your Consideration" appearing on screen in text every five minutes throughout the film.

And if you report these copies to the tipline at MPAA, they ignore it. Because it's understood.

Hmm, really? Aren't some just not feeling bad about it just because they, well, don't?

You make me very curious.