Torrent: Everybody Does Illegal Things

Many of us have seen these warning labels:

This screen pretty much states that any duplication of this film is illegal. ILLEGAL! There are ways to get aroud that. There is an software called uTorrent. It allows people to ultimately download anything that they want. For those of you that may not know what torrent is, here is a little bit of information about it.

A torrent file is a computer file that contains metadata about files and folders to be distributed, and usually also a list of the network locations of trackers, which are computers that help participants in the system find each other and form efficient distribution groups called swarms.[1] A torrent file does not contain the content to be distributed; it only contains information about those files, such as their names, sizes, folder structure, and cryptographic hash values for verifying file integrity. Depending on context, a torrent may be the torrent file or the referenced content.

I personally do not torrent anything, but I feel that it shouldn't be illegal if you already own a copy of whatever you want to Torrent. For example, if you have a dvd copy of the movie and you want to have a digital copy of the film, I feel that it is fine that you torrent a version of it.

Just thought this is information that you should know!

Is pirating movies always wrong?

One of the greatest challenges production companies have to face is pirated films. In the U.S. it is illegal to download or copy a film without proper authorization, but what if that was the only way you could view the movie? Hear me out for a minute. Hypothetically speaking, lets just say the film "Wolf of Wall Street" by Martin Scorsese comes out in China. You being from the United States have not had the chance to see the film yet but you really want to, all the sudden you hear it's band to be viewed by the country for "extreme scenes of nudity, sex, debauchery, hedonism and cursing". Of course this being a free country that would never happen, but Kenya is another story.

As you may have guessed, Kenya banned the oscar nominated film, "wolf of Wall Street", for the reasons listed earlier. In response, many people in Kenya decided to respond by pirating the film. "Wolf of Wall Street" was being sold for $0.57 on the dollar to Kenyan illegally  but is that wrong? Many would argue yes, no matter the rules of the country, you cannot steal a film whether that is your only option or not, and some could argue that if they ever want to see the film this is what they must do. Honestly, what would you do if your only option to see the movie was to purchase it illegally for $0.57? Ultimately breaking the law of any country is not a good idea in terms of ethics and moral code, but what to you do when they just don't seem fair? 

Those who get fought purchasing the film can face a fine up to $1,160 or several years in jail. Although people feel Kenya is unfair for their policies you could also say they could be right. One of the arguments to why Kenya bans the film is for the protection of their Women and Children. It's easy to say it's wrong of the country to restrict the people of such art but one could understand the reasoning why. At the end of the day it all comes down to why you believe and your ethical code. Is Kenya at fault for disallowing the film or is their reasoning unjust? 

Illegal Music Downloading

If you don't know me well, then you wont know that I play in a signed band that goes on tours and has their music distributed worldwide.  We're on iTunes, Amazon, and pretty much any other site that music is sold on.  The point of this isn't to toot my own horn but just so I can establish my knowledge on the subject and kind of give my own standpoint.  Now, I know that this is a little off the vein of video editing but, I do think it is important to talk about illegal music downloading because we are seeing a lot of the same things in illegal video streaming and downloading.  I am also giving a speech and writing a documentary on the subject so I have done a lot of research on the topic.

Although I am connected very strongly to the music industry, my opinion on the subject is very unbiased and dead in the middle on the topic.  On one hand, it has costed the industry millions of dollars every year and since Napster started the online illegal file sharing in 1999, the industry has regressed in sales almost 50%.  Its costed almost 100,000 jobs in the music industry and is the reason the music industry and labels support really crappy mainstream artists because they don't have money to invest and take risks on musicians and artists that are outside of the mainstream.

On the other hand, you have to blame the record labels and the RIAA for failing to adapt well if at all to the changes that the internet has brought into the music scene and have stayed in the stone age when it comes to file sharing and streaming content.  In recent history, they have allowed things like spotify and pandora which is great but have made it very hard to make music accessible to everyone.  Most people want to experience music before they put money down to buy it.

I think a lot of it comes down to education and the mindset of Americans.  I'm worried that this trend is beginning to plague the movie industry as well. I'm wondering what everyone else's thoughts are on the subject and if they have ideas on how to fix it.