TV's Frink said:
I'm just disappointed that so few people here appear to be concerned about piracy.
That's an area where I take a fairly strong stance.
There's a girl here at work who joined Netflix specifically so she could create a giant library for herself. Always with the meant as silly disclaimer - "you know me, I'm just a little pirate". No matter how many times I told her I didn't want to help her insure that my DVDs will always cost over twenty dollars to cover all the profits lost to piracy, she still tried to bring one by occasionally.
Every time we'd be in a conversation about films and I'd mention something I had and watched regularly or that I'm particularly fond of, she'd ask to borrow it. My answer was the same every time - "no, I don't want it bootlegged and passed on to other pirates & bootleggers" - which I know her & her husband do.
Through those very same connections, she was able to get a copy of The Dark Knight before its theatrical release. It was one of those copies the studios release for reviewers, with the disclaimer branding at the bottom of the screen. She was sure I'd watch that one because I'm a Batman nerd, so she made me a copy and left it on my desk. It sat there until she came and got it about a week later. I only know it was a stolen preview copy because a few other guys watched the copies she made for them.
Seems like she's finally gotten the message. These days she doesn't push the bootlegs on me, nor does she ask to borrow my DVDs.
I'm no saint by any stretch**, but I can't contribute to the very thing that makes the costs so high. I can't even begin to imagine the thousands of dollars she's stolen for herself, as well as passed on to others in her network of bootleggers.
.
** My full-film audio rips are most likely a form of copyright infringement, but they stay only with me, and they're all DVDs I purchased legally. In fact, I purchased Kingdom of the Crystal Skull twice (Blu-ray & DVD) just so I'd have one to rip the audio from. Along those same lines, I could have easily gotten a full copy of the Star Wars NPR version for free from a few sites, but I bought it from the manufacturer.
*steps off of soap box*