Piracy

       This section was created with the aim of addressing issues about movies. Here I will write reviews for films that I consider particularly interesting. As a form of art, films are important in every modern culture. In my opinion a good film should have a message, but unfortunately there are many films (even blockbusters) that are simply a waste of time. Actually, wasting time is what many people do nowadays when they decide to spend their time searching, downloading and watching films from the internet as a film should be watched in proper conditions, which means a wide screen and the best sound conditions.

Being this my first text, I would like to write a few words about the controversial issue of piracy, namely the kind that involves downloading films.

We all know that piracy is very controversial topic. Every day, thousands of people download pirated films (many of them still in theatres) without them being subject to any criminal accusation. Most of them use P2P (Peer to Peer), which is one of the most secure and fastest ways to share files. Many people cannot distinguish piracy from sharing. The P2P system is a way of sharing files among people, so it cannot be considered as piracy. Contrarily, the sale of those movies without authorization is considered piracy as people gain profit from the work of other people.

In this paper, I will outline some reasons for and against piracy, and analyse each one.

One of the main reasons why many people today download movies is due to the easy process of obtaining the film online; just go to a P2P site and make the download. It’s simple and fast (in average it takes about 2 hours depending on connections).

Most of the movies that are on the net, have a very low quality and may or may not have subtitles, as it often depends on the popularity  of the film. More quality films means one of  two following drawbacks: the first is that the high-quality movies most of the times can have up to 5 GiB a minimum of size, taking then more time to download; the other fact is that the availability is very limited, and usually only the films with great success are available in high definition. Another factor seldom mentioned is the wide variety of movies. Let’s suppose that I want to see an old movie; the easiest way is to get it through the net as it requires little time and just some research.

Now, let me mention some of the aspects against piracy, which are a lot: first, and in my opinion the most important, is that the authors don´t receive money for their work (the famous COPYRIGHTS) often ignored by people. A good example was the movie “X-MAN – Origins” which was available in amazing quality on the net 1 month before its release, and contained some parts still on production that were in black and white. As a consequence, it was estimated that the film producers lost a huge amount of money.

Another important fact is the advantage of the natural environment of a cinema/theatre room. That’s why most people try to recreate the cinema environment at home, with high definition and a great sound system (Home Cinema). However, it is not the same as going to the cinema, where we are comfortably seated, (maybe with some XL Popcorn bucket…), the best sound system you can have and a big screen to better see the film. Also, only Cinema can bring us new experiences, such as 3D movies that have recently been very successful.

In my opinion, and although I know that it is very difficult to resist, piracy is wrong. All authors should have the reward for their work, no matter how big or small it may be. In some way, piracy is like entering a movie theatre, without paying, even though with less quality. Despite many claims and warnings, very little has been done by governments.

BY 451 - Fernandes