Illegal Sneak Previews

In what might raise the game of film piracy to a whole new level, a copy of the movie, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine” was put online and watched by thousands of people, a full month before it was to be released to theaters. The pirated copy of the film, which is missing some special effects and soundtrack finishing touches, spead through the Internet like wildfire and authorities are pretty much playing a futile game to close this Pandora's Box. It's hard not to believe that this is a phenomena which will only become more common.

I suppose that this is the nature of the increasingly digital age, that any content which is proprietary can be easily and quickly duplicated and distributed. For all of the rhetoric around digital-rights management (DRM) by media companies, I think they're going to fight a losing battle against consumers' desires to enjoy media for free. People can talk about fundamental respect for the artists and those people who make their living from the honest purchase of music and movies, but at the end of the day, people succumb to the relative anonymity of consuming bootleg media, sometimes rationalizing incorrectly that it's a victimless crime (like "punching someone in the dark" as the Simpson's Nelson Muntz would say).

Few people are going to pay money for something they can get for free. Sarah and I use the library online catalog and inter-library loan to watch all of the latest DVD's, so we don't pay one red cent, besides whatever portion of our taxes is going to library to purchase these DVD's. Waiting a few months for the movie to be available on DVD and a few more weeks waiting for the newest releases to become available at the library is a small price to pay compared to spending $25 for tickets, $10 for concessions, and $30 for a babysitter - especially in this economy.