We’ve all seen the ads.  The ones where it shows a bunch of scenes of people, criminals, if you will, stealing things, with brief text flashing on the screen.  “You wouldn’t steal a TV” etc.  At the end, you see a teenaged girl starting a download, possibly of a movie that she wants to see, and then leaves the room while it downloads.  “Piracy is a crime” it says.  Illegal Downloading: Inappropriate for all ages.  Roll credits.

Come on now…what are these commercials supposed to do?  Is it really meant to deter the mass of internet users from downloading pirated movies?  I can imagine a 19-year-old university student sitting in his dorm watching it, and suddenly thinking “My god!  All these years…how could I have been so stupid committing these crimes?  I’ll go turn myself in now.”  University enrollment in the years following would dwindle and civilized society as we know it will cease to exist, because the majority of us will be locked up in prison because of our good values and morals against piracy.  Good for us.

Well, that may be a stretch, but personally, I don’t see many problems with it.  Now, from a legal standpoint, I don’t know the technicalities of everything, but from what I understand for myself, yes, piracy is a crime.  Piracy, by definition, is the “unauthorized copying, distribution, or use of another's production.”  With that said though, if it really is a crime, wouldn’t the person who initially pirates the movie/game/software and places it on the internet for distribution the real pirate.  I mean, if we really needed to pinpoint one particular group of people, why not go for them, instead of slapping teens and old ladies with lawsuits.

Pirated movies and music have existed for a long time before the internet even started becoming popular.  I remember walking down the streets of Chinatown in Toronto as a kid, seeing the latest movies being sold on cheap VHS tapes for 4 bucks a pop.  Which, I think is actually worse than doing it on the internet.  People shouldn’t be profiting financially from piracy.  It should be done out of the goodness of one’s heart.  But that’s not always the case, I guess.  There will always be purchasers of pirated materials, so why go for them instead of the providers?

Of course, I don’t want this to happen either.  I’m quite a fan of free movies and music.  Does that make me a bad person?  Well, I don’t like to think so.  I’d like to think of it as…money conscious.  Everybody could agree with this.  If you had a choice between paying $29.99 plus tax for a movie on DVD, or even just renting it for $5, or alternatively just downloading it for free (of course, take into account your monthly internet service fees), why wouldn’t the last choice be the only sensible choice?  I like free stuff, and I’m quite sure everybody likes free stuff.  If you could walk into a restaurant, and they’d serve you free food that’s exactly the same as the restaurant next door charging $30 a plate, wouldn’t you just naturally take the free food?  Makes sense, doesn’t it?

Having said that though, I still buy DVDs, and music CDs and video games.  If I really like something, I don’t mind spending a few bucks on it here and there.  They always say the studios are the victims, and the artists.  Oh, poor them.  But are they really losing out here?  If I wasn’t going to pay $12.95 to see Dukes of Hazzard in the theatres, why would I buy it for $30, or rent it for $5, when I could watch that piece of crap for free.  Hell, I still feel ripped off after watching it for free.  I think I would’ve shot myself if I had paid to see it.

To download the piracy commercial, click here.

Like I mentioned before, the video depicts a bunch of criminals physically stealing TVs and cars, and compare it to a teenaged girl downloading a movie off the internet.  I guess they’re trying to really blur that line between those criminals, and bad-ass no-good teenagers who break copyright laws by downloading illegal copies of movies.  Way to go RIAA.  Those teenagers will get what’s comin to them.  You’ve shown me their true deviance, I’ll never trust them ever again.

Really, what this video is really saying is that, well, instead of stealing movies off the internet, you might as well go out and steal a car or some lady’s purse, cause it’s essentially the same thing.  What a life lesson.  Thanks a lot.  Interesting side note though, I downloaded that commercial, which was ripped from a DVD.  Sweet, sweet irony.