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| Wednesday, March 28, 2007 |
| Shhhhh - Last night I watched a movie online that is only suppose to be in theaters |
I am feeling guilty this morning. While trolling around the blogosphere I came across a post talking about the movie 300. I had heard of the movie, but frankly was not interested in paying to see it in a movie theater. While I am a history buff, this movie was not known for its historical accuracy. But still, I was intrigued to see what this online version would look like.
Expecting to find a "sloppy copy" version - something where a guy in a theater is holding up a camcorder to film the screen and you can see the silhouettes of heads in front of you and hear coughing and other crowd noises. You know, the kind of thing I found when an old roommate played a video he had purchased from sidewalk vendor in New York City years ago.
That assumption was wrong. I watched a DVD quality movie (albeit split into 6 or 7 segments) that streamed in an online viewer. No downloading required.
Holy Molly! No wonder Hollywood is up in arms about this. If I stumbled on this thing and managed to find and watch a movie for free - what the heck are other more savvy folks doing? After watching 300 I found myself searching for movies I really have been looking forward to seeing. I got half-way through The Departed when my guilty conscience finally forced me to stop watching.
I was being as bad as the teenagers who used to slip into movie theaters via the exit doors. Or the kids who would go to an early movie and finally leave the complex in the evening - after hopping from theater to theater watching 2 or 3 movies for the price of one. There are enough legitimate ways I can watch a movie for free. But man, it is a temptation and I can see why people would do it.
But what about the rest of you? Do you watch movies and shows online for free? What shows have you seen? Is this normal now? |
| posted by Boston Gal @ 11:03 AM *
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| 6 Comments: |
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Last year I took my wife to see a movie, which we didn't enjoy as much as we thought we would. As we were leaving afterwards, we walked by another movie just about to start, a movie we had both wanted to see, so we snuck in! About 10 minutes in to the movie I was feeling so guilty I couldn't enjoy the movie at all, so I determined I would pay for it, then I sat back and REALLY enjoyed the rest of the movie. On my way out I stopped bu the ticket counter and purchased 2 tickets for a later showing of the movie I had just watched. In the parking lot I tore them up and threw them in a trash can. I figured my integrity was worth more than $18!!! I think my wife thought I was a little nuts, but still appreciated having an honest husband! =)
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Nope, It's not an ethical question with me, more of convenience. My monitor's not big enough and I don't have a couch near by. I'd rather pay and enjoy watching (by DVD or theater) than free and annoyed.
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You can download movies legally through movielink.com. You can "rent" for $1.99 or buy for around $10.
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I'm guilty of watching stuff through online video services. my favorite show, the l word, is on a premium channel on cable and I have not a tv or cable. I got hooked on the show through DVDs from netflix but then got antsy this season and was amazed that I could stay caught up because people would post the episodes. Man, admitting that publicly and thinking about how it is indeed wrong really makes me squirm a bit. But then again, with the season having just ended, it's probably too convenient to say I'll stop. But if I want to be more honest with myself, then I need to reconsider that realm of personal responsibility.
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I was talking to a friend in the past week about how expensive movies in the theater have become and we discussed generally whether or not it was in the theater's best interest to have more staff to police against "one ticket=multiple movies" customers. We came to the unexpected conclusion that because the theater itself makes much more on concessions than its percentage take on ticket revenue, they were better off letting these people watch multiple movies (captive audience - will have to buy more stuff from the concession stands), as long as there was excess seating capacity at those showings.
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Last year I took my wife to see a movie, which we didn't enjoy as much as we thought we would. As we were leaving afterwards, we walked by another movie just about to start, a movie we had both wanted to see, so we snuck in! About 10 minutes in to the movie I was feeling so guilty I couldn't enjoy the movie at all, so I determined I would pay for it, then I sat back and REALLY enjoyed the rest of the movie. On my way out I stopped bu the ticket counter and purchased 2 tickets for a later showing of the movie I had just watched. In the parking lot I tore them up and threw them in a trash can. I figured my integrity was worth more than $18!!! I think my wife thought I was a little nuts, but still appreciated having an honest husband! =)