How do you obtain the films you watch?

[nauru]

99.9% of reasonably popular games (as well as many, many unpopular ones) are available for free on via links posted on dedicated forums like tehparadox, or dc++, or bittorrent, or via other methods (I don't mention usenet because usenet is not free). DRM of new games is usually cracked within a few days or weeks.

The problem, however is quality control. Cracked games sometimes carry malware/viruses, and sometimes cracked games have minor or major glitches (graphics messed up, levels won't load, random crashes) which make the gaming experience much less enjoyable than the real thing. Mind you, sometimes the cracked version is 100% just as good as the purchased version. But even so, a single game may have a fifty or so different warez releases, a large proportion of which may be crap. So in order to find the good version, you will have to spend time sifting through all the crap. Over time if you download a lot of cracked stuff you will come to recognize the reliable release groups and also learn which sites/releases are going to be a waste of time. But this too requires investing time in learning how the warez ecosystem works. Also downloading cracked stuff from dark corners of the internet will probably be slower than downloading from steam. So steam is a lot quicker, more convenient and provides a sort of quality guarantee that warez sites certainly do not. Even if your leisure time has a low per-hour value, the prices on Steam are generally low enough that it's still worthwhile to buy rather than hunt for a free copy.

[stuie299]

In regards to archaic business models lets revisit the limited release model. I would watch a lot more movies if they were available through an online source or through on demand. I'm lucky enough to have a small Indie movie theater where I live but I still miss a lot of movies. A lot of times you have to be diligent about checking showtimes to see if they get the movie I'm interested in. Sometimes they don't get the movie. Other times they do and they just don't have showtimes I can go to. After all its a small theater with only 3 screens. Unless its a really popular movie (Moonrise Kingdom, The Master) its only there for a week.

[neurophate]

I only download, have my board rmvboard.pl.
Now, i use mostly torrents (piratebay), and recently rapidshare.
Just finished downloading The Campaign.

[nauru]

Seems to me Putlocker is the new Megaupload...

Only host I'm aware of that still gives free users unlimited access and roughly 1 megabyte per second download speeds.

[jeff_v]

I see a ton of movies and have never felt the need to download anything. 95% of what I watch I either see in theaters or via Netflix or TCM. The other 5% would be via YouTube (or other online video sources), eBay/Amazon, On Demand, or other cable channels.

[ShogunRua]

As td888 accurately posted, there are a litany of things they can do. However, you want to see a business model that is ALREADY implementing this, and has been massively successful, look no further than Steam.

Instant downloads, a digital copy of the game that stays with you forever (granted, as long as you keep the Steam client), lower prices, constant massive sales, tons of free games, etc.

How easy or difficult is to get a pirated copy of the same games? From my cursory reading of Steam's Wikipedia page it seems as if they have some kind of DRM. Has their DRM been reverse engineered/broken?

It's very easy to get a pirated copy, as it is with any form of media. And yes, Steam itself is a form of DRM.

But the point is, even in countries where there is a huge piracy culture many times greater than in the US (like my native Russia, one reason why many media publishers believe there is no hope in making money there), Steam is a huge moneymaker, and something that Gabe Newell (head guy of Valve, which started Steam) frequently brags about. (And rightfully so)

Look, there will always be piracy, and again, you can't prove that it costs anyone a single cent. However, oftentimes it's a question of convenience; would I rather pay $10 for a game on a Steam sale, or risk downloading something that could have malware on it, and/or run afoul of the Copyright Act?

The point should be to offer media to the consumer in a manner that is more convenient to them than piracy.

Oh, and great post by nauru on this same topic.

I see a ton of movies and have never felt the need to download anything. 95% of what I watch I either see in theaters or via Netflix or TCM. The other 5% would be via YouTube (or other online video sources), eBay/Amazon, On Demand, or other cable channels.

Some of us don't have televisions, let alone cable subscriptions.

But even if I had both, I can't fucking stand commercials or edited versions of movies.

[iceblox]

Not having to deal with FBI warnings, menus, trailers, extras, bloopers and other crap is reason alone to NOT buy DVDs, and just download the movie. For someone who is paying money to buy a DVD, one would think that they would make it more easy for them - one should not have to fiddle with the remote for minutes before one can watch the damn movie.

[somnivore]

Not having to deal with FBI warnings, menus, trailers, extras, bloopers and other crap is reason alone to NOT buy DVDs, and just download the movie. For someone who is paying money to buy a DVD, one would think that they would make it more easy for them - one should not have to fiddle with the remote for minutes before one can watch the damn movie.

Amen.

Anyhow, interesting thread. I use mainly Netflix (and used to maintain a criticker collection of the "better" streams). Buying physical media has stopped making sense to me... oh, wait, it never made sense to me.

However, even though I still use Netflix, I must caution that the service has gotten worse and worse over the years. The selection is still quite good, relatively speaking, and, if you have a good connection, the video quality is very good, but the reasons to use Netflix stop there. They've destroyed their UI entirely (one of the reasons I stopped maintaining the collection is because they removed some basic features that helped me do that), and the price isn't a particularly good value.