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Why Million Dollar Paychecks do not Justify Movie Piracy
Saturday, May 14, 2011 at 11:43PM If you didn't know by now, I do not recommend nor support piracy...specifically, movie piracy. Now with that said, I'm referring to instances where people buy or sell pirated movies, whether on the street or online. That is not to say that I am in favor of people copying movies or putting them up for others to download without the authorization of the studio or producer(s) who made these movies but that is another story and it is not a story that is worth addressing, at least by me.
What follows is my response to a comment left by someone named James on an old article titled "Why Movie Piracy is Wrong."
Many people seem to have the same feelings as what was expressed in his comment:
"I will believe the movie studios are losing money when they stop paying actors millions of dollars to be in films."
While paying millions of dollars to actors may be a bit extravagant for studios that claim loss of revenue due to movie piracy, it is still their right to pay actors whatever they please and even if they don't want to pay that much, actors have agents, managers and most often belong to a union that requires them to get paid more than the average service worker. There may be more to these million dollar paychecks than consumers think but even in cases where there isn't and it's just a move to cover the extravagant egos of top-of-the-line stars, that is still the studio's decision to make.
Supporting illegal transactions do not help the problem. If you want to really cause some changes in the way that they pay actors in Hollywood, then maybe it is better to hit them in the pocket using alternative methods other than supporting movie piracy. These alternative methods could include refusing to buy tickets for movies with stars that have paychecks that you find to be too much.
The CEO of a retail store is paid more money than cashiers and receptionists who work for the store so based on the million dollar paycheck argument, this should justify stealing. Are employees in the right if they still merchandise from stores or companies that they are working for and then sell it to other people for a profit? The answer is NO.
Jumping on that old and tired bandwagon of "actors are paid millions so money is not an issue in Hollywood" excuse to defend piracy or try to make the studios' claim of losing money invalid is nothing more than a scapegoat that defends (whether indirectly or directly) piracy....something that is ILLEGAL, no matter which way you put it or try to come down on studios and actors who get paid millions of dollars.
Why even pirate movies if you have a problem with the million dollar paychecks in Hollywood?
If you want to see one and don't want to pay for it, why not just wait until it comes out on DVD and then borrow that DVD from someone who owns it?
Just a thought!
Technorati Tags: wordcount+blogathon, movie+piracy, 2011+wordcount+blogathon, may+blogathon, may+blogging, wordcount+blogging, million+dollar+paychecks, hollywood+actors
Reader Comments (3)
Yeah, I'm with you. Stealing is stealing. It will be interesting in the coming years (decades?) how the law catches up to this age of extremely available information.
Nicole, thanks for your lovely and supportive comment on my blog. The ritual atop the mountain was perfect - almost like Mother Nature set it all up. It's been chilly and so windy, but that morning the wind was calm and up there at the mountain top it was cool but the sun warming us - yum! I said some stuff and had a cry, and then my husband and I shared a cheese danish! It is so hard to stop "trying," and sometimes we get all tense about letting go too - like, "let go! let go! let go!" as if you just could! But then it does come - usually when you feel rather beaten. But maybe that's the way it is, you really have to almost get to the point where you say, "fine! who cares! Universe: just take care of it please and whatever you do will have to be fine." And then it does, and it is. I think I need to post about this!
Hugs
Melissa
I feel the same way about movie piracy. To me, there's something to be said for having the physical media in your hands. You're guaranteed a quality experience with a studio-released blu-ray, and for me the movie experience is different than books and music. It's escapism at it's finest, and I don't want poor sound and picture quality getting in my way of that.