Stop piracy and save immigrants.

[Llamatron]

I wasn't sure where to put this but here is as good a place as any.

My copy of Superman Returns arrived from Play.com this morning and in it was a flier that said the following:

"Thank you for doing the right thing by buying this genuine DVD."

I laughed out loud at this but then I turned over and read the other side:

"Immigration Crime

By rejecting DVD piracy you're helping us tackle it."

WTF?? I thought. It continued:

"You may remember the 21 Chinese illegal immigrants who tragically lost their lives whilst picking cockles in Morcambe Bay. Investigations by Lancashire Police led to the houses of the men responsible for their deaths. There they found over 4000 counterfeit DVDs and computers containing counterfeit material.

DVD piracy costs too much
Don't support it. Report it."

So according to them piracy leads to dead immigrants. Never mind that those responsible were criminals and it was just another source of easy money and is entirely unrelated to the tragic deaths.

Is it my imagination or have the movie studios sunk to a new low to protect their cash cows?

Thoughts and opinions please.

[commonsense]

mmm, interesting. I can see your point, personally I think they've ripped us off for too long and I am happy to buy pirate. They should stop paying actors millions per role then maybe people might actually buy the proper ones. God knows how they say those poor cockle pickers died because we buy pirate dvds. What were they cockle picking for if they were making their money on pirate dvds

[Octavius]

According to the UK�s reportpiracy website, �The next movie you watch on a pirated VCD, Cassette or DVD is lost revenue towards the production of the next movie from that studio, you are to blame.�

Now I personally don�t buy DVDs anyway, but I have watched a few pirated films. I can understand that large scale piracy is linked, albeit tenuously, to organised crime and that money made here may go towards illegal activities such as drug dealing, racketeering, prostitution etc, but I am almost certain that those activities will exist anyway and piracy & organised crime are not mutually exclusive.

I am also well aware that it costs the best part of �5.00 (haven�t been lately but it is probably more than that now?) and newly released DVDs are about �12 - �15 or more if they are Disney ones?

Sadly I am also aware that stars like Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks can �command� $25million per film. So should we all feel guilty that the next blockbuster starring Tom Cruise for a modest $20m cannot be made because my mate Kevin bought a knock off DVD from Romford Market, and therefore lost revenue for Paramount Pictures?? Sorry, not me.