Undercutting Hollywood

It's noon on Friday the 31st of October. Better known as Halloween. I am heading to one of my favorite Chinese restaurants to pick up some chicken and mushrooms over fried rice. On my way into the restaurant I saw a short quiet Hispanic lady with a backpack, partly surrounded by two gentlemen that looked to be around 35ish. I saw her backpack slightly open and she was passing some sort of packaged items back and forth between the men. Since I can be very curious or if you want to call it nosey, I went to investigate what it was and she had about 100 dvd's in customized cases and clear wrapping. The lady was selling illegal, burnt DVD's. I have to admit that they were very nicely done and besides the poor sleeve print quality and the thin cases, I might of actually thought they were legit DVD copies. The fact of the matter is I knew right away that they were illegal copies.

Being the curious guy I am, I asked her how much the movies were. With a very deep Spanish accent she told me they were five dollars. FIVE DOLLARS!! The movies she had were about twenty dollars a piece at Walmart. She had the new Tinkerbell movie, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Iron Man, Incredible Hulk and more. I am now going to confess something to everyone. I bought six movies from this lady. Not just for one reason but many and here they are: She looked like she could really use the money, my daughters love Tinkerbell, five dollars is nothing for a new movie, I have always felt that movies are way over priced and I really wanted to see Iron Man. These are all very legit reasons for why I bought these movies but it definetly does not make it right. A guilty chord was struck in me when I was driving home but also my bargain voice inside my head was giving me crazy high fives for this great bargain.

When I got home my daughters were very happy to see I had a few new movies for them that they had never seen before. These movies will definetly be good from some homebody entertainment but non the less it was an illegal purchase. How does this story make you feel? I will be honest and say that I really dont feel that bad. I dont feel how I would if I went out and bought illegal drugs. I dont feel how I would if I went and stole from my local grocery store. Is this veiwed as a crime in our American society? And when I say " American " society I mean those that are not involved with the law.

A relative crime would be downloading music off the internet. I have to admit that I have done this myself. Does the " American " society view this as a crime? I cant really say I feel it is. I know technically speaking it is and I know it can carry some harsh punishments and the same goes for burning and buying illegal DVD's. But, it seems to me that these types of things go on pretty freely. Should we feel guilty when doing these things? Should we feel bad that there is an actor/actress that worked their butt off to perform amazingly in a movie that we are going to buy illegally and that actor/actress will never get their share of the movie sales? There are alot of questions that we can ask ourselves when thinking of these things. What it comes down to is moral judgement. I might need to get back to the drawing board and do some self modifications when it comes to the do's and dont's.