Ian Morris

Ian Morris loves televisions so much he's been banned from wedding chapels in Las Vegas for trying to marry them. When he's not romancing technology, he can be found watching American TV. Ian likes roast potatoes, but he doesn't like digital rights management.

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Tuesday 3 April 2007, 5:31pm

I haven't stolen anything, leave me alone

I'm getting really annoyed by that advert that appears at the beginning of every DVD I buy. You almost certainly know the one I mean, it goes something like this:

Shady looking bloke steals a car
Message appears 'You wouldn't steal a car'
Shady looking bloke steals a handbag
Message appears 'You wouldn't steal a handbag'
Shady looking bloke steals mobile phone
Message appears 'You wouldn't steal a mobile phone'

Then some message appears that says 'downloading movies is theft, and theft is a crime'.

When I say you know the one I mean, what I mean is, you know the one I mean if you obey the 'law' and buy DVDs. If you 'nick' them off the Web, you'll never have seen it. And therein lies the problem.

Those of us that pay for our DVDs have to sit through this wretched lecture about how we shouldn't steal movies, when to all but the very most stupid people in the world it's obvious we've actually bought the DVD. Meanwhile, every 16-year-old kid on the planet has been spared this patronising, irritating waste of time by downloading the film off the Internet.

Can anyone tell me what this message is suppose to achieve? Apart from raise my blood pressure, which it does very well.

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Comments on this post

i've been thinking the same thing for years mate, so true.

Posted by James Clark on Fri 6 April, 2007 8:49 PM

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Yep! Same deal with CDs with copy-protection.. I've bought the thing and I'm unable to use it on the system I wish due to them 'protecting' against people who haven't - when this just means that the people who have downloaded have an easier time than me, a genuine buyer - grr!

Posted by Dave M on Sun 8 April, 2007 5:32 PM

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I have been complaining about the pointlessness of this for a long time too. Worse still, it's an outright lie. Downloading movies is neither theft nor a criminal act. Without permanently depriving the owner of their property there is no theft and few copyright infringers operate on the scale required for criminal action (it really applies only to mass infringement on a commercial level). So yes, you can be sued in a civil case for downloading movies but the content of this "ad" is simply a lie - and they know it.

Posted by PriyanPhoenix on Tue 17 April, 2007 10:03 AM

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