Do you buy pirated movies?

[Bruce]

I have bought pirated movies in the past. They abound here and you usually can get copies of the latest movies even before the reach our cinemas. However the quality is SO poor that it hardly makes any sense...I saw one once where I had to cock my head at a near 45 degree angle to see it straight up.

[aperio]

Originally Posted by Bruce

I have bought pirated movies in the past. They abound here and you usually can get copies of the latest movies even before the reach our cinemas. However the quality is SO poor that it hardly makes any sense...I saw one once where I had to cock my head at a near 45 degree angle to see it straight up.

See now, that would just make me more angry than anything. It's one thing if they are good quality, but anything less than that might as well just be a coaster on my coffee table.

[The Master Chief]

Isn't buying pirated film a bit of an oxy-moron?

I mean, if you are gonna buy a film...isn't the legitimate version far preferred to some crummy and half-baked pirate film on a DVD-R with a blank label, and possibly NO CASE?

Completely stupid if you ask me.

BUY THE REAL DEAL!

[Stubblecat]

I happily paid for Andy Richter Controls The Universe on eBay as a pirated 2-DVD set.

If Fox ever grows a brain, they'll put this brilliant show out in a nice legit box set and I'll happily buy it. Until then, I'm good.

[AbigailD]

I have never bought a pirated movie myself, but my mother, who thinks they are great, has gifted me a couple.

Honestly I couldn't have been more disappointed. The quality was just so poor that I couldn't see the point and turned them off within a few minutes of starting, it was horrible. Total waste of money.

That said I DO torrent TV shows from the UK. I miss them, I get homesick, and I cannot legally get them here. If I could do it legally I would-I have a whole host of region 2 DVDs for my kids, and a region 2 player so that they can watch what I did growing up. There's just no way to do these legally, so I take what I can find.

[Stubblecat]

I have to say that my copy of Return Of The Jedi from Thailand is awesome.
Not only is it a nice transfer of the laserdisc (it was pirated onto DVD a few years before the OT came out legally), but the real kicker are the incredibly flubbed up 'Engrish' subtitles.

There's nothing funnier than comparing what they're saying onscreen to what some Thai guy (who's only partially fluent in the language) is transcribing into subtitles.

[The Master Chief]

Originally Posted by Stubblecat

I happily paid for Andy Richter Controls The Universe on eBay as a pirated 2-DVD set.

If Fox ever grows a brain, they'll put this brilliant show out in a nice legit box set and I'll happily buy it. Until then, I'm good.

Well, alright... there will always be a few exceptions to the rules.

Andy Richter, Beavis&Butthead with all the music videos still in tact, and pretty much anything else that you can't buy legally.

For the majority though?

A friend gave me this bootleg of Star Wars Episode III while it was still in theatres, and I think I traded him a 20 Oz Pepsi for it... or maybe it was a dollar?

The picture quality wasn't terrible, but the DVD had some issues which made me miss the last 3rd of the film.

[Stubblecat]

That's funny, because a friend gave me a copy of Episode III as well, and it was Russian! Awesome. Unfortunately, only the title and opening crawl was Ruskie. Everything else was English, and the video quality was about 5th-generation widescreen screener copy.

Still though: I have a super sweet spot for bootlegs, pirates and fakes. I love when you find one that goes on either extreme side of the spectrum of being completely better than the legit version, or a complete blurry chopped-up mess with boned-up subtitles.

But selling them is wrong. Give 'em away for free, and I'm totally there.