i had an interesting discussion with a friend of mine, which i thought would share with you guys here.

he said that Paramount going HD-DVD exclusive will give the blu-boys a reason to go into piracy, while they otherwise would not.

normally you wouldn't do it. but since the Paramount go exclusive announchment. what would you do?

Not discuss or advocate piracy in any way shape or form. It is illegal. We are in a bleeding edge demographic. Who ever said it would be cheap or easy? If they want to see the movies in HD. Buy a HD DVD player or 360 Add on and watch it on their computers. Or stick to DVD. Anything else is illegal.

I do not think so. It would be a lot easier and cheaper to get an HD-DVD player and buy the discs.

Five years or a 250,000 Dollar Fine. Hell of a lot cheaper to do the honest thing!

Five years or a 250,000 Dollar Fine. Hell of a lot cheaper to do the honest thing!

Yeah...but there are plenty of clowns out there. Plus, you have the BD diehards that are all pissed off now and I have read numerous posts that state:

- Im done with HD now
- Im done with Paramount
- I hate my family
- Im gonna Pirate everything
- Its Dick Cheney / Haliburtons fault.

Blah blah, focking blah......

:p

Five years or a 250,000 Dollar Fine. Hell of a lot cheaper to do the honest thing!

Do you know and end user that has gotten anything close to that? Me neither.

Generally only the first leaks or distributors ever even make it to trial.

I myself have been known to download a few things now and then, but I myself would probably hold on to my dvd releases of their flicks that I want and upscale them, for the exclusive deal to end, or to wait for reasonably priced dual format players.

Yeah, actually.

My neighbor in the dorms in College was taken to trial but was able to settle out of court for a much reduced fee. He was able to get it talked down to much reduced fine.

FWIW it was a Michael Jackson song and on a local network at a michigan college. Don't piss off Michael! ;):P

I have already seen a few HD-DVD movies burned to a Blu-ray disc for sale in Yongsan Electronics Market in Seoul, South Korea. The menus didn't work, but the movies were there. The cost was prohibitive (they wanted $30 US for them). I asked the guy about it, and he said it was "an experiment" to see if he could get it to work. He used AnyDVD. One was a Bourne movie (the one playing). People set up shop and sell copied DVDs and stuff on the street there, and move around. He was playing it on a laptop. I'll look for him again and see if I can find him. Been there twice since, and he hasn't been there. I'll try to snap a photo of it. I don't plan on buying it, because I would rather buy two legit blu-rays used on E-bay for that price.

Personally, I'd worry more about the DIVX download sites selling HD/torrent material. There is a korean site called, wedisk.co.kr that is basically a paid torrent. Although they have a statement that says, "Don't download illegal files", that is entirely what the site is made up of. It's successful because people create their own Korean subtitles and "sell" the downloads of the movies they've subtitled on there. I'm certain the movie industry doesn't see a penny, as movies cost about 20 cents to download, usually in DIVX or XVID format. Quality is somewhere between DVD and HD-DVD. People join thinking it's legal. It can't be, and the lady I knew who joined and showed me was miffed at that.

HD will never take off in Korea due to this.

Piracy is a problem that if we could nip it in the bud it would make it cheaper for the rest of the world. I would remove how they were doing it in Korea from your post. I don't condone piracy and I know the forum doesn't either. That could give people the wrong idea.

I suspect that this will have very little impact on piracy of Paramount movies. This is not a Blu-ray neutral studio going HD DVD, allowing their discs to be pirated without the promise of BD+ to protect their content.

Paramount's been doing HD DVD all along. Therefore, I see nothing having changed here. Moreover, those that are immature enough to "take vengence" on HD DVD for daring to take all their Paramount movies, well they're probably immature enough to steal their movies regardless.

HD DVD ROM for your PC - $150
BD Buner for your PC - $500
HD DVD rental - $5
Blank BD-R $15
Burned copy failing in 2 years and not playing on your BD machine - priceless :D

Seems like a lot of money to pirate a movie, at least to me.

Paramount going HD-DVD exclusive will give the blu-boys a reason to go into piracy, while they otherwise would not.Too late. 9 out of 10 Thieves Prefer Blu-Ray. (http://crunchgear.com/2007/07/25/the-format-war-is-over-9-out-of-10-thieves-prefer-blu-ray/)

Too late. 9 out of 10 Thieves Prefer Blu-Ray. (http://crunchgear.com/2007/07/25/the-format-war-is-over-9-out-of-10-thieves-prefer-blu-ray/)
haha, well; which one is it?

i had an interesting discussion with a friend of mine, which i thought would share with you guys here.

he said that Paramount going HD-DVD exclusive will give the blu-boys a reason to go into piracy, while they otherwise would not.

normally you wouldn't do it. but since the Paramount go exclusive announchment. what would you do?


This has got to be the most full of s*** post I have ever read here at AVS.

First of all, nothing will stop piracy. Secondly, people who download movies for free don't even have the ethical question in mind that you pose... should I get a free movie, or should I only get free movies from Paramount because they "betrayed" me?

I can't think of a more ridiculous premise. The only possible thing you could have been thinking when making this post was to make a threat. However that was botched because you obviously don't understand the pirate mentality if you think they are some ethical bunch who would abstain from stealing Paramount titles if they could still buy them on Blu Ray.

with Paramount going HD-DVd exclusive. will this lead into more Piracy?
Ripping a Paramount HD DVD disc and re-authoring it to play on a Blu-ray player (assuming that Blu-ray player even supports recordable BD discs!) is by no means easy. So no, it will not lead to more piracy.

Piracy at this stage of the game could end it for all of us.

I buy discs to help offset the studios costs, that is fair. Eventually over time I expect the costs to drop as sunk money has been made back.

If I cannot buy Disney HD I'll get SD and be happy for what I can get right now.

Piracy at this stage of the game could end it for all of us.
So the studios would rather sell nothing than sell $billions? All they have to do is prosecute pirates, and people who value their reputation, won't.

BD+ suggests that Fox thinks everyone else crooks, like they are

Pirate discs? Or spend $150 for a player... even for dishonest folks, that's a pretty easy choice.

No, it won't lead to additional piracy. Price the hardware (and software) appropriately and it'll sell like pancakes. DVD has shown that pretty clearly.