'Fast Five,' 'Hangover II' Among Most-Pirated Movies in 2011

Funny thing about 'pirated' movies. It's perfectly legal to download movies to your system for private 'not for profit' viewing. It's called previewing and is an integrated part of the copyright laws. You are allowed to keep a digital copy of any media you legally purchased and can show proof of said purchase. If you do not own an actual copy of the media in question, you are required to either purchase one, delete said media from your system within 24 hours, or risk hefty (and over inflated) fines and penalties.

This part of those laws exist on as an encouragement to legally buy copies. Also balancing out the fact that if you do pay for it and do not like it you're usually stuck with it. Kind of like a no lemon clause.

Which is incidentally how it should be in my opinion. You shouldn't have to pay for a permanent copy of something you don't enjoy labled 'entertainent'. Also subsequently, you SHOULD buy any media you honestly do enjoy and would like to own on the basis of repeat viewing. It also has the added effect that when you DO buy a legit copy it increases the likelyhood that those making the media you DO like of making more versus giving up over not making enough.

You should never profit from another's hard work by selling copies or stealing media and claiming for your own. But let's face facts... That's never stopped most in media entertainment or RIAA from trying to steal from everyone including each other.

I would have liked if this article had been a bit more informative rather than sounding like a lame attempt at a scolding. This time should have been better spent letting people know their rights rather than accusing millions of thievery in an attempt to restart the copyright wars which are already old and tired.

My personal stance? Support your favorite artists. Buy thier stuff if you like it. Screw RIAA, they can rot in hell. Screw ITunes for trying to ruin a wonderful media technology by charging a buck a song for songs most probably already own, but got double charged anyway because they didn't know any better.

Selling cloned copies of media for your own profit is wrong. That's true piracy. Downloading songs and movies is not. Please get it right next time or I'll be back to correct your ineptitude again.

With the amount of money these films have made, pirating does not seem to have affected them that much.
Thats good for the film makers as well as for the people who pirate.

my external hard drive is full of movies but I still go to the movies from time to time and get raped to see movies I think will be good but most of the time I come out wishing I would've just downloaded the garbage instead of wasting 2 hrs of my life and money

What does that tell you. If you don't want to lose money on big movies make them FREE TO STREAM and add Commercials it will be WIN WIN situation. They take years before they do that.

What #$%$ The studio's are not losing any money on pirated movies. People who pirate movies would not pay for the movies anyway.... get a clue!

The average pirate actually pays more for legitimate software, dvds and games than the average person. This is due to the fact that they use electronic products more than the average person, and thus will end up legitimately purchasing more than the average person. I don't think yahoo lets one post links so here is a quote from an article about this:
"BI Norwegian School of Management researchers examined the music downloading habits of more than 1,900 Internet users over the age of 15, and found that illegal music connoisseurs are significantly more likely to purchase music than the average, non-P2P-loving user."
The RIAA doesn't like to admit this though.

I posted this as a reply to a comment earlier but I think it warrants its own post.

im not going to lie i have them pirated

I have downloaded movies for free in the past, but only to watch them once. If I like the movie, I will go buy it. If not, at least I didn't lose any money. I think that this is a very gray area. I don't think it's right to pirate it and then sell it, but if you're using it like a rental, who really cares. If the movie is worth it, they get my money.

Demonoid is my friend. I can DL the movies and music I want. I still go to the movie theater but its more a of a treat bc goodness I feel like I was mugged after I leave the ticket counter and concession stand. If they want to come after me for being a pirate then ARRRRRR MATEY bring it on. I dont have anything left to take lol

The new Yahoo sucks!

I get my movies free from the library. You can get any title for a week, sometimes you have to reserve it and may have to wait a couple days, but I haven't paid for a movie in 5 years.

There is a difference between downloading a movie and pirating one. Pirating is where you download to make a profit(Selling). Downloading is just downloading. You are not selling, you are only viewing. I paid my ticket to Fast Five in the theaters, and yes I downloaded the movie afterwards. I am not paying 20$ for some extra commentary, previews, and special features that I have no interest in seeing. I am not getting a nice DVD menu screen with some cool music...I am just getting a movie, often times less than DVD quality. There should be no problem with downloading movies. I have over 400 DVDS on my shelf to which have accumulated at least 3 grand over the years. I regret spending that money on material I never watch.

And here I am thinking that art isn't supposed to be about the money...

4 dollar sodas with no refills. God i love America

i proudly have them and many many many other movies that I pirated and guess what don't give a crap. I will continue to pirate anything that I want.

Anybody remember what happened to ISOHunt? That same thing will be coming to a site you frequent early next year.

Just check it out free from the library.

If the film industry didn't pay their actors and actresses millions of dollars in advance to make crappy films, and expect it to come out of our pockets they wouldn't have any problem. I agree that everyones work should come with a price tag, but the price tag should be reasonable if you're looking for millions of people to want to watch it. They aren't keeping it reasonable.Isn't the point of making movies or music or any type of art for that matter, SUPPOSED to being able to express yourself and hopefully entertaining the masses with whatever talent you've been given? Not just a get rich quick scheme?
How is downloading one of these movies from a pirating website any different than streaming it from netflix or something similar and keeping it in your que? Both give you the ability to access and watch the movie whenever you like.
Whats next? Will they step in between me handing my favorite DVD to my best friend to borrow since she obviously didn't pay for it and therefore has no right to view it???

The movie Taken was out weeks before its release...everyone I know had it. Then the Wolverine bootleg came out...it was not the finished product because you could see the props used were not erased yet....someone at the production companies are releasing them...go find them and leave us poor people alone

Doesn't really seem like pirating is hurting the movie industry.