Media Piracy: Good Economics?

What I know is this:

A. On copy-crippling: I absolutely adamantly refuse to own non-standards-compliant CDs. This means no crappyright protection. And for those wise-asses who mention forms of crappyright protection that fall within acceptable boundaries of standards, I'll simplify: if I cannot copy it, back it up, put it on an iPod, put it into a compilation disc, move it to my portable hard drive, and otherwise have complete freedom and autonomy with the contents of the disc, I will never buy it. Ever.

B. On the RIAA: I don't support businesses that sue. I use the RIAA Radar religiously to find out which of the albums in which I'm interested are safe to buy.

C. For those bands who do right by me, I will attempt to do right by them. If a band puts out good music, does NOT copy-cripple to deny me my Fair Use rights, and is not involved with the RIAA, I will try to buy their album ASAP.

I bought 7 albums in the past couple months.
Therion-Lemuria/Sirius B
Therion-Deggial
Leaves' Eyes-Lovelorn
Leaves' Eyes-Vinland Saga
Epica-Consign to Oblivion
Epica-The Phantom Agony
Lullacry-Be My God

These are CDs I would NEVER have bought had I not downloaded them first. Lullacry was an impulse buy on recommendation from a friend, and in all honesty, I can do without it now that I have it and have heard it. If I'd downloaded it first, I probably wouldn't have bought it. It only ran me $9, so I'm not really that upset, but I intend to download the rest of Lullacry's work before I decide whether or not to buy. As for Therion, I stumbled across them by accident on a DC hub and they promptly became my favourite metal band. I'm working on getting their entire post-death-metal discography.

Also, I downloaded After Forever's "Remagine" album, immediately fell in love with the band, and headed straight to Amazon to order it...only to find out that the CD was crippled. There's not a single song on that album I don't like. I would love nothing more than to have it in my collection. But I will NEVER buy it, unless they come out with a non-crippled version. Do you hear me, Transmission Records? DRM WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.

As for movies, I don't see movies in the theatre anymore, as it's really not worth the price of tickets when I have an HDTV and decent sound system, with the ability to pause/rewind/etc. As for renting movies, I try to get them from the library so as not to have to pay, but I'll occasionally rent from a video store if the library is behind on a title. I always make sure to rip & copy anything I rent from the video store, though, and watch a few times to decide if I want to buy. Movies I rent from the library that I really enjoy and think are well-done, I buy. I usually buy used for the price break. If it's a Sony film, I will ONLY buy used in an effort to punish Sony for the XCP rootkit and their plans (at one point) to implement per-console licensing for PS3 games.

The ONE exception to the theatre/Sony rule may wind up being Silent Hill. I have a lot of respect for Christophe Gans after seeing Brotherhood of the Wolf, and SH might prove to be something truly special.

Independent films are the general exception to these rules. I'll buy them new, and occasionally see them on the big screen (if they're playing, doesn't always happen depending on niche status).

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by RacinReaver

So...what businesses do you support? I imagine even Ben and Jerry's would sue you if you stole their formula for Chunky Monkey.

Okay, walked right into that one. Let me clarify.

I don't support businesses that are litigious bastards. Lawsuits on proper legal grounds are one thing. Mass-filing hundreds or thousands of "John Doe" lawsuits against IP addresses, for unreasonable amounts of cash, hoping to use intimidation tactics to coerce private individuals into paying up even if they haven't done anything wrong (simply because they don't have the money to defend themselves in court) is quite another.

There's nowhere I can't reach.