Our public library has quite a few videotapes and DVDs for rent, so at least we can rent them (for a week) without paying a fee. The only problem with this, is that once a tape we went back after a couple years later has been lost. Oh, well, I figured the chances it would have gotten lost if I’d owned it were probably greater, given my usual demonstrated lack of organizing prowess.
They have some new ones, but they have lots of classics. Last few weeks I have gotten Arsenic and Old Lace, Mutiny on the Bounty, and several other good ones to show my kids. I only showed the mutiny to some of the older ones; they were fascinated by the meanness depicted by Bligh (I wanted them to know the origin or the epithet “Captain Bligh”) and the issues of how people might act when caught between obeying the law and being abused by a tyrant.
There is not a real incentive for us to duplicate those tapes.
In the case of CDs and mp3 files, though, it is hard to feel too sorry for companies who charge 20 bucks for a product that anybody at home can reproduce with essentially perfect accuracy for 25 cents. Maybe I can feel a little sorry for them (despite my opinion they are overpriced), but it’s unrealistic these days given technology and attitudes in place, which they have not done much I can see to make adjustments other than try to sue more people even as technology makes it ever harder for them to be stopped.
I think the industry needs to figure out new ways to distribute and license their products, and illegal or not I don’t expect them to reap long term benefits from reverse class-action suits against file sharers. That keeps them in check somewhat, but even some services who are wising up and are delivering content for Immediate Gratification, charge something like a dollar per song. Great if you only want a few songs, but I think most people if they were going to pay that much they’d often rather have the “real” disc anyway.
Alan
