Monday, February 15, 2010

Should we tolerate bootleg DVD's in our community?

From Saturday's Chicago Breaking News:
Police from two northwest suburbs seized about 10,000 illegally copied DVDs,
including blockbusters currently in theaters, in a raid on a Wheeling
man's home, authorities said today.

OK, it's not the most heinus crime that requires a lot of attention & resources. But does the selling of bootlegs really help the community?

For example, does The Bootleg Man at the Captain Hook's/Firehouse on 79th & St. Lawrence REALLY enhance that establishment, or Chatham as a whole??

Some positives of selling bootlegs might include that people aren't selling drugs or doing nothing, or that people save mney from seeing a bad movie.

But there seem to be a lot of negatives as well.

Does it help the consumer, who often watches pretty low quality DVD's, and don't go out & see the community, or help local businesses?

Does it help local businesses which employ our youth & young adults (or even older adults)? Do we really want ICE Theaters and surrounding businesses to fail?

Does it help the Black Film industry when we watch it on illegal DVD instead of the theater. Two examples that my wife observed: Dreamgirls or the Tyler Perry movies have been packed when they came out; leading to some continual success for the producers and actors involved. Yet on a Christmas day, she observed that many barber shops & hair salons were showing "The Great Debaters" when it came out in theaters that day. Did such behavior harm the movies success, hampering the great message it had from getting out to the general community?

We've had a lot of discussion on what businesses we do and don't want in our neighborhood. This may not rank very high, but can we consider it as part of our discussion?

3 comments:

  1. if you want that movie, there are plenty of websites offering it for free. you just need to learn about torrents or get a rapidshare account. bootlegs DVD will always be a good business, not everyone knows how to use computer and / or downloading. funny, the same guy is selling bootleg Rolex watches and gucci handbags.
    i really don't think it is good thing for anyone.
    The Bootleg Man at the Captain Hook's/Firehouse on 79th & St. Lawrence or the gucci handbags man at Moo and Oink on stony island might have better future selling leget products, after all The Bootleg Man is a salesman and its not easy to be lookin over your shoulders all day.
    not long ago i witnessed the bootleg man at chatham food market parking lot selling dvd's, one of the mangers came out and asked him to leave. i thought that was a good move. The Bootleg Man makes my Chatham looks trashy

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  2. The bootleg or as I recently have heard them refer to themselves as "Blackbuster" is wrong. It's illegal just as selling drugs is illegal. It hurt businesses like Chatham 14 that has to pay people to sit in the theaters to watch for these guys. The less people coming to the movies means the less staff they have working. I'm not an attorney but I believe the penalty for selling illegal DVD's is greater than selling marijuana.

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  3. Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, sold counterfeit Tommy Hilfiger clothing, Nike and Adidas to name few. lawsuits settled no one went to jail. I'm not that smart but I believe that people are under the influence of marijuana when they believe wallmart is good for their community.

    now about selling illegal DVD's, as long as you don't get caught selling them, making a transaction, i give you money and you give me bootleg DVD , nothing would stick.
    you could get caught with 200 copies of LORDS OF THE RINGS in your car's trunk and the reason is
    -its for your personal use-. that might sound too crazy but the Feds can't prove otherwise- no sale no case- and it will turn into civil case. Disney VS Worlee.
    i am not an attorney but i have been around

    ReplyDelete

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