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?
