Why is it illegal to download copyright movies?

Said it before. I'll say it again. It's not illegal to download movies. You're right, it's like lending your own DVD to a friend.

What's illegal is leaving it out for anyone else to copy. If you were loaning it to dozens of friends, you might come under prosecution. Uploading movies is illegal. Leaving them available for OTHER people to download is illegal. That's like making thousands of copies and just giving them away. Even though you don't make any money on it, neither does the copyright owner, and that makes it illegal.

Let's say you find a suitcase holding $10,000. It's illegal to keep it. You have to turn it in, and if no one claims it, you have to put in a claim for it to be returned to you. But if you just keep it, you can be prosecuted for theft if you're found out. The same thing is true if you find a dollar bill on the sidewalk. You know it's not yours. But finding out who owns it is impossible. And for a dollar, who'd try? For the same reason, who'd prosecute you? For a dollar, what's the point of wasting all that taxpayer expense for a victim that no one knows who.

ISPs have no way to tell if the movie you downloaded is legal or not. You may have paid a legitimate fee to an online company for the download. I've heard that some ISPs send out a notice to you that they suspect you of downloading copyrighted material. Big deal. They can suspect that I'm a Martian on an advanced scouting tour for takeover of the Earth for all I care. How long do you think any company is going to stay in business if they threaten every customer with some suspicion?

Don't sweat the petty stuff. (And don't pet the sweaty stuff, neither.)

It takes a lot of money to produce a movie - be it an action film or documentary. Copyright laws were instituted to allow film makers a reasonable expectation of profit for their work. You may watch a DVD with as many people as you want because you have paid to do so in the form of the rental fee. Copying the DVD and giving it to someone means one less person that will pay to see the DVD. Doing it on the internet is only legal if you pay for the right to do so.

The film companies don't have any easy way to know that you are downloading their film However, if they suspect a certain website is allowing many people to do so, they can file a lawsuit and subpoena the information (usually from the website not the ISP). Changing your ISP won't make any difference.

I don't know what you do for a living, but I would guess you expect to be paid for doing it. So do musicians, authors and film makers.

Ok, there's so many things wrong here to answer.

First off, I'm not saying you shouldn't do it, and I do think there ought to be a different way we get the media we want, but I just can't stand people trying to rationalize away their illegal activity as somehow being justified or not that big a deal. Especially when the rationale is silly or just wrong!

No, it isn't illegal to loan out a DVD to a friend. However, it is illegal to make a copy of it and give it or sell it to that friend. As for lending a rented copy, it may not be illegal really, but could violate your terms of use for the rental company that you got the DVD from. You'd have to check on that. Anyway, it is not the same thing as you downloading or burning a copy (or having one made for you) and giving it out.

It is wrong ANY way you do it. Not just on the internet. It is just that the ease of which people do this for music and video on the internet makes it a prime target for groups and law enforcement cracking down on it. They have cracked down on people making illegal copies other ways as well.

Your idea that the government has "acquiesced to the powerful film lobby" to somehow target illegal internet downloads only is way off mark. Our government has worked to enforce copyright laws since its inception. Our Constitution gives Congress the authority to make laws to protect copyrights, patents, etc.! This includes anything made in physical form and electronic forms.Would you want a book you wrote to be printed, edited, copied and even sold without you making any money off of it? That's what could happen if we had no copyright protection.

There are any number of ways the film companies could find out if you are downloading their stuff. Sometimes they monitor bittorrent sites, or other file sharing sites. Your ISP wouldn't HAVE to tell them. Unless you use really good anonymizers online (and sometimes, even if you do) they can find out information about you. It is then just a matter of them trying to subpoena records from your ISP or website that you log-in to (large or small) about what sites you visited and what you might have downloaded (if their servers keep track of that). And I would stick with a large one as they might fight giving their records out more than a small ISP would. A large one has more money for that.

Anyway... Don't try to split hairs or rationalize away your activity. It just makes you look silly.

Instead of whining about some "powerful film lobby", come up with some ideas of alternatives to the current system that let the people who create these things make a living.

Have you ever noticed how at the beginning of every movie, there's that green/red/blue screen that says 'reproduction or distribution of this work is strictly prohibited?' That's why. The movies are the property of the film company until they are paid for. Renting one and watching it with your friends is fine, because you've paid for its private use. Renting it and playing it for a theater full of people is illegal because you only paid for so many nights of personal use, not public distribution rights. Downloading movies is the same. Sure, the original uploader paid for the movie, either to rent it or add it to their personal collection. But no one else did, and they have no legal right to own that movie until they have.

Burning DVDs is also illegal.

The truth is, most companies can't track your downloads. There have only been very few cases of a movie pirate suffering legal repercussions. But it is still illegal.

Well I'm not sure why it's illegal to download them but I do know how people get caught. Sometimes they basically do a sting to where they host a file download on something like bit torrent and they put this thing called a tracking bug in it. You can't find it or delete it or anything. And then they can track you down. As far as changing to a your ISP to a less popular company goes, it probably wouldn't help because of the tracking bug.

I think it is illegal to copyright the movies. as producers spend a lot of money in making the movie. So if you want to see movies legally then you can even download them from site http://www.filmisnow.eu../

Its illegal to download music from anywhere that you are not paying for, unless there are exceptions like promotions etc, but yes.

It's stealing. There are a lot of crimes that are easy to get away with. One person stealing won't ruin anyone, but 100,000 stealing takes food out of the mouths of hardworking people. It's not something you can justify or rationalize. It speaks to your character.

HSB COPYRIGHT MEANS IT IS STEALING. IT IS SIMPLE AS THAT. Why is that such a moral dillema for you, do you not understand the basic understanding of stealing. taking something you did not PAY FOR.

.yeah its no different from using your vcr or dvr to record a movie or something on tv