Let me tell you a guy I know.
This guy makes quite a bit of money. He enjoys fancy cars and spending on expensive jewelry and fine clothing. He’ll take his girlfriend and friends and family out to fine restaurants. He is a big spender, in other words. By the way, he also downloads movies for free. Now, he still buys DVDs sometimes, but he’s just as apt not to, and the decision to purchase or not to purchase a movie seemingly alters at a whim.
You might be thinking, “If he makes so much money, why couldn’t he just go watch the movie in theaters? Why can’t he just buy the DVD?” And the answer is quite simple: he does not value movies as much as he does all of the things he actually does spend money on.
And this is the trickier side in talking about issues such as piracy and illegal downloading. People assign value to their entertainment that is fitting to their lifestyle and priorities in life. The person in my example does not skimp on everything. It’s not like a person who buys a counterfeit designer bag and then buys a bootleg DVD. He is willing to pay for real, good fashion. He is still looking for a bargain, but will not go as far as to buy something that isn’t “real,” again, because he believes in something beyond appearance.
This guy is not an avid pirate and bootlegger, as I’ve pointed out. He is not an anime fan eager to watch as much as possible for as little as possible. He is a casual fan of movies at best. And so if you wanted him to spend money on his entertainment, it would have to somehow fit into his core values about what is worth spending money on and what is not. And he, unlike the anime fan or audiophile or cinema buff, is part of the majority of people who consume entertainment.
How do you solve this problem? Take away his ability to download and pirate, and he’ll just wait for movies to appear on cable and watch them there. He’s still not going to be willing to part with his money over it. It’s easy to say, “Hey let’s just make a movie that he’d be willing to spend money on,” but as long as he de-emphasizes entertainment media in his life, there’s no way it’s going to reach him.
OGIUE MANIAX 
The solution is probably either a) don’t care about this person since he isn’t going to give you much money anyway (i.e. the “lost cause” approach), or b) find a way to provide him with access to the content he wants more easily (and still for free) but in a venue you control so you can at least monetize it through advertising or some other way (i.e. the Hulu approach). If the attitude that entertainment is “free” or “not worth paying for” is prevalent, then the only choice is to make your money off of things people will pay for… which, in some cases, may not be entertainment, I suppose.
But, on a more individual/personal level, I think it’s a bit shameful to be taking without giving back, especially since (one presumes) everyone makes their own salary based on doing work that someone else pays for (whether it’s an employer, clients, etc.). To say “I expect to be paid for my own work”, but to then turn around and not be willing to pay for the work of others… it seems like hypocrisy to me. The Industry still has to deal with this on a global level, but it doesn’t make the behaviour “Right” either, IMO.
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Great job framing the issue. Because this is what is the prevalent attitude with most people who gets listed as anonymous fansub downloading statistics, as faceless “otaku” that just pirates and don’t give back. They are people who barely give a damn enough to take, and not at all to give back. They can live life just fine if all of the anime in the world were to disappear one morning, and he may not even skip a beat.
Which is to say I don’t think there’s anything right or wrong about that approach. Ultimately any kind of expectation about paying for someone’s work is just expectation. When it comes to IP and stuff like that, it doesn’t even get to the level of social norms like one would equate with stealing or shoplifting. Ultimately it’s something, as a society, has to decide via laws and norms as to what is socially acceptable.
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if pirating was enforced and not as easy as it is now..i know for a fact that i still wouldnt buy the movie/music/game….infact my life would become better :P more time for other things…
but i still do watch movies at cinema when i go out with friend on the weekend.
at the end of the day i would not product income for the entertainment industry if they even tried to sell me every movie easily accesible .
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Well, as long as he doesnt make a blog complaining about how bad the movies he downloads are…
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ell, the other solution would be to kill his family and everyone he knows, plus himself.
The whole SPEND MONEY OR DIE approach. Not that it’ll always work, but it’s pretty much approaching that direction.
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Take it to the extreme, though, and you have contemporary Japanese otaku culture: A house of cards built on the back of figurines, dakimakura and super-limited-edition DVD cases. It’s clear enough that those fans are downloading their anime as well, except that they choose to value the material goods associated with that anime, and the industry has latched on to that like a lamprey.
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