Posted by NYC XYZ on 01/11/00 11:36

Roy L. Fuchs wrote:
>
> "Bulk runs" As you call them are not burned either. Studio discs
> are STAMPED. Anyone that would call burned discs a production method
> ain't real bright, and is certainly pirating (referring to the other
> ding dong).

Well, since you raise the subject, I want to state again that CERTAIN
KINDS OF PIRATING IS NOT REAL THEFT. I don't encourage it, I don't
engage in it, but all this hoopla about piracy raising costs is
BULLSHIT. For many commodities which cannot be pirated you can see
that how prices are kept artificially high, whether we're talking
federal argricultural products subsidies to memory chip-maker's illegal
cartels.

Piracy is not the reason why Big Studio DVDs cost $20 on average.
GREED is.

I would not turn in a pirate as long as he doesn't pirate the small
houses (Kino, etc.). You can argue legality and morality all you want
-- it's not thievery to pick crumbs off a robber baron's table. Most
people don't consider piracy a problem, and for good reason.

They know it's a bullshit crime, almost as harmless as jay-walking on
average.

> There ARE inventories of discontinued discs around, but they are NOT
> for sale. I'd bet that Criterion still has several hundred copies of
> SOTL around. Do you know what that disc sells for on ebay? Even used?

No, why?

And why are there inventories of discontinued products? Why not just
sell them? Presumably they've been discontinued due to poor sales. It
costs money to store them. That's why Atari buried its excess game
cartridges in the desert -- and deliberately ran them over first to
prevent looting!

I just don't understand it.

> You cannot burn the same disc that got stamped. They are two
> entirely different sessions.

I am reminded of Ogden Nash's "The Purist":

I give you now Professor Twist,
a conscientious scientist.
Trustees exclaimed, "He never bungles!"
and sent him off to distant jungles.
Camped on a tropic riverside,
one day he missed his loving bride.
She had, the guide informed him later,
been eaten by an alligator.
Professor Twist could not but smile.
"You mean," he said, "a crocodile."

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