Re:No, Silly, Piracy is Theft
by ryanwaggoner on Wednesday August 27, 2008 @08:21PM
(#288651)
I'd like to see some evidence or indication that this is deliberate on any level.
Re:No, Silly, Piracy is Theft
by noonespecial on Wednesday August 27, 2008 @09:29PM
(#288718)
I had friends who worked in a local theater and we hung out there quite a bit. The manager was locally famous for instructing employees to turn a blind eye to "lurkers" because "If you stay in a movie theater that long, you're gonna be hungry and thirsty eventually".
Turns out that the rental on the reels was so high that the ticket sales themselves were basically a break even proposition. $7 popcorn and $4 sodas are a completely different story.
Not quite the semi-deliberate situation that the parent referred to, but does an explicitly deliberate occurrence count? I've had a theater manager let me and my two friends in to see a film for free and to thank him, we bought snacks at the snack bar even though we just ate. The theater was mostly empty (the movie was "Jesus Is Magic" in case you were wondering), which was probably his motivation. No, I did not know the manager personally.
Some cinemas are set up to facilitate sneaking in: having passed the usher to get into one film, you can then stay and watch any number you like.
This is semi-deliberate: it turns out that they gain more money from people who wouldn't otherwise bother, than they lose from people who would otherwise buy two.
Maybe these people are committing "theft", but it's still a mutually beneficial relationship. This doesn't obviously apply to most internet piracy, as in that case nothing is bought at all, but it's worth considering.