Morality and downloading

[Cephus]

You're right for the most part. But there are also a massive amount of people pirating new movies. My thought is that this is the market responding to the price of content.

Meh. I don't think it is. I think most people who download movies that are still in the theater are downloading the ones they would have wouldn't pay to see anyway.

More to Benny's point...
While I won't defend online piracy as moral, there is evidence that the "victims" are not being hurt and certainly not to the extent that they claim. Internet piracy does not reflect a one-to-one ratio in downloaded content to lost sale. There are many who download music using torrent because it's more convenient than sitting in front of a PC ripping a stack of discs or to replace CDs that were stolen out of their cars, auto insurance won't cover that loss and the labels have no fucks to give even though the consumer is still legally entitled to that music. There are those that will download expensive software to be able to try an actual working version (not the trial version where half the shit you need in your day to day use of the software is disabled) before dropping thousands of dollars for each copy they need. Many will download a sampling of songs from a band they heard on the radio to see if they're really worth a shit or if it's just that one song that's good.

No, stealing is not ok but what has become known as "internet piracy" (downloading content through non-standard channels) does not automatically equate to theft.

Which is exactly the point.  There is no money to be made by people who aren't going to go to a theater regardless, therefore there is no harm in people who won't pay for it anyhow to see it via piracy.  There simply is no downside here because there was never an upside to begin with.

Likewise, when it comes to digital piracy, nobody has lost anything.  Everyone performs an internal cost-benefit analysis when they look at things to purchase.  Is what is being bought worth the money that is being asked.  It is a yes or no question.  If it is worth it, then it is purchased, or planning takes place to save for it or whatever. If it isn't worth it, then no purchase takes place.  A lot of producers seem to think that people OWE them something when that's simply not the case.  They have to EARN the money and business of their potential customers.  They have to convince consumers that their product is worth spending money on.  Recently, FOX has said that they will no longer release physical Simpsons season box sets because of the prevalence of digital downloads.  I know a lot of people who have already said that they will no longer buy Simpsons episodes because of this.  It is no longer worthwhile to pay money for something that they can see for free and get digital copies of easily.  It has failed the cost-benefit analysis.  FOX will lose money.  That's all FOX's fault.