[MPlayer-users] Re: Rescuing a scratched DVD

[Jeremy Maitin-Shepard]

James MS Anderson <replys2me at yahoo.co.uk> writes:

[snip]

> Look at the shows put on by the stars and the film companies... they
> make enough money.  Having said that, ripping DVD's and then holding
> LAN parties with huge numbers of people, trasfering Terabytes of data
> in a matter of hours is clearly wrong and illegal.  May the Lord
> "FACT" smite all those who make a copy of anything, as clearly they
> are forcing the market to reduce the prices of DVD's and music down to
> something that's almost a reasonable price!

It is true that reduced sales will reduce the prices by a small amount.
But if sales (in the United States, or in other countries at average
cost-covering prices) fall substantially, the result is that fewer films
will be produced.  The film companies charge low prices in countries
like China (where there is very low demand for legal DVDs) because the
marginal revenue is still greater than the marginal cost.  But such low
prices do not cover the fixed costs, and so such low prices are _only_
possible because the sales at normal prices (in countries such as the
United States) cover the fixed costs.

[snip]

-- 
Jeremy Maitin-Shepard