Fedor's Interviews

Sparrow, Crowley (Names have been changed for personal reasons)

How many times have you been caught for Piracy Criminalization?

Sparrow: Once, it was for downloading an illegal movie, ‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.’ They caught me in my room, while I was at college.

Crowley: I only got caught once and I didn’t enjoy it. The movie was called ‘I can Do Bad All By Myself, directed by Tyler Perry’.

How did they catch you?

Sparrow: Oh, um, apparently the company who made the movie, somehow found out that I downloaded the movie through my service provider and told them and then my college sent me a cease and assist email.

Crowley: Um, how do you think they caught me? By email and they were a**holes and I was very mad and that’s it.

How did you feel about this?

Sparrow: First I was kind of scared because I thought they were going to block my internet or something or fine me but then nothing really happened. They just gave me a warning and that’s it.

Crowley: I felt worried that I was going to get a fine and I don’t know what else is going to happen.

Have you told this story to anyone else besides the person interviewing you?

Sparrow: Oh yeah, um, a couple of my friends I guess and I didn’t tell my parents yet because I am not sure what they are going to say about it.

Crowley: Yes, to my other friends because they wanted to know what happened because they also illegally download movies.

Are you scared that your parents might find out?

Sparrow: No, my college is not going to tell them and there is really no other way they’ll find out. Ah jeez, that’s it.

Crowley: I don’t care about my parents finding out; I care about paying my fine.

How many movies have you downloaded in total?

Sparrow: Total? 3. The only one they caught me on was the one I already mentioned. I guess it was because it was a new movie.

Crowley: I downloaded about 8 and most of them were action movies.

What did they say would happen again if they caught you again?

Crowley: They said that they would remove my ******* internet. That is all.

Sparrow: Um, they said they would fine me and lock me out of the servers, and um I’d basically lose my internet privileges.

Are you willing to risk it again?

Crowley: Sure, If they are not willing to fine me and remove my internet because then I wouldn’t care.

Sparrow: My current server provider, no but when I go home, probably no. I just don’t think it’s worth paying the amount of they’d charge for a brand new movie. I’d just get it for free.

What was your first reaction when you saw the email?

Sparrow: I was like, hoh, holy sh**. When I first started reading the email, it sounded like; I was going to get in trouble for it. However, as I read further, I started to realize that this was just a warning.

Crowley: I was like what the **** because I was really shocked. Hmm, I thought it was spam at first.

How happy are you with the fact that you only got a warning when most people have to pay a fine when they are first caught?

Sparrow: I was really happy, um, I guess it was still worth downloading the 3 movies because all 3 of those movies were fairly movie and it would have cost me 60$ to buy them even though I got them for free. Since I only got a warning, I am happy, but if I got fined for it, then I’d would have been a different story.

Crowley: Well, I don’t care because most people don’t get a fine.

How much do you think they’d fine you for it?

Sparrow: Well, I’ve seen, examples on the internet, where they put down a fine of $50,000 per movie but since I only downloaded it for personal use; I’d guess they’d only charge me 1,000 to 2,000 dollars.

Crowley: Like, $50? That is all.

Since people can’t get caught for watching movies online without downloading them, why not just do that?

Sparrow: Because a lot of the places that let you watch the movies, I am not going to name them, have annoying thinks like you have to sign up for them, certain time limit, overall it’s just less convenient. I’d rather download them because I can watch them anytime I want them. I can keep them on my CD and give it to a friend and the quality is much better and I don’t have to worry about how fast the internet is. I just have to leave it on for the whole night for it to finish downloading it and once it’s done, I have a high quality movie.

Crowley: Why do you think? This is because the picture really sucks and you can’t watch any movies online that have a decent quality.

Why do you think movie companies make such a big deal about downloading movies for free?

Crowley: It’s because if everyone can get it, then everyone can get it for free, therefore, how will they make any money?

Sparrow: It seems pretty obvious because they don’t want to lose their sales and they also want to make an example so other people are deterred from downloading the movies for free. However, I still think the fine for each movie illegal downloaded is absurd. I’ve heard cases of people getting caught for $5000 to $10,000 and they downloaded them and shared them. It’s still crazy because if you downloaded only a couple of movies illegally, the movie companies can ruin your life. I think those companies are too greedy.

End