I am an avid watcher of movies and series. I also listen to a huge variety of music, ranging from classical to metal to some techno or R&B.
I currently own, along with my beau, five complete tv-series and a couple of partial ones, with episodes numbering in the hundreds. We also own hundreds of movies spanning all thinkable genres. The reason I bring this up is because each and every one of those movies and series we went out and bought in a store.
Before we bought any of said movies, we watched them in a pirated or otherwise illegal version. We watched them on our computers in downloaded bittorrent format. (Illegal sharing, copying and distribution.) We watched them at our friends' houses without the consent of the distributors of the movie or we borrowed their copy of said movie. (Unauthorized lending, letting third parties watch the movies.)
My point is that most of those movies would not have been purchased at all if it hadn't been for "illegal" actions on our part or on the part of our friends.

So this is where I wonder if the corporations understand today's world at all. They say we are criminals for doing what we do. But who are they to dictate right and wrong to us? How can it be that the majority of the world can be made into criminals like this? Who makes those laws and who do they protect?
I don't watch TV much. I like to be in charge of what I watch and when, and whether or not I want to have breaks in my entertainment. I understand that a lot of people my age and younger do the same. It's easier, just as fast and neatly controlled to just download the next episode of your favorite show, so why not do it?

The step of the big label corporations to criminalize free distribution and their tremendous efforts to immoralize that option are completely self-defeating and wrong. They are trying to change the environment to suit them, rather than adapting themselves to it.
By suppressing the individual's right to distribute and handle their copy of the media they are attempting to crush the biggest word-of-mouth advertising trend ever to exist.
Instead of fighting it, they should be offering medium-quality non subtitled versions of their movies in bit-torrent format (Or some other format as easily downloadable) and make it available to anyone who wants it. For free. Then they could offer their high-quality versions with a billion subtitles and extra material for sale on disks and a more slow download rate. They should allow us to do with our purchases as we please. If I buy a DVD, I should be able to resell it when I get tired of it, show it to my friends if I want to and quote it and show parts of it in other productions as long as I give credit where credit is due.

True, corporations might suffer if they can't sell as much of their respective media as they'd like, but from my experience, it's not the pirate industry that is preventing them from making money, but rather their inflexible, stagnant marketing strategies and legislation. Their stifling attitude and failure to understand their customers that will lead to their undoing.

The reason why most of us would rather download the latest pirate version of any media than go out and buy it in the store is because it is faster, easier and, let's face it, free.