…plus shipping and handling (in U.S. funds; prices higher in Canada). Taxes where applicable.
Hmmmm. Let’s see: I’m a Canadian, so when all is said and done, that little one or(if I’m lucky, two) hour cassette will have cost me around fifty Canadian bucks.
On the other hand, I could have simply recorded the program, with four or five hours to spare on the rest of the cassette. So if, for instance, we’re talking about a ten or twelve hour series, the total product could easily fit on two cassettes. Total cost: around four or five CDN dollars. Total cost, had I purchased it through the TV network, anywhere between 200 and 300 hundred CDN dollars.
Other than (learning?) institutions and truly law-abiding citizens, are there really that many other takers out there?
There have been a few times when I’ve wished I recorded a program I just finished watching. But that $30+ deal for the video is still a hook I wouldn’t bite on.
Well, only once: I bought the series Cosmos, but only because I I haven’t seen it in about ten years and it doesn’t look like it’s going to be shown again any time soon.
actually, there was one case where it (sort of) made sense: that USA special, Hef Unauthorized, where the video you order would be the R-rated version of what you just suffered.
The problem was, the movie was so bad to begin with that, had I taped it, I would have taped over it with anything – even infomercials – the first chance I got.
I see this on A&E programs all the time. I can’t imagine spending that kind of money on these tapes. Does anybody? $100 for a five-episode Columbo set, and I don’t get to pick the episodes? See you later, alligator.
Schools, libraries, and business are not allowed to used pirated vidio tapes for educational or business purposes. They would be in violation of copyright laws.
Some people buy them because they are generally a high quality copy without the commercials (or small logos in the corner) and come with iformational graphics on the box or enclosed in the box.
Some people are just stupid, but if they got money they can buy a copy too. What a great country.
The copy of the video may also come with the right to show it publically. In which case you’re buying the rights to the video as well as the video itself. Check out the prices that video stores pay for their videos.
Add prisons to that list. We have to pay a special royalty rate when we rent or buy videos to show to our population. Apparently, due to the number of people who will be watching the movie, we are considered a public showing.
It’s a video quality issue. Commercial tapes are almost always of higher quality than what you tape off your home system (especially if you are using the slower tape speeds). If you like the series the theory is that you would want the best possible copy.
Heck, I’d pay for a good copy of the original Connections series, and I have the one I taped off the air.
“Drink your coffee! Remember, there are people sleeping in China.”
My ATI video card can suck the closed captions from a tv program. THen you get a full transcript of the program. That must be how they can sell transcripts of programs.
