As far as file sharing over the internet is concerned, I’m with Bob: as long as the music or the movies aren’t worth anything, why pay for them? Downloading useless media products conceived by consultants rather than artists doesn’t “kill” music or movies but it just might help kill off multinational media conglomerates. Good riddance, I say.

This is also of course why I don’t do much downloading. The stuff is indeed useless — have you watched Disney’s Mulan II recently? — so why bother? The problem presents itself when occasionally something truly great pops up. What to do, for example, with the new Simpson movie? A quick check at Pirate Bay reveals that there are over 4000 people seeding it, meaning that the avi should be with you in a couple of hours. Difficult to resist?

My advise is: don’t do it! The Simpson movie doesn’t pass the Bob-test. It’s not worthless. Give Matt Groenig his due. Go pay for it at the box office. Or if you’ve already downloaded, go to the movies when the film comes to town. At least send Matt the cash you would have spent if you had seen it for real.