This is the time of plenty, the time to gorge yourself on movie, music and game goodness...but doesn't anyone feel just a little bit guilty about all of this?



Certainly the movie industry will tell you that it's a terrible crime to download and share films. They say you should cough up the money to go and sit in a noisy, smelly cinema complete with a sticky floor and idiot teenagers on their mobile phones.

With that kind of choice is it any wonder the majority of people would prefer to sit at home and watch the latest releases. Certainly, a friend of mine has six children to look after - he simply can't afford to take them all to the cinema.

Unfortunately it seems that until the movie company bigwigs decide to offer a better product to the consumer (and the advent of 3D may just be the thing) people will be content to download to their hearts content. In any case, is it really any worse that passing around movies to your friends as you do when you're a kid?

I have a funny feeling that the viral spread of movies, music and games can actually be a positive thing - but only if the product in question is any good!

Think about this, if a movie is really, really top notch, it gets leaked and 14 year old Timmy gets to see it before it's on at the cinema, what will happen? He's going to go an tell all of his buddies that the movie is great and they (and possibly he) will all want to go and watch it on the big screen. Maybe I'm too much of an optimist.

The fact is that downloading to your ipod, your zune, your dvd disc or your iphone is so advanced, especially with the many premium membership sites around that it's convenient, slicker and not to mention cheaper than the cinematic equivalent.

Downloading is not just about finding a spyware infested forum and hoping that you end up with what you want. Nowadays slick memberships exist offering you free DVD burning software and easy to use search tools to get the exact movie or piece of music that you want.

What's more most of these sites offer free membership after a small initial fee. So for just $30 you can have access to as many movies as you want.

With competition like this, it's no wonder the movie executives are annoyed. What's the answer for them? Create a better product and get people back into the cinemas. 3D maybe the answer to this one...