horrorfan_1986

It's 1 A.M. and you log onto your computer. A few clicks of the mouse and a couple of keystrokes and you're now downloading the latest ROH home release. In a matter of time, you will have a DVD quality copy of an ROH event for free. No time wasted on logging onto ROHwrestling.com and pulling out your credit card. There's also no need to wait the week that it takes for your order to arrive in the mail. More importantly, there's need to spend a single dollar to help support the company you're so desperately trying to watch. Just like that, ROH gained another viewer of a show, but gained zero revenue from that same show.

Computer piracy has been around for roughly two decades. With such things as high speed internet, bit torrents, free uploading sites and a large supply of people willing to offer you a free match and/or show, it's easier than ever to get involved in it. Piracy occurs with virtually every promotion in the world, however; it's indy companies such as ROH that is hurt the most from it.

After all, a company like ROH depends on their DVD sales more than anything else to bring in the money to keep their shows running. Unlike TNA wrestling, they don't have a large company backing them who can easily just write off their debt for the year in their taxes. I can't even guess how much money ROH has lost due to piracy. Someone who downloads the show may be enjoying the company, but they might be hurting the company they love more than anything else. There are reasons for and against piracy, but where is the line between just enjoying a few free videos and downright stealing from ROH?

There are several legitimate reasons to download shows/matches for free. For example, any out of stock/print shows. ROH's 2004 show, "Gold" has been a show out of print for a long time. How are you supposed to pay for it when it's not even available? Is it technically hurting ROH if you download Gold from a torrent site? It's not like you could pay for it any other way. If you go back in time to when you first heard of ROH (Or any indys), the first question was, "How do I watch it?" Personally, I hate spending money on something that I have no idea whether I'll like it or not. My first experiences with ROH was downloading a couple matches. It was after seeing some of the matches that I realized that the product is good enough to spend my money on, which I did. So in a way, pirated material actually resulted in ROH gaining another customer. Speaking of regular customers, there are times of the year when you know you will stock up on DVDs, Christmas for example. If you know you're going to pick up a show sometime in the future, does it really hurt anyone to download it before hand to be able to watch a little early? Another reason among illegal downloaders (Like myself) is the fact that a show may look terrible with the exception of one or two matches. Do I really want to pay 20 bucks just to see the latest Brian Danielson match when I know the rest will put me to sleep? That also plays into the last reason in that "I'm not going to buy the show anyways." If you had zero intention in buying the DVD before hand, are you really taking money away from ROH?

At the same time though, there are plenty of people who downloads each show without even thinking about whether they'd buy it or not. Whether it's a PPV, regular DVD or the KOCH retail DVDs, they will just download them instead. Especially if you have a means of paying (aka you're not hard up for cash and you don't need to rely on mommy and daddy), that is perhaps the most blatant example of stealing online I can think of. That's one of the main reasons why smarks have a bad name. Marks may be clueless (To some extent) in the business, but they at least help support their company. Smarks may know "Everything", but how are they helping the company out? They're hurting more than anything else.

For me personally, I'm a mixture of some of the above. For as much as I download, I watch such a small percent. If I could compare myself to anything, it'd be a drug dealer who doesn't even do drugs. At the same time, I try to balance out my downloading with buying the DVDs whenever I have some spare cash. Although I am stealing some, it is important to me to give back to the company in some way. The biggest thing though, is through illegal downloading, I'm able to keep my love of ROH going which means spending more money at the official site. I can also say from the early days of just learning about the company, watching the downloads allowed me to be just yet another person to praise ROH and perhaps help spread the word that there is an alternative to WWE/TNA. Perhaps then, ROH will gain even more customers.

I'm assuming everyone here has at one time or another downloaded a match or two. However, where do you personally draw the line as far as morality and downloading goes? What is too much?

__________________

Marketh.

For me it's simple. I only download shows I have no intention of buying, and I still buy the DVDs of shows that I read great reviews about from those who were there, who bought the DVD or who downloaded it.

I download to keep track of what I'm missing, basically. The newswires, videowires and results can still miss out on things that go on in between the DVDs I buy. So I think to appreciate storylines and feuds better you need to see as much of it as you can.

That's not to say it's a good thing though. Imo, the best thing is that you shouldn't tell people the best places to download unless they've asked.

__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

KenTheKiller

The way I do it is I buy every PPV of ROH's and if I can DVDs. When I download, I only download a match or two from the show instead of the entire card, thus if the match or matches rubs me the right way, I'll more likely buy the rest of the event.

__________________

King Steventon

I'd be alot more concsious(sp?) of my downloading if those bastards didn't stop people from putting their matches on video sites. Now the only way I can watch their stuff if through downloads, and I'm not going to buy a shitload of DVDs just for a couple of matches a show, so yeah fuck that idea. I'll buy the DVD if the whole show looks good... you want my money, fucking earn it
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
That's one reason my interest in ROH has wayned(sp? x2), because I can only watch their stuff regularly through downloads, it's also a big reason I have no real interest in PWG or CHIKARA, as I have to do the same and they are even harder to find links for. That's one thing that's gotten me more into puro, companys don't know/care about stuff being downloaded and it's pretty easy to get everything you want when you know where to look.

I'll stop downloading when either A) I become a millionaire and can buy all the DVDs I want or B) they send me and e-mail telling me Romero will come round my house and bore me to death if I don't stop.

__________________

Tommy Platinum

As long as I buy some dvds to support the product, I don't mind downloading a lot of stuff. We don't get it on TV, its not available to watch on video sites as Steve said, and normal people can't afford to spend money on hundreds of dvds. As long as you buy a few dvds, I don't see a problem with downloading a lot of other stuff if its a choice between that and not seeing it at all. Either way, ROH wouldn't be getting your money.

__________________

Risingstarr22

For me the "line" is when the downloads are going slower than like, 100mbs a minute. Sometimes I feel bad taking money out of the hands of Ring of Honor, but then I think "...whatever". I've decided not to download Combat Zone Wrestling DVDs, 'cept maybe King of the Cage III, 'cause that would be taking money out of the hands of people that actually bleed for it, ya know?

__________________