"While Columbia Picture's new 'Spider-Man' movie was breaking box-office records over the weekend, Internet movie pirates were busily downloading free copies of the film on file-trading networks.

By Saturday, pirated versions of the comic book inspired movie were showing up in 'screener' format on the EDonkey, Kazaa, and Morpheus Internet file-swapping systems.

'Screeners,' also known as 'Telesyncs,' are digital versions of movies that have been filmed off a screen in a movie theater.

The boot-legged 'Spider-Man' was being offered in Windows AVI and MPEG file formats, with some versions of the complete movie exceeding 2 gigabytes.

Many Internet users apparently were undeterred by the huge file size of the pirated film. More than 12,000 copies of 'Spider-Man' have already been downloaded from a link at the ShareReactor.com site....

According to studio estimates, 'Spider-Man' grossed $114 million in the three days following its opening on Friday, surpassing the previous record set in November by 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.'

When Columbia releases the DVD version of the hit movie in coming months, pirates likely will begin swapping 'rips' or copies of the DVDs online. According to a description at ShareReactor, rips offer 'excellent video and audio quality. It's no guarantee though, but even the biggest idiots can't screw this up too much.' " [Newsbytes]

I guess I don't understand the big deal here. I'm sure you can also buy bootleg videocassettes out on the street, so how is this a new crime? In both instances, these copies are obviously made using videocameras, but I don't see any industry executives or legislators calling for draconian copy controls on these electronic devices. And when they catch the folks doing this, there are already existing laws outside of the DMCA under which to prosecute them. Let's face it - the DMCA certainly didn't stop these folks, now did it?

And this activity certainly didn't have an impact on box office receipts, nor do I expect it will make any measurable dent in DVD sales, either. So explain to me again why we need special laws, restrictive technologies, and reductions in fair use rights to safeguard Hollywood's products?