The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

You can go to thrift stores and find used movies for sale that include an insert with a code to download the movie to own digitally.  These codes often came with the movie on a digital disc that had to be transferred over.  And these codes are almost always expired by several years.  Sometimes they've already been redeemed.  And many of the systems used to download the codes in the first place have dissolved.

However, they often still work anyway.  Even though you're supposed to have the disc to transfer, some sites have simplified it just let you download the movie.

I have been photographing these codes and trying them and have built up a pretty decent collection of movies.  They work more than half the time, in my experience.  I have to put in some leg work and try multiple outlets to redeem, because even though they're not supposed to work, some of the sites will allow it anyway, whereas others will not.

What are your thoughts on the morality of this process?

If it works, it works.

If you PURCHASE a movie at a thrift store that has a code and it works that is fine, the movie was transferred to you.

If you take a photo of a movie code that is on the shelf at the store but don’t purchase the movie and use the code, that is piracy.

You do you. I don't care. Piracy has happened since people learned to connect two VCRs. No one thought twice until Metallica sued Napster.

I have zero problem with piracy tbh and I am skeptical of intellectual property as a concept.

It's funny, because even though I'm doing it, I recognize it's kinda sketchy and if you were to consider it theft, it's theft from the eventual purchaser of the disc, if anyone.  I definitely don't consider it theft from the studio or any kind of piracy.  It can only be used once -- it's just a matter of who cashes it in.  Since I think that any reasonable expectation of the code working died with the original owner of the disc, I have no moral issue with it.

Although it's technically piracy, in Dave's scenario I don't see a problem with it.  By the time a DVD gets to a thrift store it's pretty out of date and has little to no real value.

With streaming as it is now I don't even own a DVD player since I don't have any gaming consoles.

i don't see it as theft, per se, because the person buying the DVD should not expect that the digital code hasn't already been redeemed.  If anything its found goods that the donator left behind.  Its no more theft than it is to find a $20 bill inside a purse on the shelf.  How many of you would leave the $20 bill there because they think its part of the purse that the eventual purse buyer would expect?

It's cringeworthy at best and morally reprehensible at worst. I mean come on Dave. Have some self respect and pay for the movie. You being a movie buff and all this is really beneath you. Pay for the movie and support the entertainment industry that you love.

Had something extremely similar happen to me.  I noticed a $20 dollar bill hidden in a secret pocket of a wallet.  I immediately purchased the wallet. Taking the $20 and leaving the wallet would have been stealing.  Instead I was up $18 and had a wallet.

It should be made clear that buying used movies does not "support the entertainment industry" at all.
It supports the thrift store/used goods reseller industry.

Fair enough, perhaps I was a little quick to judge, but I still wouldn't do this. My wife uses these thrift stores a lot and everything is already discounted tremendously. Just buy the movie if you want it or don't.

I go to the movies all the time.

Besides, I'm never going to watch any of these movies in my life, most likely.  It's really just an exercise in collecting stuff.  Or MAYBE if I have to be in a car trip or something where I won't have Internet for a while.  And half of these are things I owned through non-sketchy means.

Also, for what it's worth, the odds of me paying for these movies is absolutely zero, so nobody is losing money on me.

I have to question why collect it if you doubt you will ever watch it? That feels different to me then. It feels like someone is buying your dinner and you ordered more than you knew you could eat just because it was available and free.

I can answer this one:

Because one day you might want to watch it.  And you don't want to have to go try to track down this movie (or album, or game) at 10pm on a random Thursday night just because you decided you want to watch/listen to/play it.

So the easier option is just to collect and hoard, in preparation for the possibility that you might someday want to try it at some later date.

I don't think you have me pegged right here.

I'm being a little bit of my own therapist, but in your scenario, it sounds like greed.  I'm just not a greedy person.  To me, it's almost like a game.  But also, I'm almost certain that these digital codes are going to waste -- it's more like making art out of something you found in the trash.  They're expired and you have to jump through hoops to even redeem them.  Plus, I think a pretty small portion of the population even cashes these things in anyway, as evidenced by me having so much luck redeeming the codes to begin with.  So, maybe there's an element of resurrecting something that's perceived to be dead???

It's not like I don't think I'll ever watch any of these.  I'll probably literally watch one or two while I'm travelling or even more likely, since these are allowed to be downloaded to your device, I'll likely fill up my iPad with things leading into a hurricane.

I also think it plays into my quest for minimalism.  Since I can "own" these but not have to tote around something physical, it allows me to have the feeling of having movies available to watch without the burden of storing or maintaining them.

Your exact words

Yeah, I was being flippant.  Maybe I won't, but I will probably load them up to prepare for a hurricane and then not watch.

I'm definitely not going to watch them as a catalog of films, for sure.  I have TV and streaming services and some physical media as well.  I'm not likely to use this source.

I would be ok with this if it wasn't to the detriment of someone else. Sure, there's no guarantee that the guy who actually buys the movie is ever gonna try to redeem the code and even if he did there's no guarantee it's still available, but it's still his option and simply taking it because you *might* want it someday is pretty cringeworthy. If you don't want it enough to purchase the movie then you don't need it, you're just taking it because nothing is really preventing you.

Sounds like a lot of rationalization to me. If you don't have a problem with it I'm not going to beat you up about it, but I wouldn't do it. And I don't think you're greedy at all. I do think you are cheap...perhaps to a fault. Thrifty is great, but what you're doing here in my opinion falls into the "cheap" category. You're not dumpster diving here, someone donated that movie to this thrift store. I wouldn't have a problem if you found the movie in a dumpster at all, that's fair game a thrift store isn't.

To me this sounds a lot similar to the question that was brought up before about leaving the shopping cart in the designated area or not. I certainly could rationalize it away a lot of different ways, but I choose not to.

I also don't consider this minimalistic.  You may not have physical items but you are unnecessarily collecting items you don't need and by admission don't necessarily want other than as a game to play on your own.  Maybe we consider minimalistic behavior differently but the way I see your description you are collecting items although not physical ones.

I think "minimalism" (in this context) normally refers to physical items.
I wouldn't reject someone as a "minimalist" because they've saved a bunch of public domain e-books on their tablet that they may never actually read, or memorized a bunch of recipes that they may never actually cook.

There are different branches of minimalism: digital, physical, visual, social, artistic

Basically:
Digital - electronic movies, games, photos, emails, desktop clutter, apps
Physical - stuff in your house
Visual - labels on bottles, advertising brand names on clothing, patterns, colors
Social - too many friends, too many obligations, too full a calendar
Artistic - simple, often geometric art or style

I would love to talk about all those and what they are, as they interest me, but I am a Physical minimalist mostly and occasionally visual, but I don't focus on digital or social....I try to be organized in those areas, but not a purger.