Ok, I freely admit I'm a Food Network junkie. I love the food history shows. It's so interesting seeing how the companies that produce products that have instant recognition world-wide got their start.

I remember watching a veriy interesting story about the birth of the Oscar Meyer brand of meat products- and how Mr. Meyer(and yes, there actually was an Oscar Meyer) created the distinctive wrapper colors that are associated with his products today, and how his packaging became more elaborate, as butcher shops, deli's and retailers that didn't have a deal with Oscar Meyer would buy Oscar Meyer products, remove the wrapper and put their own products in the distintive colored packaging.

This kind of counterfeitng made life hard for Mr. Meyer. He worked hard to put out a good quality product, and every time some one tried to pass of their product as one of his, this action reduced trust in the brand he worked so  hard to create and caused a loss in sales.

So, you're probably wondering what my point is about now.. and it's this.

Oscar Meyer, Kelloggs, Coca-Cola, you name it.... those people and companies work to make a quality product that can be trusted, and that trust means the company prospers and people get paid. (not just the upper eschelons but everyone involved in making the product)

The same thing can be said of those that work in the creative fields of movies, music, writing, fine art....

Folk complain about the price of movies in the theater...So instead of going to the theater and paying the seemingly outrageous prices for a night out, you buy the dvd instead. Now the question is, why on earth would you be satisfied with a poorly made copy with backgrouind noise and people walking across your line of sight becase somebody took a digital camera into the theater and copied the movie?

Why would you be willing to settle for second rate products?

I see people with Coach, DK, Dolce &Gabana, Gucci, etc., and they are satisfied with their purchases. I also see people that buy fakes, and brag about it! Why?

You can brag about saving money all you want, what you're actually saying is "I want the real thing but I'm not able to afford it and I'm willing to accept a copy, even a substandard one!"

So, why would you want to say that about yourself?

Furthermore, all the work the creative genius put into the product is wasted as the creative genius isn't getting paid! The workers that make the product aren't getting paid! (I'm not even going to expound upon the ridiculousness of the terrible working conditons of a lot of clothing manufacturing plants!)

Another thing to think about- when you buy bootleg, everybody that made the original product dosen't get paid. For instance, if the bootleg is a movie or music -the creative workers, i.e. the writers, artists, musicians, (and in the case of a movie- the set designers, costumers, make-up artists, extras...), electrical people, advertising, distribution, all get paid out of whatever the contract the production company sets up for a particular movie or cd, or theatrical  production.(play).

So, instead of saving a few bucks, what ends up happening is that a large number of people are robbed! This robbery, in turn jacks up the price of whatever it is you were wanting to buy in the first place!