I just watched SW III.  It was released on bit-torrent at the same time or before it was in theaters.  Takes a long time to download though, ~ 3-4 days.  Gotta burn it to a DVD to watch it though.  

Some time this summer I'm gonna down load all six episodes and watch em back to back.  I plan on doing that for the extended versions of Lord of the rings soon as well.  I think it will take about 12 hours.

Of course I am.  

I have my laptop hooked up as a media center.  Anything I can download gets sent from my TV outs on my video card via a 5.8 GHz signal to my TV where the AV is connected, and gets watched.  

I don't have to pay for cable to watch any tv show I want, don't have to watch commercials, and I don't have to go to movie theaters to watch movies.  No different than a TiVO as far as I'm concerned.  Except I don't have to pay for any of the accompanying systems.  Beats netflix and on demand cable.  

Cool set-up.  Why wouldn't I be proud of it.  I'm giving the man a one-two punch by not helping to make overpaid movie stars and producers who feel that they are instant experts on all things political.    

The quality usually varies.  I've found that files on bit-torrent are usually much better then on other fileshare programs, and download much faster.  Usually, if you pick the right files, they are just as good as anything else on TV.  The key is to stay away from mpegs.  AVI files are usually much better quality.

But yes, the SWIII copy I got was not very good.  Good enough, but not DVD quality.  Also, if you look for DVD rips, they are usaully just as good as the DVDs.  

If I were rolling in dough I would probably just buy the DVDs.  But again, I don't like supporting hollywood.  Also, living in the US as I do, there would be no other way I could watch the new Dr. Who episodes, since they only air in the UK.  

I would probably have more respect for many laws if all the laws were truely enforcable and created for the public good.  Many laws are just feel good laws however, or were enacted due to lobbyist pressure.  I have a few friends that are lawyers (more tech savy than I) that pirate nearly everything that they have on their cpu.

It is up to each person to choose which laws they are to follow depending on there own morals.  This is one of the reasons we have a jury system.  How many times have you broken the law, underage drinking, speeding, not wearing your safety belt, etc...  Some laws are just plain stupid.  In many US states, it is still illegal to have oral sex, or swear in front of women, hell, I think its illegal to dance in certain parts of Texas, they have to call their dance teams "foot functions" in order to skirt the law.  

If what I am doing isn't hurting anyone, I have no problem doing it.  Many of the sci fi shows I watch that I download, I either wouldn't watch otherwise or I could rent for free from the library if I didn't mind waiting a week.  

Many things that are currently illegal are not unjust.  FOr an example I turn to the fact that software in the US is covered under both copyright law and patent law.  Surely patent law is more than enough.  Haviing software off limits for 90 years is just ridiculus.  I think the same is applicable for movies and TV.  

The RIAA tries to make any recording technology illegal almost as soon as it comes out.  It is a shame they won with internet copies, but they lost with many other copying technologies such as video tapes and CDs.  The MPAA and its international equivilents are just as bad.  

What I hate is constantly having to renew my video collections with each new format that comes out, but hollywood loves this (its how they make money).  Have to buy new copies for the VHS -DVD transition, for the DVD-Blueray transition, etc...  However, In the US, they won't even allow you to use DVD-Xcopy anymore to make your own personal copies.  The litigation closed them down.

Well, I can't speak for the US law system. I live in Germany. In my opinion, lobbyists have less control here. Also, we don't have a Jury system. You can't change the outcome of a process by "persuading" a Jury in Germany.

In some cases, we have some "lay judges" additional to the professional judges who add their opinions, too. Together they decide the case. That's for example the case with severe crimes like murder. You would then have 2 lay judges (Schöffen) and 3 regular judges.

-----:::star wars suck:::-----

Star Wars kicks your ass.

If your question was directed towards me:

Well, actually, there is the British/US law system and the European continental law system. German and French law have almost as much in common as US and UK law for example.

Not the German and the rest of the world.

However, I like the continental system. But the British works quite well, too.
But the US system has some strange... effects. Perhaps mainly because of the law differing so much in different states.