I will say, if they're going to do this, they should be making more of an effort to give audiences other resources to enjoy older media. There's definitely been some significant progress with iTunes, Hulu, Netflix etc. But it's still an uphill battle. And DVDs are still far too expensive, especially during a recession. And I blame the box sets to a certain extent. It used to be enough to occasionally buy two episodes of a TV show on one VHS. Now the only way to own hard copies of individual episodes is to buy a $40, $50, $60+ box set. It's very frustrating and again, inappropriate in these economic times.
Yes, but said VHS cost upwards of 15 bucks, and you only get a select few episodes. The price of Box sets is sharply declining. Mill Creek is selling the entire 65 episodes of Bravestarr for 20 bucks. Only real expensive ones are current TV sitcoms, and those are the ones dragging the sales down.
Personally, I don't buy the "Stealing's stealing" argument. The copyright law is EXTREMELY flawed, the industry is hardly angelic and often steals from itself (in cases they have been known to pass on show ideas/film treatments only to change names and minimal concepts and claim it as their own), and overall artists don't make money, the people who own them do.
Copyright is meant to protect the creator, but it doesn't. It protects whoever has the money to buy something from ever having to share it with people who want it. it does NOT by any means prevent TRUE plagiarism (I can name numerous examples of films, television shows, and music to back that up. Why would there be so many identical medical dramas and Judge programs if anyone gave a crap about Plagiarism?) It protects CEO's and rights holders from anything that could potentially lose money that simply doesn't exist. If someone pirates a movie, chances are he wasn't going to see it anyway. It's an "if every kid did it" scenario... but not every kid WANTS to do it.
Remember the stink years back when no one was buying CD's? it wasn't because of file sharing and piracy... it was both a reluctance to go into new medium AND the fact the industry was producing all these terrible one hit wonders at the time. This was the era when cheap dance hip hop came about. Who wants to legally support someone who mechanically writes "Women, shake your euphemism for butt?" When someone burped out "Shake your Laffy Taffy," that's when the industry just got stupid and greedy.
Oh, and a fraction of the money goes to the actual performers and writers.
I'm not saying we should watch all the current movies on bit torrent or download current available CD's, I'm saying fan remixes, covers of songs, and stuff done NOT for profit needs to be re-examined as fair use. Companies need not chastise, but rather embrace this stuff. You realize, of course, these big entertainment companies have NO qualms about stealing internet videos themselves and claiming ownership.
Just... at least let stuff up with a disclaimer.