Personally I would be very happy if movie studios were more cautious about the movies that they make. We are deluged with so many bad movies that if we had fewer chouces, we might wind up with a better overall movie experience.

That being said, with the advent of cheap digital technology, many movies are being made for much less money…the one constant seems to be actor’s salaries, and I believe that they will skew lower as well over time. We are seeing that some movies will be seen on a giant screen and others will be screened at home, whether on a computer, on-demand TV, or some other medium not invented yet. What most of us are not thinking about is the fact that digital technology is still very new, and will inevitably change over the next 15 or 20 years as new ways are found to do things. The CD is dead already, the DVD not far behind…Blue Ray? Who knows, and who knows what formats will come along in both the near and far future.

Content is no longer king, and altho great movies with great stories will always be watched, it may turn out that those movies are watched mainly by film students in libraries while the public will be experiencing movies via direct electrical brain stimulation and be an actual part of the experience. The technology to recreate famous dead actors already exists. Is the world ready for Maltese Falcon II? Hold on to your hats. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.

In this example of streaming “Iron Man”, I saw the movie in theaters twice with friends because the experience of seeing a movie in a theater is completely different than watching a low quality version on my laptop. Especially one with dazzling special effects like in “Iron Man” - that movie is awesome and well worth the ticket price!

However, when it comes to many movies these days, it’s hard to know exactly what you are getting into before you pay $11 for a ticket and $12 for a coke and bag of popcorn.

Movie Trailers are often over-hyped and misleading. The most recent movie I saw in theaters was “The Informant”, which looked hilarious in trailers, but I found it to be Matt Damon’s worst movie ever. Unlike being disappointed with a software application, I couldn’t get a full refund, because I had “consumed” the movie.

It’s an interesting distinction between protecting digital media and software. As a creative entrepreneur, I definitely understand the desire for compensation of one’s work. However, as a consumer my biggest concern is quality of the product. It would be ideal if one could always be guaranteed 100% risk free investment in both forms of IP.

Software is more like a tool, if you don’t like the tool, you can return it for a refund. A movie is more like a consumable. There is no refund for a poor quality movie. At best case scenario the theater will offer a rain check to see a different movie, which isn’t the same as a refund, especially if the next movie is no better.

Perhaps if Hollywood offered 100% money back refunds for movies viewers weren’t satisfied with, fewer people would feel the need to view content illegally. If its a quality movie, a fan will probably see it multiple times in theaters or purchase the DVD, allowing the studio to be adequately compensated. A prime example are Harry Potter or Star Wars fans that pride themselves on being the first to see movies in theaters, the number of times they’ve seen it and how much merchandise they’ve purchased.

In either case be it software or movies, the consumer should be offered a quality product with a 100% satisfaction guarantee.