Nobility? Really?
This is theft. Theft from all writers, like me, who get residuals for our work. The actors, directors and everyone who put up money to make the film are getting ripped off, too.
Say he wanted to send the troops Hickory Farms goodies or phone cards. Nice. Good intentions. Would you then sign off on his waltzing into the mall and walking off with all this stuff? Because he’s sending it to the troops?
If he could secure the copyright holders’ permission for what he’s doing, fine. But the rules are, in a free market economy, where property rights are still respected and everything doesn’t yet belong to the government, you have to ask. Charity by theft isn’t charity.
And I don’t care if he’s 92, that guy doesn’t speak for all vets; I read the comments accompanying the article. One vet said a care package with a jacked DVD in it would make him as uncomfortable as a candy bar stolen from 7/11.
Yup, I really didn’t look at it that way.
Maybe I’m bent because it’s no food off my plate, or maybe I naturally connect to the people whose day in the zone was made a little better by his crime than those who were outraged.
It must be that I’m just wired wrong, because although you made a conclusive argument, I just can’t connect to your pain. I keep visualizing young men in Afghanistan whose only positive event of a day in hell was a larcenous old vet that gave them a ninety minute escape out of it.
You’re 100% right, he has absolutely no legal defense at all, not one leg in court he could stand on. And he was aware of the legal ramifications of his actions, which would come down hard on him at his sentencing.