商務禮節美語第212期:Piracy 盜版(下)

Benny買了便宜的盜版影碟，他室友Carl覺得這樣做無異於盜竊。Benny爭辯說，

B: Come on. If you steal, it means you hurt someone, right? When I buy fake DVDs, who am I hurting?

C: Actually, lots of people. Movie and software companies all over the world have lots of employees performing all kinds of jobs. There are designers, lighting people, make-up people and many, many more. If the company doesn't make money, these people lose their jobs.

買盜版影碟，會傷害到很多人。另外，盜版影碟質量也不好。

C: Besides, isn't the quality of pirated DVDs really terrible?

B: Some of them are pretty bad. Sometimes you can barely hear the dialogue because the audio is so poor.

C: Then why not really enjoy the movie by renting a legal copy? You don't usually watch films again anyway. They just sit on your shelf taking up space!

B: (Laughs) That's true. I have 1000 of these things just lying around. OK, I can sort of see your point. But originals are still way too expensive!

盜版影碟質量差，有時連對話都聽不清楚。況且，Carl說，一部電影也不會反覆看，無非是放在架子上佔地兒。Benny承認，I have 1000 of these things just lying around. 他確實有很多盜版影碟放在那裏。可他又說，正版實在是太貴了。Originals are way too expensive. 這裏的way起到了強調的效果。

C: Yes, I agree, but I think that will begin to change soon. Pretty soon everything will be digital and you'll be able go online and cheaply buy a legal copy to download. Prices should start to go down soon.

B: It's already happened for music. I can now buy single songs online legally for a very cheap price. Before I had to buy the whole CD, but usually I only liked a couple of the songs on it.

Carl說，用不了多久，電影也會數字化，可以很便宜地合法下載。Benny表示同意，因爲他現在已經可以上網付費下載單曲，而不用象從前那樣買整盤CD了。

C: Also, don't forget that buying original copies helps pay the salaries of your favorite movie stars. You're a big Jackie Chan fan, right?

B: Yeah! Jackie Chan is the best! Nobody can do stunts like Chan!

C: But how can the movie studios pay Jackie Chan millions of dollars to star in the films if everybody buys fake copies of his movies?

B: Ok, Ok I get it! ...I'll give up pirated movies. what am I going to do tonight?

C: Want to play chess?

B: Sure!

Carl知道Benny是成龍的影迷，他繼續勸Benny說，如果大家都買盜版，誰還付得起幾百萬美元請成龍拍電影呢？Benny這才終於表示，Ok I get it! I'll give up pirated movies. 意思是，好了，我明白了，以後不買盜版了。