I saw this article and thought this would be a nice discussion topic. I live in the US and an ardent fan of Tamil Cinema. I live in a 3rd tier city that has more than 1000 tamil families. Here is the issue. We only get about 2 movies screened in the theater/year since the audience only wants to watch popular cinema (meaning movies like Payanam, Aadukalam, Ko have no chance of making it to the theater here since they dont have stars). So, the only option we have is to watch movies on DVD for all practical purposes. Here comes the issue. The Indian store guys dont want to stakc up original DVDs since people dont return them on time and issuing a penalty would make the stores less favorable for customers and they fear losing business. So, their option has been to make copies of these DVDs, such that people buy them for $2 instead of renting them, so they dont have to suck up the headache for following up with people who have not returned the DVDs. This is the truth in every US city since we do not have a system of renting out movies legally.
 
So, here comes the parallel thought. I can as well download the movie from a place like say TamilTorrents, so at least i dont support these guys by giving them the money to continue pirating DVDs.
 
My definitial of piracy is different from yours, your definition is more about not watching pirated copies of movies when the official DVD has not been released, but i am talking about piracy even after the DVD comes out. The scene on the Hindi movie world is even worse. The pirated DVD hits all Indian stores here within a week of release. The stores make copies of those and very few people even know when movies get released, so they just go to the store and ask for the latest movie. Since it takes a few months for the original movie to come out on DVD for these Hindi movies, the stores here essentially dont buy the original DVD since the community has already seen it on the pirated version.
 
So, if movie piracy really has to stop- at least in the US- it is imperative that the industry figures out a way for people outside India to watch movies in a cost effective manner that is legal, else the overseas market for our movies will only see 1% of the total potential.