Comment 11 by wald0h :

Piracy is a service problem. The movie and television industries are starting to see what too much greed does. People don't want to spend 13 dollars (18-20 for imax 3D) for an hour and a half movie where you're surrounded by kids and cell phones. And people are certainly not paying a dish network or their cable provider 60 dollars a month stuck to a contract to catch that one show on HBO that they enjoy.

I'm not sure if this is related to cost. Selfishness is a common human trait (it helps us survive!), but strangely so is charity. The "Pay What You Want" model - a glorified honor system - is hit or miss.

I don't think it matters so much what the actual cost is - I know that it's quite possible to watch movies for a dollar (RedBox) or possibly less (NetFlix) and yet downloading movies illegally is extremely popular despite these affordable costs. I think it all hinges on honesty. But I don't think there's any way to be sure.