Should we Blame Ourselves for the Lack of Originality in Hollywood?

My god I am sick of the remakes and endless cycle of sequels coming out of Hollywood the days.  It seems that for every truly original movie, such as Inception or Dinner for Schmucks, we have at least 4 or 5 remake/sequels.  Do we really need to remake a movie, like Halloween or Let the Right One In, that were both incredible the first time around.  What does the medium gain by doing it?  I would say nothing.

However, should we actually be looking in the mirror to find the reason for this proliferation of trash?  Is it the direct result of all these "free movie download" ads and links I see whenever I google the word movie?  I am not a free movie downloader - both out of principle and a supreme fear of spyware and viruses, but clearly thousands of web-users are.  I can't help but think that Hollywood's sudden aversion to risk is related to the increased activity in "free movie downloads".

I have not back-tested the data to compare the number of remakes and sequels in the last two years to that of 10 years ago, but it certainly feels like there are a lot more now than there used to be.  It is also a very popular topic in the movie blogosphere.  Whether or not the incidence has increased, one thing is for sure -- if the profit is driven out of the movie business, the quality of the product will suffer.

Some artists will continue to create movie masterpieces without a thought of earning a profit, but even they would not be able to lose money making movies over the long-term.  I am a huge believer in free speech, but not copyright theft.  I believe in paying fair value for a product and downloading movies for free is theft. 

So please think about the future of the movie industry the next time you go to download a movie for free.  Whether your favorites are big-budget action movies or low-budget human interest stories, the quality will suffer if we don't let the artists make money.