Help! I’m Being Forced To Pirate Game Of Thrones Against My Will

http://pandodaily.com/2012/03/20/a-winter-of-piracy-is-coming/

by spdy • 14 years ago

16 12 14 years ago

A while back i pirated a bunch of old episodes of This American Life so i could listen to them on my commute/long runs. The episodes were available to stream from the website, but (at the time) i was unable to do that on the go. So I torrented them... and then i donated $100 to the program. Listening to the radio shows was only really practical when i was commuting and it turned me into a huge fan. Now i donate regularly, if it wasn't for bitorrent I'm not sure that would be the case. Nowadays i have a smartphone and there is a TAL app that lets you download episodes for 'offline' listening. So i probably wouldn't do it that way again, but still bitorrent provided an extremely valuable service to me, and i think it also provided a good service to TAL.

jacquesm• 14 years ago

The interesting bit is that no matter how much you donate this is still illegal.

You can't unilaterally buy yourself out of a transgression like that. Sure it makes you feel better but the letter of the law has no spot for the honour system.

wladimir• 14 years ago

Well even if not legally, morally he did the right thing. The spirit of copyright laws is that the authors get paid for their work, right?

And whether it's illegal depends on the jurisdiction. In some countries (such as The Netherlands) it's legal to download.

bigiain• 14 years ago

I want my next door neighbours Ferrari, but Ferrari only sell them through dealerships, and they want _heaps_ of money for them! I could wait for a second hand one at a reasonable price, but I'd have to wait a year or two. I've got no alternative!

(Yeah, I know, physical goods vs digital goods, but _ye ghods_ there's a sense of entitlement in that post!)

egallardo• 14 years ago

Your analogy doesn't work. The author's gripe (which is mine) is that he doesn't want to pay for cable because it includes paying for a bunch of shit he doesn't want. He's willing to buy the Ferrari from Ferrari, but not if it also includes paying more for a Vespa, a Dodge Neon and an Escalade..

As consumers, if we want to purchase something you'd hope the manufacturer would do everything in their power to sell it to us. That's not the case currently and that's his point..

talentdeficit• 14 years ago

Here's why HBO requires you to subscribe to their channel to watch Game of Thrones.

If you watch Game of Thrones, maybe you'll also watch Veep or Girls or Eastbound & Down or Life's Too Short. You might notice that HBO staggers their series so they overlap for roughly half their run. The Sopranos and The Wire never ran in lockstep, The Wire would start roughly halfway through The Sopranos run. They're trying to get you to continuously subscribe, rather than just subscribe for the 13 weeks Game of Thrones is on.

I know, you're too smart to fall for that, you're just gonna PVR Game of Thrones and stop recording exactly when the episode ends. You're never going to see anything except Game of Thrones no matter what HBO does. You, however, are still atypical. Maybe the day will come where HBO's trick doesn't work and their subscribers routinely cancel and resubscribe so it's most advantageous for them, but for now it works well enough that offering Game of Thrones a la carte is a money losing proposition for them. The sales they'll get from MG Siegler and yourself will not offset the subscribers they'll lose who would rather just pay for HBO continuously than go without Game of Thrones.

HBO (and other content producers) may be stubborn and short sighted, but they are not stupid. They've run the numbers. If you want to change their minds, you have to change the numbers and, regrettably, that means you have to boycott them completely. Pirating their content just signals it's valuable and HBO is right to keep availability costly (whether through direct pricing or obnoxious distribution terms).

rdubsy• 14 years ago

Firstly, I think the point would have been better made without the 'I'm being FORCED to pirate it' argument. :)

HBO is allowed to sell their content how they like, if it is costing them money then so be it. They will eventually adapt or fade away, and I don't think illegalling obtaining their content is going to convince them that putting stuff online faster is the way to go.

cicero• 14 years ago

He wants to watch a TV show, and there is not a way for him to do it at a reasonable cost. If he really is concerned about following the law, he would just not watch the show. He is not being "forced" to do anything; he is making a choice.

I'm not arguing that what he is doing isn't understandable, or that he doesn't have cause to complain. The statement "I'm being forced ... against my will" completely misses the meaning of "force" and "will". I don't mean to be pedantic; I only point it out because it reflects a common outlook that does not bode well for people's ability to choose wisely in a difficult moral dilemma. Other examples of this kind of talk might be: "I was forced to pay an undocumented worker substandard wages against my will because I could not otherwise afford to have my lawn cut," or "I was forced to buy from a company that I object to because the competition's product is not as cool."

takinola• 14 years ago

You miss the point. People tend to write in extremes (e.g. "I'm so hungry, I could literally eat a horse"). No one in their right minds believes he has no other choice but to behave illegally but he is just highlighting how much of a pain it is to behave legally. It is more of a business issue than a legal/ethical one. Your business model sucks when your most rabid fans are struggling to find ways to give their money to you.

ps. given this is the internet, I do somewhat have to concede that quite a significant number of people may not be in their "right minds"

isleyaardvark• 14 years ago

What an entitled, spoiled view. He's not being "forced" to pirate it, he just think it costs too much.

jakeonthemove• 14 years ago

I'm going to get downvoted for this, but here's my opinion:

I recently had a similar issue with OnLive - I registered for free and found that you can play over 100 games for $10 a month - a great deal, right?

Well, for some unfathomable reason, I couldn't PAY for the monthly subscription because I am outside the US. I used a VPN and added my (Bank of America!) credit card to the system without problems - now I have a subscription and enjoy Dirt 3, TR:Legend, Driver: San Francisco on my laptop AND Android phone (it's really impressive).

I'm also practically forced to order a physical CD of a band I like (I'm NOT going to do that, because I'll have to wait a month, then just rip that CD to my computer and throw it away, which is quite sad, really) instead of being able to order it online and download it.

HBO doesn't want to allow you to watch a show you like (love?) and you can do it illegally - I say DO IT if you want - sooner or later, they'll either sue everybody or understand that they need to give their potential customers the products they want, when they want, which will actually save them money and make them richer.

And the author, actors are getting paid the same amount regardless - the network pockets most of the profit, anyway (that's why I hope the current direct artist -> consumer trend is the future).

Help! I’m Being Forced To Pirate Game Of Thrones Against My Will

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