American Ambassador Lectures Aussies On Game of Thrones Theft

[Karloff]

American Ambassador Lectures Aussies On Game of Thrones Theft

Ambassador Bleich is disappointed in you, Australia, land where the torrent freaks roam wild and free.

Jeffrey L. Bleich, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to Australia, is aggrieved, nay, distraught, at the rate at which Australians are willing to torrent Game of Thrones. Even though the doings of House Stark and all the rest are available In Australia from legitimate sources within hours of the show's broadcast in the United States, this still isn't enough to dissuade pirates. In fact, Ambassador Bleich claims, in global statistics, Australians are the biggest Game of Thrones thieves in the whole wide world.

Bleich acknowledges that people might be tempted to torrent; after all, it's easy and quick, and those few hours in between broadcast in the US and in Australia can seem intolerable. "But artists' livelihoods depend on us rejecting that urge," says Bleich, "just as shopkeepers and small businesses depend on people not just stealing products from their shelves." Stealing is stealing, and if people keep on torrenting quality content then those poor Hollywood artists will have to go back to waiting tables and parking cars to make a living.

Just buy the thing, already. It's the right thing to do, says Bleich, and it'll make Tyrion Lannister [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/miracle-of-sound/7086-Half-Mans-Song-Game-of-Thrones] happy. You can't say fairer than that.

Source: Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/notes/ambassador-bleich/stopping-the-game-of-clones/542850132425361]


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[ninjaRiv]

I can't help but feel there's more to the piracy than just not wanting to wait a few hours. Like here I'd have to switch to a whole new cable provider, get a new box, etc just to watch it. It's not available on demand at all. Any Australians here know what's what? Is it the same over there? Or are you guys just impatient?

 

[Vie]

I can't believe I'm the one doing this, never been able to get into Game of thrones myself, but...

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

If we had access to Netflix... Well people would still torrent, but at least that 'it's on a crappy hour/I want to watch it NOW' excuses wouldn't work.

 

[Sidmen]

Easy solution: Torrent the show if you must, then leave your TV on HBO when it does air - that way you get to watch it again, because its seriously that good.

 

[Karloff]

I can't help but feel there's more to the piracy than just not wanting to wait a few hours.

I discussed this with Steven Bogos, who lives in Australia. Apparently there's an iTunes download available these days at about $3.50-ish an episode, which is available a day or so after air, and there's also cable, which - naturally - you have to subscribe to. So not a long wait or much of a cost, in the grand scheme of things.

 

[GonzoGamer]

And pay these damn parking tickets too.

 

[1337mokro]

Alright you want to talk Business American Ambassador? Let's talk business.

You see this is how business work (excluding the parasitic practice that is called banking where money is made from money) you make something people want and then price it at such a point where the people that want it will be inclined to purchase. You make sure this product can reach as many people as possible with as low a hurdle as possible for that particular consumer.

Now you see when you put an imaginary time limit of about one week, only make deals with a select amount of terrible providers, throw in high prices and inconvenient scheduled viewing times together and still expect people to want your service then you are quite insane. Especially when your competitor that applies less legal methods of acquiring the same goods has no arbitrary time limit between countries in a digital age where an e-mail takes 2 seconds to travel the globe but a TV show takes a week for some reason, streams it on demand on any device you bloody well please and even goes so far as to ask no money for it. None at all.

Why is it then that people seem to just forgo watching it on television now I couldn't possibly tell you. But I do think this internet thing might catch on. We might want to start looking into creating unlimited streaming services for an affordable monthly membership fee. We could even throw in adds or add free memberships to offer some variety and keep the service afloat.

What is that mister ambassador? You don't think they could cover the cost of production if they lowered the prices? Oh well guess they'd rather price gouge a possible of 75 million than 750 million customer households. You see the internet doesn't actually have boundaries and as long as people are allowed to sign up and you don't region restrict it you might even do better than Netflix which already has more subscribers than HBO because nobody has to deal with horrible telecom providers when dealing with Netflix.

 

[Calibanbutcher]

Question:
If i was to pirate Game of Thrones during it's run on TV, because, in this hypothetical situation, I have no way of watching the series on TV, and then bought the DVD box, where would I stand, as far as karma, morality etc, is concerned?

I know that pirating is against the law, but if I go out of my way to get my money to the creators of the series, as fast as is humanly possible, by buying the DVDs as soon as they hit the market, would that make up for "pirating" the series?


DISCLAIMER: I do not endorse pirating, nor do I torrent anything. I am talking about a hypothetical scenario.

 

[Deshin]

Question:
If i was to pirate Game of Thrones during it's run on TV, because, in this hypothetical situation, I have no way of watching the series on TV, and then bought the DVD box, where would I stand, as far as karma, morality etc, is concerned?

I know that pirating is against the law, but if I go out of my way to get my money to the creators of the series, as fast as is humanly possible, by buying the DVDs as soon as they hit the market, would that make up for "pirating" the series?


DISCLAIMER: I do not endorse pirating, nor do I torrent anything. I am talking about a hypothetical scenario.

Karma and morality differ from person to person so it's really not something any one person can tell you is good or bad. As far as legality goes you'd still be in trouble because they want ALL the revenue!

As for pirating being against the law... idk, loads of countries piracy is actually perfectly legal. Afaik it's legal where I live, something about the end user can never be 100% sure if material is being shared with the copyright holder's consent or not so it's not up to the end user to be blamed for it. Something like that.

 

[Chaya]

I for example download all the episodes even though I pay for two HBO channels on cable. I just don't have the time to watch it during its time slot.

I'm pirating sure, but not stealing from them in any way.

 

[flarty]

If we had access to Netflix... Well people would still torrent, but at least that 'it's on a crappy hour/I want to watch it NOW' excuses wouldn't work.

Its not on netflix. Even if netflix had the right to air it you still have to wait a few months til after the series has aired before it appears.

Question:
If i was to pirate Game of Thrones during it's run on TV, because, in this hypothetical situation, I have no way of watching the series on TV, and then bought the DVD box, where would I stand, as far as karma, morality etc, is concerned?

I know that pirating is against the law, but if I go out of my way to get my money to the creators of the series, as fast as is humanly possible, by buying the DVDs as soon as they hit the market, would that make up for "pirating" the series?


DISCLAIMER: I do not endorse pirating, nor do I torrent anything. I am talking about a hypothetical scenario.

Karma and morality differ from person to person so it's really not something any one person can tell you is good or bad. As far as legality goes you'd still be in trouble because they want ALL the revenue!

As for pirating being against the law... idk, loads of countries piracy is actually perfectly legal. Afaik it's legal where I live, something about the end user can never be 100% sure if material is being shared with the copyright holder's consent or not so it's not up to the end user to be blamed for it. Something like that.

Where are you from?
*checks profile
Ahhh Malta, so many great things Malta has given the world. Now this awesome piece of piracy legislation on top of the oldest man made structures in the world, and the Popeye the sailor man village.

 

[Deshin]

Ahhh Malta, so many great things Malta has given the world. Now this awesome piece of piracy legislation on top of the oldest man made structures in the world, and the Popeye the sailor man village.

Not sure if sincerity or sarcasm. There are a lot of messed up laws here but also a lot of pretty decent ones. The Swedes have the whole piracy thing down as well (hence why Pirate Bay has been hard to shift for so long) as long as they all stay within reasonable bounds. For example you can't download something then slap it on a disc and try to sell it, but if it's for personal usage it's considered ok.

 

[Entitled]

Game of Thrones theft? Sounds serious.

*Checks HBO.com*

Hmm... It looks like they still have Game of Thrones at them, so apparently it wasn't stolen after all.

Good news, everyone, it look s like it was a false alarm! The reports of Game of Thrones's theft are greatly exaggerated.