American Ambassador Lectures Aussies On Game of Thrones Theft

[RicoADF]

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?

We get the DVD's months after the US, and at twice the price. When your ripped off and treated like 2nd class citizens ofcourse their gonna say "stuff 'em".

Note: I never pirate movies/games etc, but I do understand why so many don't bother and just download.

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.

iTunes, nuff said. I refuse to use shotty Apple products especially that virus, if they offered it on a legitimate service then it'd help. Personally I don't watch that show and what shows I do buy are on DVD/Bluray, but that's just me.

 

[Signa]

Ridiculous, targeting students who wouldn't have bought it otherwise. I don't watch the show but I'm willing to bet if torrents for it weren't available or no one did it then this show would be far less popular, be talked about much less and would therefore make far less money. These politicians don't know how the visual art and music industries work, and it's not surprising that the show's producers do and don't mind.

I don't know how more people don't see it that way. Marketing companies understand viral commercials and videos, why the hell does that logic stop with an actual product? Oh, I guess a product being delivered for free is breaking some rules somewhere, even if there is other tried and true ways to monetize a customer with empty pockets.

 

[lunavixen]

So... is Game of Thrones offered only through cable providers, or are there streaming services available there? Are there DVD's available for purchase? Are they priced reasonably or do they jack up the price to absurd amounts like with video games?

Just like to get some context. Because if the only way to watch Game of Thrones in Australia is to sign up with a cable service (that might suck, or not. No idea, feel free to tell me if they do/don't) and catch it when it's on and nowhere else... then know shit they pirate it a lot.

price is seriously jacked up, i looked at buying it, but season 2 is still close enough to $60AU, season one has not long come down to about $35AU (depending on where you get it from, but thats the best i've seen it at), blu ray is even more.

Foxtel (one of out major cable services is very expensive) is something like $700 per year for the "essentials" service, it's near enough to $50 per month.

 

[Splitzi]

snip

I don't understand why defining the exact sort of illicit activity should be a major debate. People boil it down and call it theft because it is easier to understand and convey their meaning. To some it is easy to label it that, because they are at the most basic level taking content without paying for it.

On another note, I hate when people blame HBO for their own act of piracy. Yes, HBO has some tremendous delivery problems for their shows. However, they are a premium subscription channel and have the right to release their content whenever they want. It doesn't matter how much they profit from the show, piracy is still wrong. Some people complain about the price of the season DVDs, but have they thought that maybe they are expensive because HBO is trying to make back some of the money they lost to illegal downloads?

 

[GAunderrated]

snip

I don't understand why defining the exact sort of illicit activity should be a major debate. People boil it down and call it theft because it is easier to understand and convey their meaning.

It wouldn't be so bad if those that generalize didn't talk as if it was an absolute truth. That is the problem when you "boil it down" to make it easier to understand, the people making those generalizations live in black and white worlds when everything is gray. To those that see the world in gray it is really annoying to see those who choose to live in black and white, try and tell us there is no gray.

Point is if you choose to generalize or "boil it down" then please understand what you are boiling down has some truth to it but is not true in itself because you are not giving it a proper context.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

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?

We get the DVD's months after the US, and at twice the price. When your ripped off and treated like 2nd class citizens ofcourse their gonna say "stuff 'em".

Note: I never pirate movies/games etc, but I do understand why so many don't bother and just download.

I've been buying the Blu-ray as they come out, got season one and two, but the wait for three to even get over to my country is so damn long and we're right next to Australia(I'm in New Zealand). I'm a fan supporting the show buy buying the seasons as they come out, but spoilers pop up in the most unexpected of places and what do they expect people to do? Avoid the internet completely for about a year until the next season gets aired or localized on DVD etc? It's like this with quite a few shows, still waiting on season 7 of Dexter to buy over here. I don't pirate stuff, that's being honest.

But it's getting harder and harder with coworkers doing it and having to tell them not to spoil the shows etc, when I could watch it and then not have to worry. It's my own personal stance for me on piracy, but companies are making it hard that way when my country always gets stuff way later then others 90% of the time, not to mention the fact we tend to pay a lot more for all these late things. Late can mean up to a year in quite a few cases.

To everyone saying that its not available in Australia, at a reasonable price, at a reasonable time, without subscription to pay tv you wouldn't use:
$3 per episode for the sd slightly more for the HD (which for comparison is less than half what even a student would pay for a movie ticket)
Day after the US

https://itunes.apple.com/au/tv-season/game-of-thrones-season-3/id611198334?showLC=true

Didn't know about that, thanks for the link but I doubt I would end up using it. Main reason, bandwidth. We have limited net in my country, it's getting better but it's damn expensive and we'd have to factor in the cost of the net it would take up etc as well onto that. How big are the episodes size wise in HD and SD? I can't seem to look at that information until it is bought and I don't have an AppleID thing as I don't use their products.

 

[Loonyyy]

If it was more available, it'd be more watched. But when it's kept off the standard networks, and requires finnicking with cable and satellite services many don't have, or sold through the Apple store, then it's an inconvenience for people to get at it. And we've all seen what happens when it's even less convenient to get something legally than it should be.

 

[Revolutionary]

It's not so much a matter of having to wait, it's more that we have to get foxtel, and then pay extra for HBO on top of that. It's just not financially feasible when Game of Thrones is the only things worth watching in HBO right now.

Also itunes would be OK except that itunes isn't OK if that makes any sense. If it was actually a service that I would ever use for anything else then maybe, but again I'd pretty much just be using it for Game of Thrones.

I'll buy the DVD when it comes out.

 

[Magmarock]

Well Mr. Bleich, allow me clarify just a few reasons why torrenting is so big in Australia. Video games/Movies/Music are double the dollars over here.

Our currency is higher yet we pay more. On Steam we are charged in US dollars and yet we are still charged more

On top of that we have to deal with unfair regional lockouts.

I checked and there is no reason for things to be so expensive in Australia, that's just how much they want to charge.


The only way to watch Game of thrones is to torrent it.
So, Mr. Bleich, those are just some of the reasons why Australia has such a huge torrenting base. I'd suggest fixing things at your end before taking it out on us.

 

[likalaruku]

Well, until our greedy capitalist businesses are willing to sell entertainment to Aussies at reasonable prices (meaning cutting the prices of everything in half) I say to the Aussies "go for it."

I don't give two shits about the series myself.

 

[Reaper195]

In New Zealand, the only legit way of watching GoT is to spend about sixty bucks a month on a cable service (Well...the NZ equivalent anyway) that would only get used two and a half months a year. And since your forced into year or two long contracts....it saves well over a grand to simply torrent the series as it comes out, then buy it on Blu-Ray/DVD when that is finaly released (A bloody year later, at that).

 

[rees263]

I have to say that the window between the end of the Season and its release on DVD was genuinely shocking to me when I found out. Sometimes I see DVDs in shops for British shows that only finished the week before.

I thought maybe I could get the boxset for my Birthday (July), that seemed like a reasonable hope. Nope, 1 month was too short a time. Okay then, Christmas it is. That's plenty of time, and everyone wants their boxset on sale in time for Christmas don't they... oh, apparently not.

It's like they have no idea about supply and demand. What possible reason could there be to wait almost a year before the DVD comes out. I just checked iTunes and I couldn't find a single episode on there from any season.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

But piracy isn't theft. That ambassador should be lectured first before he lectures other.

 

[JemothSkarii]

Well I don't watch Game of thrones, but apart from iTunes I honestly haven't heard anything else that has it. We (apparently, heard it through a friend) only just got Season 1 on TV, and if anyone is like me they avoid iTunes like the plague. Sure, means I don't get to own anything of a band's stuff that only go through said service (Youtube Playlists errywhere) but that processor eating piece of garbage gets zero of my time.

So yeah, if I pirated and watched GoT, that would be the reason why.

 

[smashleigh]

To everyone saying that its not available in Australia, at a reasonable price, at a reasonable time, without subscription to pay tv you wouldn't use:
$3 per episode for the sd slightly more for the HD (which for comparison is less than half what even a student would pay for a movie ticket)
Day after the US

https://itunes.apple.com/au/tv-season/game-of-thrones-season-3/id611198334?showLC=true

Didn't know about that, thanks for the link but I doubt I would end up using it. Main reason, bandwidth. We have limited net in my country, it's getting better but it's damn expensive and we'd have to factor in the cost of the net it would take up etc as well onto that. How big are the episodes size wise in HD and SD? I can't seem to look at that information until it is bought and I don't have an AppleID thing as I don't use their products.

Approx 2gig for the HD and 850meg for the SD

 

[Zanderinfal]

Well fuck you too Mr Ambassador sir!

I don't watch the show myself, and I can understand that torrenting isn't very good... but does he think he'll... change something? You can't with torrenting because unless you can completely disolve piracy there isn't a hope in hell of them listening. They see something for free, they take it. They see something for free that they want, they take lots of it. That's how it works and will always work. Can't say I like it but hey, it happens.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

Approx 2gig for the HD and 850meg for the SD

HD is pretty big, but even ten of the SD is around 8 gigs, which for some is a fair amount for most of us over here.

In New Zealand, the only legit way of watching GoT is to spend about sixty bucks a month on a cable service (Well...the NZ equivalent anyway) that would only get used two and a half months a year. And since your forced into year or two long contracts....it saves well over a grand to simply torrent the series as it comes out, then buy it on Blu-Ray/DVD when that is finaly released (A bloody year later, at that).

Yeah, it's a load of BS, at the very least they could make the dvd/bluray releases around the same time-ish. That's how I watch most shows, as I work nights, so the crap is never on when I'm home, so I don't pay for tv, I watch dvds etc for series etc and play games on my PC etc to kill time instead.

 

[VoidWanderer]

I would happily buy the season, but given that Season 1 was available to buy about three weeks before Season 2 hit the airwaves...

And guess what happened when Season 3 hit the air....

 

[Caffiene]

[...]
$3 per episode for the sd slightly more for the HD (which for comparison is less than half what even a student would pay for a movie ticket)
Day after the US

https://itunes.apple.com/au/tv-season/game-of-thrones-season-3/id611198334?showLC=true

Didn't know about that [...]

As an Aussie, I think this is the number one problem causing GoT piracy here. Disregarding the question of whether being forced to use iTunes is acceptable or not, the simple fact is that hardly anybody knows that GoT is legally available in this form.

IIRC, this availability on iTunes was not the case for earlier seasons of GoT. As far as Im aware when the first season was being shown in the US you simply couldnt get it legally here in Australia in any form, certainly not within a few hours of airing in the US. Most people dont use cable, and most people dont download shows from iTunes - people have no reason to know that the availability has suddenly changed, and no effort has been made to advertise it.

People started pirating GoT back at season 1, and the response seems to be "Well, why havent you been checking iTunes on a regular basis to make sure it didnt suddenly become available where it wasnt before?" If they spent as much effort telling people that GoT is available on iTunes as theyve spent complaining that nobody is downloading GoT from iTunes I suspect theyd have had much better results.

Doesnt make it ok, but Im certainly not surprised.