The Killing Writer: Illegal Downloading is "How Shows Die"

[Sarah LeBoeuf]

A lot of you bring up interesting points that I hadn't considered; being American, I have a wealth of legal options available to me. I didn't know that Australia didn't have Netflix and some legal streams are blocked in Canada. Ugh.

Definitely agree that the television industry needs to do more to catch up with the modern streaming era and make more legal options available. I just personally don't ever see piracy as a valid option for myself, even if I can't find what I want to watch elsewhere. But that's my personal choice; the article is just reporting someone else's views.

 

[Fireprufe15]

Look, I would happily pay for TV shows, but they don't let me. Just because I don't live in the US I can't access any of the legal sources of these series. My only two options are waiting months for it to release here or downloading the series. I am an impatient man so I won't wait. Now it is completely up to that network whether I pay for it or download it. They must make the choice to offer me a legal method to access that media as fast as the Americans get it.

 

[Covarr]

Protip: The more easily people can watch a show legally, the less likely they are to pirate it. When Gabe Newell said "Piracy is a service problem", he was talking about games, but it applies to TV and movies also.

P.S. Thanks

 

[Fireprufe15]

Look, TV people. You don't stop piracy by telling people it's wrong. You stop it by providing a better service than the pirates can. And you simply don't at this point. You barely offer a service at all to non - Americans

 

[Baresark]

I would pay a reasonable monthly fee to have new shows that I'm interested in streamed to me. But I won't go back to paying for television. It's a rip off, it literally rots your brain and I have little interest in the copious amounts of crap it offers outside the few shows I'm interested in.

I also think this is dramatic. I watch Dancing with Stars on Hulu and a few commercial breaks are fine by me. Put it all up in a similar fashion on the internet and you won't lose money. It also frees us from trying to be available to watch something on one night at a specific time... which is such an outdated concept it's actually laugh out loud funny.

 

[FalloutJack]

Executve Meddling was the cardinal sin. Everything wrong starts where things start: At the beginning. Why do people pirate? They pirate because they want something and can't get at it normally. Piratng takes more effort than buying something, since it requires a computer with a decent internet connection and the search. Granted, the search part is probably easier than the rest, but not everyone is good at it. So, what did a company do that makes it harder than a person to go buy it? Really, after all the stuff people DO buy into, what did they do that made it fail?

 

[Fox12]

Yawn. Television is a dying medium, but I sympathize with those affected. There's a reason southpark puts all of their episodes online, legally, for free, withing hours of broadcast. There's a reason netflix is successful in television, and Pandora in music. Companies need to stop fighting streaming. It's what consumers want. Of course, I hate television, so you probably couldn't pay me to pirate one of their shows. I'll stick with books and games.

 

[Daaaah Whoosh]

When I have a decent job next year, I'll start paying for these kinds of things. I already donated money to Wikipedia, so I'm on track to putting money where it counts.

That said, I think more flexible payment methods should exist. For instance, maybe you can buy an episode of the show to watch, or you can donate money to the people that made it. That way, you can watch the show on your own terms, and give as much money as you think they deserve. When I want to watch the Avengers and it costs $20 on Blu-Ray, I'm just going to find it on the Internet. If I had a clear way to give $5 to Marvel to say thanks, I'd love to. Sure, a lot of people wouldn't pay, but I think Kickstarter is a great example of how people with disposable incomes are willing to pay to support things they love.

 

[Tanis]

What about all the people who aren't 'ALLOWED' to watch something, because they live in the 'wrong' part of the world?
-I'd HATE to live outside the USA when it comes to a LOT of legal media streaming.

What about all the media that's NOT hosted on ANY kind of streaming site?
-Older shows, Nick's screwing of Legend of Korra, etc.

What about all the people who are forced to pay a MASSIVE increase in price to watch something, because they live in the 'wrong' part of the world?
-I'd HATE to live in a place like Australia where I'd be forced to pay 2x - 10x MORE for the SAME DAMN THING.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

I have crazy mixed feelings on this topic. When it comes to video games, I'm almost 100% anti-piracy. If a game interests you, you buy that game and no others. You can frequently buy it direct from the producers. Worst case, you buy it off a platform like Steam or GOG, which seem relatively fair to the content producers and the customers alike.

TV, on the other hand, is still largely controlled by a small handful of extremely corrupt cable companies who have actively compromised regulatory government bodies in order to destroy net neutrality, bypass antitrust legislation, and generally fuck the consumer out of every last dime. I'd love to watch Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, etc., but I'm not going to pay extortionist prices for a bunch of shit I don't want for the "privilege" of catching 2-3 quality shows a week. Honestly, I think watching streams of GoT, WD, and the like is practically justified civil disobedience. And yeah, I'm sure it hurts the little guys on these productions, too. But I'm also pretty sure a few janitors died when they blew up the Deathstar.

 

[Kameburger]

it's also how some shows become popular in the first place... Game of thrones would have been a shadow of what it is if everyone had to wait for the "legal method" to view it. I mean it's fine that these writers maintain their antiquated thinking on the issue, after all illegal downloading is illegal for a completely understandable reason. But again when you paint your would be audience as criminals you're depleting some much needed empathy. Encouraging people to be good is much more effective at least in the long term than punishing them for being bad.

 

[deth2munkies]

As someone who legally watched every single episode of that show, I can say the reason why it died was not illegal downloading, it was because the 2nd season dragged in the middle and the 3rd season just sucked. Let's act like the Netflix only 4th season doesn't exist, makes the rest of the show better.

 

[Olas]

Whenever the issue of piracy comes up everybody always seems to blame the piracy on studios for not making things "convenient enough" and frankly I think it's pretty much a BS excuse.

Look, I'm not going to argue with the fact that more could and should be done to make the shows easily available to all people, but I don't see how that makes people entitled to steal their content for free either.

Only if there's absolutely zero legal avenues for obtaining the content, and no future expectation of legal avenues, do I even see how the ethics of it become debatable, and even then I don't condone breaking the law just because you're able to somewhat reasonably justify something to yourself.

Frankly, I have more respect for pirates who simply acknowledge that what they're doing is wrong than ones who throw up excuses in defense of their actions, or worse yet who convince themselves they're theft is some sort of moral crusade against the evils of DRM or whatever it is they don't like about the legal routes. I don't like DRM either, but if I want to protest it I'll just not play the games that have it.

 

[Rag Doll]

I will start watching from legitimate sites when they stop putting a damn region-lock on them.

Simple as that.

 

[faefrost]

Of all the media industries the one that has the least reason to ***** about piracy is television. They get revenue from monetizing eyeballs on the product. OK, so monetize the eyeballs on the streaming product. Most other producers are working this one out. Put the shows on the internet yourself with the adds embedded. Make it easier for the customer to watch the legit product then to watch the pirate. The problem goes away.

 

[Waaghpowa]

I agree, this is why Game of Thrones is doing so poorly.

Wait..what's the opposite of poorly? A...maaaz...ing?

I think that's the word.

 

[weirdee]

Stop blaming other people for sales that your distribution already forfeited because of the nature of how it handles releases. Those sales were lost the moment you decided that it wasn't important to make it convenient for your customers to access that content on day or even hour of release. Online distribution can be your friend if you don't treat it like shit.

Of course, nobody can stop piracy completely, but it would make more sense to start TAKING THOSE SALES BACK instead of cramming heads into the sand.

 

[martyrdrebel27]

you know why people download things? access. i have a netflix and a hulu account, both of which i pay for, however, if these aren't enough to get me the shows i watch, i will download them. make your shows more accessible and you will see decreased piracy. today, i finished watching season 8 of Supernatural, and season 9 isn't available except for the last few episodes... guess what's in my queue?

you know why Game of Thrones is the most downloaded show ever? because they don't have access outside of their overpriced realm. put it on hulu or netflix, get the licensing deal from that, and see your money. or don't and see no money. simple.