HBO Has Only Itself To Blame For Record 'Game Of Thrones' Piracy

[dougmac]

I think you would have to be stupid not to buy game of thrones for 99cents if it came with a blow job.

Finally something we can all agree on

[c. page]

I think you would have to be stupid not to buy game of thrones for 99cents if it came with a blow job.

I think it depends entirely on who is giving the blow job. If it's an old worn-down hooker with severe herpes of the mouth, for example, I would likely turn it down.

[Jason California]

Finally something we can all agree on

I like to find common ground.

I think it depends entirely on who is giving the blow job. If it's an old worn-down hooker with severe herpes of the mouth, for example, I would likely turn it down.

Dude, this is not USA in the 80s, this is HBO. They put out quality shit, and I just can't imagine them packaging their stuff with a worn out hooker for a blow job.

[Dreaded Anomaly]

Also, I missed this before, but just to clarify:

It doesn't matter if it is record amounts or minimal amounts. As I said, it is an incontestable fact that HBO is having their legal rights violated. You yourself have agreed that copyright infringement is illegal and should be. So we are in agreement here.

I believe that obtaining content created/designed by someone else without compensating them is illegal and should be. I would not apply that to everything that could legally be called copyright infringement, because current copyright laws are wildly out of control.

[motorfirebox]

Also, I missed this before, but just to clarify:



I believe that obtaining content created/designed by someone else without compensating them is illegal and should be. I would not apply that to everything that could legally be called copyright infringement, because current copyright laws are wildly out of control.

Yeah. You can't throw down the "they're violating HBO's legal rights" argument and then leave out the part about how there's a massive, ongoing legal assault on creators' rights and free expression that is bought and paid for by, among other entities, HBO.

[Jonathan Callan]

Double post; ignore. Sorry!

[Jonathan Callan]

It doesn't matter if it is record amounts or minimal amounts. As I said, it is an incontestable fact that HBO is having their legal rights violated. You yourself have agreed that copyright infringement is illegal and should be. So we are in agreement here.

Yes, as has been said many times, maybe HBO may be making a mistake in slowly adapting. Doesn't matter. Not the victim's fault. Doesn't matter what it was wearing. Funny, Jim.

To argue that it is only HBO's fault, that they only have themselves to blame, for having their legal rights violated is fucked up.
Again, to totally absolve those who choose to violate the rights of others of all personal responsibility for their illegal actions (that you agree are illegal and should be illegal) is fucked up.

Edit:
And where do you stand on those that continually choose to violate the legal rights of other content creators and providers that do indeed have a business model that does addresses the issues of availablity, format, ease of access, and low price?
Is there some vague continuum of moral/legal justification for violating legal rights?
At what point in your eyes would a company or creator be completely blameless for piracy and having their legal rights violated?

Here's why I disagree:

1.) People have legal rights to prevent their person or their happiness from being infringed on. Corporations have legal rights to promote the general welfare. A person under assault has my sympathies. A corporation under assault doesn't incur the same emotional response.

2.) I hold other people accountable for their stupidity all the time. Being the victim doesn't automatically void you of any responsibility for your situation. People can be victims of lots of things: victims of bad luck, victims of human nature, victims of bad impulses. It doesn't make them not stupid.

3.) Jim made a silly comparison and I suspect you were continuing it mostly in jest but it still needs to be said: HBO shareholders not seeing a better return on their investment isn't the same thing as sexual assault. In the first case, you're talking about people shifting blame to avoid scrutinizing sexist cultural values. In the second case, you're talking about people applying common sense to available data.

4.) Most, if not all, the people in this thread have acknowledged that piracy should be illegal. By continuing to pound the entitlement drum, you're essentially telling us that moral outrage is the only valid response. The problem with that is this: not having this conversation hurts people. As a content creator, I'm far more annoyed at media gate keepers for being slow to react than I am at users for exploiting their slowness and stupidity. Digital content distribution is the new paradigm. I'm worried that by the time we settle this, the horse won't just have already gotten out of the gate, he'll have gotten out of the gate, circled the track and won the Kentucky Derby.

Look, you were in the military, right dude? Would you not have an army just because in a perfect world you wouldn't need one? If China rolled in and took U.S. holdings in the pacific and we had nothing to shoot back with but confetti streamers, would you really say we were 100% blameless?

Sometimes you just have to deal with the reality of the situation. Ironically, by labeling anyone having that conversation "pro piracy", the entitlement crowd is substantially hurting the one group they claim to advocate for: the content creators headed for the poor house if we can't put a better system in place.

[Dreaded Anomaly]

Here's why I disagree:

[dougmac]

Here's why I disagree:

1.) People have legal rights to prevent their person or their happiness from being infringed on. Corporations have legal rights to promote the general welfare. A person under assault has my sympathies. A corporation under assault doesn't incur the same emotional response.

2.) I hold other people accountable for their stupidity all the time. Being the victim doesn't automatically void you of any responsibility for your situation. People can be victims of lots of things: victims of bad luck, victims of human nature, victims of bad impulses. It doesn't make them not stupid.

3.) Jim made a silly comparison and I suspect you were continuing it mostly in jest but it still needs to be said: HBO shareholders not seeing a better return on their investment isn't the same thing as sexual assault. In the first case, you're talking about people shifting blame to avoid scrutinizing sexist cultural values. In the second case, you're talking about people applying common sense to available data.

4.) Most, if not all, the people in this thread have acknowledged that piracy should be illegal. By continuing to pound the entitlement drum, you're essentially telling us that moral outrage is the only valid response. The problem with that is this: not having this conversation hurts people. As a content creator, I'm far more annoyed at media gate keepers for being slow to react than I am at users for exploiting their slowness and stupidity. Digital content distribution is the new paradigm. I'm worried that by the time we settle this, the horse won't just have already gotten out of the gate, he'll have gotten out of the gate, circled the track and won the Kentucky Derby.

Look, you were in the military, right dude? Would you not have an army just because in a perfect world you wouldn't need one? If China rolled in and took U.S. holdings in the pacific and we had nothing to shoot back with but confetti streamers, would you really say we were 100% blameless?

Sometimes you just have to deal with the reality of the situation. Ironically, by labeling anyone having that conversation "pro piracy", the entitlement crowd is substantially hurting the one group they claim to advocate for: the content creators headed for the poor house if we can't put a better system in place.

From the beginning though it is pointed out why HBO doesn't embrace the download set (because it alienates their business partners, the cable providers, and the expanded responsibilities and costs of foregoing those partnerships are ultimately not worth it). What gets the conversation veering off is that people respond to that answer with (paraphrasing) "then they're stupid and behind the times and not living in reality and leaving me no choice but to pirate them" which is a statement of entitlement and then they get supported by people trying to argue that piracy is not a form of theft which is ridiculous.

[Jonathan Callan]

From the beginning though it is pointed out why HBO doesn't embrace the download set (because it alienates their business partners, the cable providers, and the expanded responsibilities and costs of foregoing those partnerships are ultimately not worth it). What gets the conversation veering off is that people respond to that answer with (paraphrasing) "then they're stupid and behind the times and not living in reality and leaving me no choice but to pirate them" which is a statement of entitlement and then they get supported by people trying to argue that piracy is not a form of theft which is ridiculous.

Yeah, they've got good reasons to think it's not in their best interests. In the short term, they may even be right. And corporations turn like battleships. But I think you'd be hard pressed to give me an argument why if DVDs haven't destroyed HBO, I-Tunes would. I think it's much more likely that HBO is trying very hard to protect a model that is likely to be very dead as the next generation of TV viewers come of age. But honestly, that's silly because that model was finished as soon as the starting pistol went off.

But look at it this way, if this thread is a microcosm for the real world then: 1.) It's pointed out that HBO has good reason to not distribute digitally. 2.) People then point out that whether that's true or not, the result is they will be pirating HBO. 3.) Other people call moral outrage, accomplishing... 4) Nothing.

Seems like we missed an opportunity to have a more substantial conversation there, doesn't it?



Also: in Dreaded's defense, I've yet to see anyone put forth a strong argument for why piracy and theft should be considered equivalent. My instinct is that they are, honestly, but unless I can find a loophole in someone's logic, I shy away from calling their claim "ridiculous".