> In this case, HBO charges cable operators, such as Comcast, a monthly per-subscriber fee, corresponding to the wholesale price, and each cable operator decide

> In this case, HBO charges cable operators, such as Comcast, a monthly per-subscriber fee, corresponding to the wholesale price, and each cable operator decides on its own margin, which determines the final retail price. There are so many holes here. Lets see how difficult an accounting analysis of piracy is, because interpretations of an absence of data could lead to opposite conclusions. HBO is now owned by AT&T, some of whose Internet subscribers pirate HBO shows, so how does AT&T account for that in its books? Is that a "loss"? Is it passing on surplus to the consumer? The answer is it doesn't. There's no such thing as a GAAP piracy charge. Nobody would believe it. Estimates from industry lobbies of the cost of piracy have never shown up in a finance charge the same way that say a "goodwill writedown" has. Conversely, content pirates value their fast Internet connections and pay more for better speeds! You will never see a major corporation attribute revenue to an illegal activity, so that value is/was permanently unmeasurable. What about changes over time? There are so many confounding disruptions in the creative content business. Game of Thrones, the article's leading example, was itself a disruption in the content business! It's really hard to do a cause and effect here, because the most attractive interpretation--post hoc/now was caused by the past--is going to be the least durable. This piracy analysis stuff is really abstract and often misses the point. The best thing you can personally do to support creative work is to pay for it! Although what is really debated here is the role of middlemen in discovery, profit-maximization, etc., so I personally do something a little different: I make an effort to pay for new creators most of all, because new creators are worst represented in corporate and mass-consumer interests.