8 ms·

I think the article misses the point of why piracy was a big thing. It was not always (necessarily) about getting what you want free of charge, but the free flo

I think the article misses the point of why piracy was a big thing. It was not always (necessarily) about getting what you want free of charge, but the free flowing access to the media and content. For instance, the reason Game of Thrones is watched via torrent downloads more than via HBO is because a large portion of the audience wants to either just watch HBO or just watch Game of Thrones. But to do that, you have to have an HBO subscription through some cable provider, who does not provide a direct subscription for only HBO. Thus, if all you want to watch is Game of Thrones and nothing else, your only option is to torrent/pirate it.

barking 12y ago
If you watch Game of Thrones on Sky Atlantic you have to put up with a long ad break after about every 10 minute of the show. It's unwatchable. And to add insult to injury you're paying a subscription. Television in Britain has 3 main models: 1: BBC tv paid for by licence, no advertising. 2: ITV, paid for by ads, no subscription (much less advertising than sky) 3: Sky, big subscription and wall to wall ads. Having been weaned on the former BBC, ITV duopoly there a distinct feeling that Sky are gougers and deserve to be punished.
k-mcgrady 12y ago
>> "Thus, if all you want to watch is Game of Thrones and nothing else, your only option is to torrent/pirate it." I get your point but that's incorrect. Alternatives include: - paying for the cable + HBO subscription and only watching GoT. - waiting for the blu ray/dvd/iTunes release Both those options allow you to watch GoT and nothing else. The problem is that people don't want to wait for an official release or want a cheaper way to get it 'right now' (i.e. a cheaper HBO only subscription). I think GoT is a big torrent is because it's not available on TV in a lot of countries or there is a big delay between the US airing and the local airing. Another reason is that people don't pay for something when they can get it for free. I would like to see how many people who torrent GoT (but say they would pay for it if it was available to them on their terms) would pay $3-5 for an episode via a torrent if there was a button to pay (and get it legally) and a button to get it for free (illegally).
- Morgawr 12y ago
  >Another reason is that people don't pay for something when they can get it for free I would like to say this is wrong, but I have no evidence to support my claims. However what I can say empirically is that myself and many other people I know have stopped pirating games and/or music ever since easy-to-use services like Steam and Google Music came out. Personally, nowadays I find myself with so many legit games on Steam that my first thought when a new game comes out is "meh, I don't have time to play that, I'll buy it later when it goes on sale". Years ago it would've been "let's hop on XXXX to see if there's a torrent ready!". It simply is not worth it, to me, to pirate games, set up cracks, be sure I have all the proper files, set up backups in case I want to replay it later, etc etc. With Steam I can just click "download" and it just works. I firmly believe that if you make something easy-to-access, cheap enough (steam sales, anyone?) and immediate in delivery, you will soon realize piracy really does not matter. The market just needs to evolve and adapt to newer technologies.
  - mattmanser 12y ago
    It's going to be a sliding scale isn't it? There will definitely be some sales lost, but not all of them would have bought it. I love how easy it is to get a book on my Kindle from Amazon at the click of a button, but given my voracious reading and the bill it generates it might be that I would consider looking at alternate sources for some of those books. So I might consider buying some and torrenting some. The alternative would be reducing the amount I read. And if I went the torrent route, I might suddenly notice that the volume of bought books might reduce from 5-10 legitimate purchases a month to 1 a month.
  - afterburner 12y ago
    The automated, practically invisible patching on Steam is what really sold me on it.
  - tekromancr 12y ago
    I have to agree. I think likelyhood of pirating something looks like free_time_available vs free_money_available. When I was a broke college student, I pirated near everything because I had a lot of free time, and no expendable income. Now that I am a startuper, I have no money and no time so I almost never pirate (or purchase) anything. If I ever get to a point where I have lots of money and little free time, I will very likely pay whatever is asked to watch what I want.
icantthinkofone 12y ago
That's an excuse and not a reason. The real reason is to watch it for free. Nothing else.
NoMoreNicksLeft 12y ago
I've found that I like some older magazines. Fangoria, Cinefantastique, etc. These magazines went out of business years ago, back issues are difficult to find, and it's unlikely they'll ever be available digitally legitimately. So yes, it's not always about getting it for free... in some cases, it's about getting it at all. But on the "free" angle, it's not about that for me, or not entirely. I want to punish the copyright holders (and if only I could). They've subverted the system and turned into rent-seekers. It was never intended for them to set up their descendants with royalties for all eternity, nor is this an unintentional good thing that sane people should support.
dredmorbius 12y ago
Obxkcd: http://xkcd.com/488/ http://xkcd.com/488/ "Steal This Comic"
rhino369 12y ago
While certainly the unavailable or inconvenience fact does cause some piracy, I'm not convinced it causes anywhere near most of it. Downloading pc games on Steam is absurdly easy, much easier than pirating. Yet, games available on Steam are downloaded in masse. People download network TV shows that are available over the air for free, on the internet to stream on their networks website / hulu, or on Itunes for 1.99. I think it's a bit naive to think that getting stuff for free isn't the main reason people torrent.
- Rapzid 12y ago
  I'd be interested in some numbers on people who purchase tons of content on Steam yet visit EZTV each week for the few shows they follow. I wonder how many of those people would have just purchased a season pass for the show on Steam were it available... My guess is that there are a lot of people who purchase games on Steam but torrent shows/movies, particularly if they live outside the US. Surely they know these games are available for free as well? I think it's a bit naive to think that getting stuff for free is the main reason people torrent.
  - rhino369 12y ago
    Why aren't they already buying a season pass on Itunes or Amazon instant? I'd venture that people who buy a lot on steam yet don't pay for TV shows are mostly buying multiplayer games that cannot be pirated and still give the same experience.

barking 12y ago

If you watch Game of Thrones on Sky Atlantic you have to put up with a long ad break after about every 10 minute of the show. It's unwatchable. And to add insult to injury you're paying a subscription. Television in Britain has 3 main models: 1: BBC tv paid for by licence, no advertising. 2: ITV, paid for by ads, no subscription (much less advertising than sky) 3: Sky, big subscription and wall to wall ads. Having been weaned on the former BBC, ITV duopoly there a distinct feeling that Sky are gougers and deserve to be punished.

k-mcgrady 12y ago

>> "Thus, if all you want to watch is Game of Thrones and nothing else, your only option is to torrent/pirate it." I get your point but that's incorrect. Alternatives include: - paying for the cable + HBO subscription and only watching GoT. - waiting for the blu ray/dvd/iTunes release Both those options allow you to watch GoT and nothing else. The problem is that people don't want to wait for an official release or want a cheaper way to get it 'right now' (i.e. a cheaper HBO only subscription). I think GoT is a big torrent is because it's not available on TV in a lot of countries or there is a big delay between the US airing and the local airing. Another reason is that people don't pay for something when they can get it for free. I would like to see how many people who torrent GoT (but say they would pay for it if it was available to them on their terms) would pay $3-5 for an episode via a torrent if there was a button to pay (and get it legally) and a button to get it for free (illegally).

Morgawr 12y ago
>Another reason is that people don't pay for something when they can get it for free I would like to say this is wrong, but I have no evidence to support my claims. However what I can say empirically is that myself and many other people I know have stopped pirating games and/or music ever since easy-to-use services like Steam and Google Music came out. Personally, nowadays I find myself with so many legit games on Steam that my first thought when a new game comes out is "meh, I don't have time to play that, I'll buy it later when it goes on sale". Years ago it would've been "let's hop on XXXX to see if there's a torrent ready!". It simply is not worth it, to me, to pirate games, set up cracks, be sure I have all the proper files, set up backups in case I want to replay it later, etc etc. With Steam I can just click "download" and it just works. I firmly believe that if you make something easy-to-access, cheap enough (steam sales, anyone?) and immediate in delivery, you will soon realize piracy really does not matter. The market just needs to evolve and adapt to newer technologies.
- mattmanser 12y ago
  It's going to be a sliding scale isn't it? There will definitely be some sales lost, but not all of them would have bought it. I love how easy it is to get a book on my Kindle from Amazon at the click of a button, but given my voracious reading and the bill it generates it might be that I would consider looking at alternate sources for some of those books. So I might consider buying some and torrenting some. The alternative would be reducing the amount I read. And if I went the torrent route, I might suddenly notice that the volume of bought books might reduce from 5-10 legitimate purchases a month to 1 a month.
- afterburner 12y ago
  The automated, practically invisible patching on Steam is what really sold me on it.
- tekromancr 12y ago
  I have to agree. I think likelyhood of pirating something looks like free_time_available vs free_money_available. When I was a broke college student, I pirated near everything because I had a lot of free time, and no expendable income. Now that I am a startuper, I have no money and no time so I almost never pirate (or purchase) anything. If I ever get to a point where I have lots of money and little free time, I will very likely pay whatever is asked to watch what I want.

icantthinkofone 12y ago

That's an excuse and not a reason. The real reason is to watch it for free. Nothing else.

NoMoreNicksLeft 12y ago

I've found that I like some older magazines. Fangoria, Cinefantastique, etc. These magazines went out of business years ago, back issues are difficult to find, and it's unlikely they'll ever be available digitally legitimately. So yes, it's not always about getting it for free... in some cases, it's about getting it at all. But on the "free" angle, it's not about that for me, or not entirely. I want to punish the copyright holders (and if only I could). They've subverted the system and turned into rent-seekers. It was never intended for them to set up their descendants with royalties for all eternity, nor is this an unintentional good thing that sane people should support.

dredmorbius 12y ago

Obxkcd: http://xkcd.com/488/ http://xkcd.com/488/ "Steal This Comic"

rhino369 12y ago

While certainly the unavailable or inconvenience fact does cause some piracy, I'm not convinced it causes anywhere near most of it. Downloading pc games on Steam is absurdly easy, much easier than pirating. Yet, games available on Steam are downloaded in masse. People download network TV shows that are available over the air for free, on the internet to stream on their networks website / hulu, or on Itunes for 1.99. I think it's a bit naive to think that getting stuff for free isn't the main reason people torrent.

Rapzid 12y ago
I'd be interested in some numbers on people who purchase tons of content on Steam yet visit EZTV each week for the few shows they follow. I wonder how many of those people would have just purchased a season pass for the show on Steam were it available... My guess is that there are a lot of people who purchase games on Steam but torrent shows/movies, particularly if they live outside the US. Surely they know these games are available for free as well? I think it's a bit naive to think that getting stuff for free is the main reason people torrent.
- rhino369 12y ago
  Why aren't they already buying a season pass on Itunes or Amazon instant? I'd venture that people who buy a lot on steam yet don't pay for TV shows are mostly buying multiplayer games that cannot be pirated and still give the same experience.