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Game of Thrones was nearly "destroyed" by pirates illegally streaming HBO content (www.forevergeek.com)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

307 comments fedilink hide all child comments

At first this article reads like your typical anti-piracy screed. It rants about how 10x more people watched GoT illegally (confusing them with lost sales) and ends with how downloading movies can get your credit card stolen.

The middle of the article however, destroys the author's case.

Time Warner (owning company of HBO) CEO Alan Bewkes stated in 2013 how becoming the most illegally streamed show in history was “better than an Emmy” and that torrenting ultimately led to more paid subscriptions.

“We’ve been dealing with this for 20, 30 years—people sharing subs, running wires down the backs of apartment buildings. Our experience is that it leads to more paying subs. I think you’re right that Game of Thrones is the most pirated show in the world and that’s better than an Emmy.”

The CEO of Time Warner, who knows more about the finances of his own show than ForeverGeek writer Tom Llewellyn, championed piracy and said that it brought them more subscribers rather than nearly destroying the show as the article claims.

Needless to say, Tom forwent a rebuttal in favor of writing how you can get malware from downloading it...

Anti-Piracy Propaganda: 0 Truth: 1

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[–] [email protected] 190 points 1 year ago (25 children)

Zero sympathy. If they wanted to reduce the amount of illegal streamers, all they've got to do is make their content more accessible.

Release it on multiple streaming platforms, not just their own. Ensure its released globally at the same time. And get rid of the geo-blocking.

The lack of reasonable legal alternatives is what drives piracy.

[–] Obsession 38 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

I would need even more. Let me buy it digitally. Not streamed, not with some draconian DRM. Just let me buy the MKV files straight from HBO, and I won't pirate them.

They have to be aware of how easy it is to rip a blu-ray, yet those are still for sale. So let's just skip the middleman and give me legal remuxes.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

Even (some) porn sites (both paid and free) have drm free download buttons on their sites.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I think these companies should run their own usenet servers, personally. That’s the only way they’re getting my money.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Tbf Blu Ray is a good distribution media. It's the DRM that's ruining it.

The DRM pipedream has been going on for so long in the industry that it's basically dogma at this point. Everybody knows it doesn't work but they're in too deep to question it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Oh dear, don't get me started on that. I had to buy expensive software to play back the few Blu-Rays i have. CyberDVD doesn't even allow you to skip intro videos and anti-piracy crap. You know, the crap we didn't do when we bought the medium or ignore anyway if we create our own backups or share the media illegally.

Also i hate region-locking. I bought the complete Daria DVD collection which lacks the original soundtrack btw. And i am not permitted to watch it because what? International copyright? Technological differences we overcame long ago?

I can switch the region of my blu-ray drive in my PC 5 times. After that it will stay in the last configured region. A very, VERY arbitrary limitation!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mean.. you can just pirate/download it, it takes literally 10 seconds once you know how.. and to know how takes like 2 minutes lol

[–] Obsession 1 points 1 year ago

I wouldn't be on this subreddit if I didn't know that.

But I would also buy a lot more media if I could buy it in the way I want

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