"The Avengers," "Dark Knight Rises," "The Walking Dead" Among 2012's Most-Pirated

[Vibranium]

Playing devil's advocate:
You live in a country that doesn't have the channel that plays the show you want to watch, Hulu doesn't work in your country and Netflix is also a joke in your country.
Does this fall under the "You can't always get what you want and you'll just have to hope in 5 years it's playing somewhere you can access and hopefully you're still interested" clause?
(Granted, not arguing against the legalities or the law, not by any means, things just aren't always as simple as "It's free on Hulu, just load that up!")

yes...it falls under that

[the goddamn batman]

I wish there was a more interesting conversation being had. this one's pretty boring.

[Vibranium]

the problem is to "fix" what a lot of people think are outdated or obsolete business models of media and digital distribution

the US has its copyright laws, so do the UK, the problem is the large scale bootlegging happens in other countries and you can't stop or prosecute that....its this grey area and the countries that are getting their media stolen are the ones who are trying to deal with it...primarily the US

so the only thing the US can really do is modify the current copyright protection laws and attempt to put out the fires they can get to

[the goddamn batman]

the problem for me is shitty content. most of the movies I've seen by less than legal means, I'm glad I didn't pay for. they weren't worth paying for. most of the movies I've paid for were worth paying for and I don't have a problem with a single penny spent.

make better product and people will pay for it. there's always goign to be teenagers who're going to pirate material, due to lack of funds, or just not caring/understanding, but most adults will pay for things they genuinely like. stop asking me to pay for a shitty boring remake of Total Recall. Ask me to pay instead for Upstream Color and I'll happily plunk down the $15 to see it in the theatre, and buy the DVD.

[Vibranium]

the problem for me is shitty content. most of the movies I've seen by less than legal means, I'm glad I didn't pay for. they weren't worth paying for. most of the movies I've paid for were worth paying for and I don't have a problem with a single penny spent.

make better product and people will pay for it. there's always goign to be teenagers who're going to pirate material, due to lack of funds, or just not caring/understanding, but most adults will pay for things they genuinely like. stop asking me to pay for a shitty boring remake of Total Recall. Ask me to pay instead for Upstream Color and I'll happily plunk down the $15 to see it in the theatre, and buy the DVD.

but that is entirely subjective...what is "good" and what is "bad"...I thought Moonrise Kingdom was pretentious garbage, but I paid to see it

when work is produced, regardless of its quality, it is sill copyrighted material

how can you base any sort of rational argument about the pros and cons of copyright law on quality, a matter that is entirely different from person to person?

[the goddamn batman]

I wasn't basing a rational argument on anything. I was simply stating my personal opinion that if you make good product, you'll be rewarded.
there's no subjectivity to the piece of shit that was Battleship, or Total Recall. they were just bad.

Moonrise Kingdom is... it's a specific thing. it's well made in every regard, but taste is taste. so...

all I was saying, is that I'll happily pay for a quality product. I'll go out of my way to pay for it.

[Arthur72]

-Hulu - it's free, and almost all network shows are put up the next day, and they stay up for a few weeks.

There's no conundrum surrounding TV piracy like you seem to think. If you miss a show, there are more than enough ways to legally watch it, and often for free.

I just tried Hulu and it wouldn't work since I live in Canada. Too bad.
I do agree with you, so many options to watch shows that TV shouldn't have to worry about piracy.

Is media piracy such a big concern other than North America? Do places like Japan and China worry about people downloading the countrie's movies and tv shows? I've read that a lot of Japanese people download Manga yet sales are very successful.

[the goddamn batman]

but if almost all tv is available to watch for free on so many sites, what does it matter if someone just torrents it instead?
and yes, I get the ad placement/commercials, but isn't that a large part of why people are torrenting tv to begin with?

I was present for a Comcast meeting with advertisers and they talked about their plans to put even more ads into the programming over the next five years. more. I fucking hate commercials. I get the need for it, but I'd buy a digital subscription to a show if I just got a download at air time and it didn't have ads.

[Vibranium]

but if almost all tv is available to watch for free on so many sites, what does it matter if someone just torrents it instead?
and yes, I get the ad placement/commercials, but isn't that a large part of why people are torrenting tv to begin with?

I was present for a Comcast meeting with advertisers and they talked about their plans to put even more ads into the programming over the next five years. more. I fucking hate commercials. I get the need for it, but I'd buy a digital subscription to a show if I just got a download at air time and it didn't have ads.

because ad revenue is where most of the money comes from...it pays salaries, builds sets, gets production crews where they need to go

[the goddamn batman]

remember the part where I said I get that?

I'm just talking. I'm just putting ideas out there. there's a conversation to be had about why people are downloading instead. Hulu was great until they just made it regular tv. now I don't use it. also, I had to create an account to watch a "mature" program. I could torrent it faster than it would take to create an account. that same show is on television and I don't need to create an account to watch it.

[Vibranium]

I think a modified subscription service would work....each network or company has their own sub service and you can pay by month or for the year...kind of similar to how Xbox Live is set up and you get shows a day or so after air

[Mat001]

Yeah, I totally agree. The methods of consumption and, unfortunately, the mindset of the consumers have changed a lot over the past few years. And businesses really need to adapt to meet those needs. But that's the thing - they have. You can rent a movie for a buck if you're willing to drive to a redbox. Or if you don't want to leave your house (or, again, if they're not available), you can rent one on iTunes for just a few dollars more. If you're watching with a few friends and you REALLY want to be a penny pincher, you can split that up to a dollar a piece. Or you can watch it on Netflix later, which costs only $8 per month.

Some people's budgets are so tight, that they feel the need to resort to other means. Others want to spend their money elsewhere.

That money you've saved for yourself at the library is no different than downloading movies. I agree - saving money is awesome - but that doesn't make it any more legal or right.

Which is no different than when people would borrow someone else's copy of the album and record what they wanted, something I used to do back in the day, so they wouldn't have to buy it. As well as record off the radio, which dates back to the invention of the cassette tape. Then there was dubbing VHS films with two VCR's, which a lot of people did. The invention of the blank cassettes, DVD-R's and CD-R's made this a reality. And of course, borrowing your friend's video game so that you can play it and beat the game, without having to spend a dime. There's that old chestnut.

[the goddamn batman]

man, remember when the blank cassette was going to ruin the record industry?

you get shows a day or so after air

which means the fucking entire internet has already spoiled Breaking Bad or The Walking Dead which is why people torrent it that night.

[Vibranium]

man, remember when the blank cassette was going to ruin the record industry?



which means the fucking entire internet has already spoiled Breaking Bad or The Walking Dead which is why people torrent it that night.

then don't go looking for that info.... I DVR a lot of stuff I watch and I know Im not going to get to it for maybe a week or so so I avoid certain threads here or sites I know will have spoilers

that's a personal responsibility issue IMO

[the goddamn batman]

I agree, and I do my best to avoid it. I dislike having to just not go on the internet because everyone is going "OH NO DALE!!!!" or some shit on my twitter feed, or facebook. there's only so much one can do.

but again, I'm just sussing out possible reasons people are torrenting. it isn't because "they're all criminals" either.

that Louis CK things? $5 for several downloads and streaming on the site? he made over a million bucks in a weekend. and sure, there were torrents out there. those people weren't going to buy it anyway, so whatever. but the torrenting was pretty minimal, I understand. he put a product out with the consumer in mind, and people bought it. I'll buy all of his releases if he keeps doing it that way. I could have just as easily not paid $5 and gotten the same file. why did so many people support that release? they certainly didn't have to.

never mind the world famous, and wildly successful artists who support torrents of their own work, and have even put them out themselves because a sales spike always follows.

remember when the cassette tape was going to ruin the record industry?