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Who's Pirating Game of Thrones, and Why?
TheGift73 writes "In a few hours a new episode of Game of Thrones will appear on BitTorrent, and a few days later between 3 and 4 million people will download this unofficial release. Statistics gathered by TorrentFreak reveal that more people are downloading the show compared to last year, when it came in as the second most downloaded TV-show of 2011. The number of weekly downloads worldwide is about equal to the estimated viewers on HBO in the U.S., but why? One of the prime reasons for the popularity among pirates is the international delay in airing. In Australia, for example, fans of the show have to wait a week before they can see the latest episode. So it's hardly a surprise that some people are turning to BitTorrent instead. And indeed, if we look at the top countries where Game of Thrones is downloaded, Australia comes out on top with 10.1% of all downloads (based on one episode). But delays are just part of the problem. The fact that the show is only available to those who pay for an HBO subscription doesn't help either."
Oh my goodness, because I live in Australia I have to wait a week before seeing a TV show? How do I manage?
Sometimes I can't quite believe the world we live in.
Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes.
... but I get busy doing something most Sunday nights or forget to watch it, so I usually start the download Monday morning and watch it after work.
It's not pirating if you're time shifting.
Stop using scarcity with something that is an unlimited resource.
Stop forcing people to pay for packages. Stop forcing people to pay for networks. Stop using the limited countries mindset, those are artificial political boundaries.
Start making your shows available to everyone world-wide at the same second. Start asking for reasonable prices per episode, not a higher price than buying the DVD box set which you sell after a season is over.
Stop being dumbasses and start being smart. People want to see your shows, they just won't jump through your stupid, mindless 1950's hoops anymore.
The Oatmeal has already demonstrated the problem perfectly.
...But I didn't realize it until I left. Half of all the youtube videos I try to watch are blocked for one reason or another, Hulu, Netflix, and my Amazon Instant accounts were all out of commission, and iTunes was pretty much my last resort to stream content. I hate iTunes. I also hate trying to stream videos I own on Amazon through a proxy. Suddenly BitTorrent looks mighty friendly to a boredom-induced insanity.
Because we live in a society where everyone deserves everything. And no puppies are killed if you do download it. Solving piracy is pretty simple to do. Instead of threatening to sue, you send them a package with a dead puppy in it.
In Australia, our TV networks show an incredible amount of greed and disdain in regard to popular TV series from the US. They constantly shift the time and day on which the show airs. They frequently leave gaps of several weeks between episodes (see Big Bang Theory) in order not to compete with other networks which may be launching a new show expected to dominate in the ratings. The more popular the show the more advertisements they pack in - sometimes up to 6 ad breaks in a single 21 minute show! The ad breaks are now so aggressive that they sometimes cut off punch lines (see the Simpsons). And sometimes they even play the damn episodes out of order (Firefly and American Gothic)! And they wonder why we go and download them where we can actually enjoy the show. F you Australian TV networks. You have no-one to blame but yourselves.
It's not about having to wait. If the issue were just having to wait then people who now keep saying they would buy DVDs if they only cost $3 would wait the 18 months that it takes for big titles to end up in the clearance bins.
It's about the social network. In our increasingly socially connected world - one which even Microsoft is going to push further by making Windows 8 not about Windows, or the apps, but about sharing everything with your friends - if you don't watch Game of Thrones within, say, 2 weeks, you're already going to be bombarded with spoilers from people you follow on twitter, your friends on facebook, the people in your Google+ circle, etc.
The more people end up on these centralized social networks rather than their own fragmented pieces (Orkut, Hyves, whatever), the more people get exposed to that phenomenon.
You can liken this to some people who watch sports just because that's what their colleagues are likely to talk about at the watercooler, and they don't want to feel left out by not knowing a single thing about what's being referred to.
So if people on your social networks are discussing the latest episode of Game of Thrones, it's not so much the issue that you may only be able to see it (legally) a week later. It's that by the time that week is done, if you were to try talking about it it'd be like saying "The cake is a lie!" and "Bruce Willis is dead people!". Your entire discussion is old news and hardly anybody will want to engage you.
That may not matter to you, particularly. I certainly don't give a flying brick. But to many, many people - it matters.
The media companies would do well to recognize this, but they would rather negotiate large sums with foreign distributors, networks, etc. According to their accountants, any lost sales as a result are insignificant compared to the lost sales, contracts, etc. if they were to try and offer their content directly to any and all who are interested for a low price.
In my country the delay would probably be around a year plus there's a good chance that we'd have to watch a poorly dubbed German version instead of the original English thus there's really no other option except piracy.
I have been a continuously active subscriber of HBO for at least several years, including all the times during which Game of Thrones aired. I bought the BluRay of season 1 the day it was released and anticipate doing the same for all future seasons. I have access to HBO Go (and like it, especially for the bonus content.)
Yet even with all that, downloading is still the way I like to watch. I watch most TV on computer, for starters. Sometimes the timing works out better for me to watch the captured east coast feed rather than wait a little longer for my west coast airing. And while HBO Go has some nice features, it typically has streaming issues and/or decreased quality during peak demand as top shows are airing, while conversely BitTorrent works great at peak demand (for me at least.) I also enjoy the random access to scenes and replayability, both of which I'll probably make good use of during the next several days since its such a great show.
Anyway, just more examples of why "pirating" is not always primarily or even at all about avoiding paying for content.
Soap Op--er-a
Noun: A television or radio drama series dealing typically with daily events in the lives of the same group of characters. The plot in "Soap Operas" tend towards the melodramatic. The writing is often open-ended, with plot threads rarely being resolved. The story centers on the feelings and emotions of the various characters to the exclusion of almost all else.
Yep. To which I would add, most of the characters are an absolute waste of skin, and the only reason they're still breathing is that nobody has yet bothered to put them out of their misery.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
HBO is owned by Time Warner, HBO won't be available completely stand alone until Time Warner finishes dying and HBO is sold off or spun off.
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
It's an ancient technology, still used by the elderly and the feeble-minded to obtain single-media entertainment and unsourced information in a serial, time-oriented fashion. It's the precursor to the on-demand random access entertainment and information sources we have today.
Can You Say Linux? I Knew That You Could.
This season is a major let down. Too many sub plots, not enough time. Changing to someone else every 5 minutes has gotten tedious and really isn't making for a smooth flowing story line.
No. The problem is that you cannot obtain this show without also paying for every other HBO show, and also paying for a cable subscription and DVR. If you need a car analogy, it's like having to buy a stocked dealership when all you want is a Toyota Prius.
Can You Say Linux? I Knew That You Could.
Aussies have to wait a week to see a new show? Well, be glad you're not in dubbed Europe. You may rest assured that you will wait at the very least a YEAR until you get to see a show. That's because next to negotiations, you have to wait until they're done dubbing the show... and dubbing it BADLY. There are a few webpages dedicated to translation bloopers and joke explanations so you finally have a chance to even fathom just WHAT the authors wrote when (not if) you just can't figure out what the fuck's going on.
It's also "only" a year, mind you, if, and only if, a network here decides to pick up the show. In other words, it's one year from the moment they actually WANT to show it. That is not necessarily a year after it's broadcast in its country of origin.
And now think about this: You have internet access, and you use it regularly. There is a show out there that you watch religiously and it depends on suspense and NOT knowing what's going on next week. Think LOST, or worse, Bab5. Now imagine you're watching the first season of Bab5 while everyone on the 'net is discussing the outcome of the Vorlon/Shadow war.
Can you see why people download shows?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Game of Thrones is kind of a loss leader-- it gets people to buy a subscription
So from the sounds of it, you think waiting a week is reasonable.
How about waiting a month?
How about waiting a couple of months?
How about waiting a year?
Before pirating in Australia, it used to be a regular thing to have to wait up to a year, before you'd get the latest movies and TV. Even then, we'd only get a small fraction of what was in the US.
This is my footer. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
It is not available in P.R. China through any authorized channel. Even if it were, it would be edited to nothing. The real odd thing to me is that it has recently been featured in the national student newspaper (21'st Century) in a two page spread . The article was mostly an attempt to explain the program and to help students understand the names.
What I found interesting was that there was a full two page article on a program that is not even officially available and contains a significant amount of material that would be censored even if it were available. All that being said, it is not popular with the Chinese students that I know. The plot is too complicated for the male students and it is too violent, and overtly sexual, for the female students. However, it seems to be popular with many of the westerners here; further, considering that the article was written, I expect it is popular with some Chinese, just not here.
No, fans of something can't do all these things. Maybe someone without any feelings could, but normal people can't. Some have it with a tv show, others with Diablo 3 and some with reading slashdot, getting an icecream, going to church, or just seeing their partners. People love things and love is a powerful emotion that will subject you when it comes for you. These things make us humans.
I already own the paper version. I just download it so I have a copy that plays on my other devices.
That makes a lot of sense. The current explanation is that HBO's contract with national cable providers prohibits them from doing anything like that unilaterally. I think HBO has enough clout to alter the agreement, or just sever the deal and go at it alone. Ad-supported 320p episodes, with 720p for purchase, then 1080p for the physical disc archive. They'd likely make a ton of money just with the free 320p & links to merchandise.
your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
No, it's they can't avoid forums until after all episodes of the season have ended, as they are always a week behind the series, and thus unable to participate in the fan discussions of any of the episodes until after the season has completed. Of course by that point the major fan discussion of the prior episodes will be considered old and out of date.
Thus they have a very legitimate complaint.
I'm too lazy to compose a creative sig.
You can get books 1-4 as a set for $20 right now ($10 second hand on ebay).
Yes, and I can buy a set of dominoes for 50c from a garage sale and throw them at cats if want as well. Doesn't mean I want to.
You would get spoilers from people who've read the books in any case. The solution is therefore to have separate forums for those discussing the books, and those discussing the show. Having separate forums for Australian audiences would logically follow.
your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
If I want the sci fi channel ontop of that, add another $16 a month.
you havw scifi channel in Aussie? You lucky bastards!
The rest of the world has to make do with the miserable syfy channel :(
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
I know you're just trolling, but seriously? I can say "It's just a stupid ..." about practically anything people enjoy watching or participating in. (I'm often tempted to say it about major league sporting events, myself. It's just a bunch of adults playing a game originally designed for kids, kicking a ball around, and getting paid huge salaries for it. How stupid! Can't people get a life?!")
Others would surely tell all of us to get a life, because we're sitting around reading stories on Slashdot.
I'm not really a TV watcher myself, but I've seen a few episodes of Fringe, and thought they were pretty interesting. I started downloading more episodes as I was able to get ahold of decent copies of them. I haven't really had the time to watch more of them, but it's nice knowing I have them on my hard drive, so I can eventually get around to checking them out if and when the opportunity arises.
The point I guess I'm trying to make is -- people can't constantly be in "go, go, go" mode, trying to actively do or achieve things. We all need downtime too, and I'm not just talking about sleep. Entertainment is crucial to a fulfilled life, and it takes many different forms. Not everyone likes the same things, but that's why there are so many options around. I find that half the time, I'd rather play a video game than watch a TV show -- but others get *nothing* out of gaming. So someone following these shows (and probably discussing them with friends too) would certainly be motivated to get new episodes in a timely manner.
Want an example of an industry that "gets it"? Porn.
They "closed the loop" by buying up the popular streaming sites that were taking their content and distributing it for free. They then control the ads on those sites. So the ads on the free sites pay for the production of content which they then sell in a higher quality and more convenient form for people who are willing to pay.
This would be like the MPAA buying ThePirateBay and letting it keep running, distributing movies. Yeah, they're not getting sales from it buy they are making at least *something* from the ads, which is more than they were making before by letting the underground market operate independently. And people will still go to see movies in the cinema and buy DVDs.
But this would require them to admit that copyright is basically a dead letter. The suites are too old, their minds too fossilized in 20th century media biz paradigms to even think of such a thing. "My God, you mean ANYONE could use Mickey Mouse without paying us?! The horror!"
The porn industry is younger, more willing to innovate and take chances, more "liberal". The regular entertainment industry is conservative, and they don't like change (that's what conservative means). Unfortunately for them, the world is going to change regardless of their inability to keep up or respond to it.
If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
My wife and I didn't pirate it, but did finally purchase the entire first season when it appeared on iTunes. This gave us good quality, and commercial free. For a hell of a lot less money than cable and HBO runs in our area. But, now here's of course why so many pirate instead.... we had to wait over a year to -PAY- HBO for the show. If we'd been in any rush to see it (Which the Networks seem to be desperate to have people rush to see their content, given how hard they try to get people to have cable to see it the day it airs) we would have had no choice except to pirate it. Now for us, we weren't in a rush we've got plenty of other entertainment so their show is welcome to sit on the back burner until they make it available. Except here's the thing, now that season 2 is on we're again waiting... which is no problem for us, but the obvious thing would be for HBO to make season 2 episodes available immediately after airing on iTunes. If they did, we'd again be paying for it already! Instead I guess we have to wait until the season 2 dvd's are available... which means that we may not purchase at all if by that time we've found something else to watch or do.
The moral of the story: If you want people to pay for it, then SELL it to them. If you drag it out and keep telling people they can't buy, then yeah they're going to either steal it, or just ignore you.
.. and why would you want to discuss the show with Americans anyway?
Good question. Why don't you post it on slashdot.org.au and find out?
Some people are going to pirate your shit no matter what. They either don't have the money to pay for it, just download everything because they can, think they are making a statement or whatever. Those people you ignore, because there's shit you can do about them.
However there's another group of people who will give you their money for a product instead of pirate it, if a few things are true:
1) It needs to be worth what you what. Worth is, of course, an individual measure and some people aren't reasonable but most are. If you sell them TV at a reasonable price, they'll buy it, if you want a shit ton per episode, they'll go elsewhere.
2) It needs to be easily and quickly available. It needs to be there when they want it. Not when you think it is best for market segmentation, when they want it. When they look they need to find right away.
3) It needs to be available without too much bullshit. This is important and what the comic really demonstrates. Someone needs to go and be able to buy it just by clicking "buy" on Amazon or iTunes or Steam or whatever various service is relevant.
If any of these get too out of whack they may well say "Fuck it, I'll just pirate it." That option is always there and you are stupid if you think you can get rid of it. There's been a massive war on it, utterly failed, as such your shit will be there too.
So keep the stuff available, the bullshit level low and the PRICE REASONABLE and you'll see online sales. Start to have the idea that there is the One True Way(tm) to watch your shit, and people will just elect to nab it elsewhere.
The solution is therefore to have separate forums for those discussing the books, and those discussing the show. Having separate forums for Australian audiences would logically follow.
Segregate the internet because it's convenient for media companies?
Dumb ideas like that are why piracy is flourishing and Big Media is fighting a losing battle.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
I don't know this show and am not interested in viewing it. However I can think of two models that will work.
MODEL I:
Copy iTunes or Mubi.
But it probably will not deliver enough viewers to fund the series by itself.
So, on to...
MODEL II:
1. Ideally create one global launch date for all languages/regions and stick to it. This will provide maximum social networking and minimal spoilers. This would require sales to other markets starting after the pilot is made but before a whole season has been created. In other words, a new global sales strategy. So talk to a global ad agency. The other option is to make one global launch date per language, but you may get pirate versions I would imagine.
2. Insert reasonable number of advertisements into market-specific versions, e.g. EN-US, EN-UK, EN-AU, etc.
3a. If you can just provide speedy downloads from your site and akamai then do it. But that is going to be awfully expensive.. unless you have an amazing contract with ISPs all over the world already.
3b. Instead, create a bittorrent for each format, with many seeders of the appropriate version within each region's territory. This way Australians can download the Australian version with Australian advertisements fastest due to having many seeds provisioned within its continental LAN. A few college kids could do this, but if you ask the ad agency to do it, they will charge you the same as or slightly less than the cost if you had hired akamai.
Video quality should be 720p or higher. The easier the delivery is made, the less important and moralistic will any other pirate versions (undoubtedly somebody will edit out ads and make an uninterrupted version. Maybe the honest version will only have ads at beginning end and same points as TV version, so people may still prefer it and give back to the creators.)
4. Create websites and social networking to advertise and link it all up. Word of mouth / magazine / twitter all linking there. Websites point to the torrents. Also sell via app stores, amazon, etc. Try to get fans to sign up. They can read blogs, teasers, special cilps on the website, post in forums, ask questions and maybe even help guide the series. Imagine if Joss Whedon was doing this.
5. Offer extra things to purchase, maybe Amazon wants to do a special product deal.
6. Offer DVD, Blu-Ray box sets and 1080p files as standalones or full season download via bittorrent or app stores. These products have no advertisements and will include special extras like making of clips, interviews with director and actors, printable pamphlets, maybe desktop wallpapers, 3d printable models, suscriptions to follow the different actors, blogs by the fashion designers or whatever. Pricing of the collections should however be the same price or cheaper than the current box sets if buying the digital version since no physical distribution is then necessary.
7. $$$
I want to pay for Game of Thrones. I'm proud to pay for great TV, music, books, and news.
HBO won't let me. I'm standing here with dollars in my fist yelling "TAKE MY MONEY", but they won't do it, because they insist on the ludicrous, outdated concept of "subscription" and "scheduled programming".
Disclaimer, this post is probably going to offend some people.
I don't care. Really... I mean it. I had given some thought to trying to be say this delicately, but then I realized that there really wasn't much of a point.
So to that end... why bother pirating a TV series at all?
I mean, everything on television that is actually worth watching (and there certainly isn't very much of it) is more than likely going to be worth waiting a few months for to get the entire season on DVD.
But oh noes! Then you can't watch it right now! Really? Is your life so devoid of anything with meaning and direction that you can't pull yourself away from yet another mindless TV show? That, to me, doesn't say that the TV series is necessarily any good... all it does is speak volumes about people's priorities and lack of self-restraint.
That said... given this show's obvious popularity, I do think it's incredibly self-defeating of HBO to not put the episodes up on iTunes at least within a few days of airing. They could stand to make a killing.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Sure, it's illegal, but most people simply don't consider it wrong. No amount of propaganda will change this.
-- Give me ambiguity or give me something else!
I am offended that the majority of the money I spend would go to subsidizing all the shit programming that is aired on all these other channels.
Even more offensive is the paid programming. It seems my provider doesn't air anything late at night when I can actually watch TV. Most of the channels are either listed as "Off air" or "Paid Programming", which is some pathetic attempt to sell me a new folding pocket knife, blender, or push-up bra. As if commercials within shows weren't bad enough, late night viewer selection is greatly limited to hour long commercials.
TV broadcast pricing is the most common bundle scheme going. Other industries try it, like the insurance companies that will not sell you Liability Insurance without also including coverage for tools, office supplies, and everything else except computer equipment, which must be purchased separately. I'd like to only purchase the products or services that I want and the market rate for those products and services. I don't want to pay for shows I will not watch, nor thousands of dollars worth equipment insurance for equipment I do not have.
Why do all the cable TV networks, and producers, and actors, and writers and all the people associated with movies and such think that they deserve to be wealthy for what is essentially putting on a puppet show?
What is it about people always trying to argue the rank and file make "too much"?
And why do you think that people who work on TV shows and films get wealthy from it?
Time for a little reality:
The vast majority of people involved in TV / film production work very, very hard. Many work ridiculous hours (Get home at midnight, be back on the lot ready to work at 5:30am -- weekends off? LOL! ), get laid-off every few months, live uncertain lives where they're never sure where the next paycheck will come from... or when. It's not glamorous, it's not easy, and it's the kind of thing that pushes you to the point of complete physical and mental collapse.
And for most, the pay is NOT that great. Especially when you take into account the long stretches of unemployment.
But yeah, whine away about how we're undeserving of paychecks that keep us above the poverty line most of the time.
As for the people who make more, let's look at the writers for your average TV show. It's true, they get paid a lot more than a PA or production coordinator, but I've also heard of them locking themselves in their offices for days at a time to get scripts delivered / endless notes addressed on time. As in: They don't stop working and they don't go home. At all. Every day they have producers, actors, executives, agents and talent's hangers-on sending in notes about every last comma. That's not even hyperbole.
Then they lose their jobs within a few months or years. And "I just finished writing for X" doesn't necessarily get you much. There's always thousands of newer and hungrier writers scrambling to take the job they were hoping to get next.
Thank you for the excellent example of the logical fallacy known as a False Analogy.
A more fitting analogy would be wanting to order a steak, but instead only having the option of buying an all day catered dinner, during which the time slot for getting served a steak falls within a one hour window. You still have to pay for each item served, regardless of whether you ordered it, ate it, or even attended the serving. If you pay for the upgraded DVR package, you will be given 3 take-home containers. If you would be willing to enter into a contract to do this every day, then I'm sure broadcast television pricing makes perfect sense to you.
All analogies, including mine, have faults. The thing is, no analogy is needed for what OP said. He explained the position very well without using any. Your bumbling, unrelated car analogy does nothing to detract from his point.
It's in the torrentsphere now.
Replying to do erroneous moderation (was aiming for insightful, whacked redundant instead).
The difference between "illegal" and "right and wrong" are two very different things; the further they diverge in a given society, the more dysfunctional that society appears to the broad brush of history.
What sucks is the partitioning of the world in small zone, and that some of the vendor you mentioned refuse (or are not allowed to) to sell or show stuff from the US. The Internet has long been balkanized by copyright and region release staggering.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
legality will differ by country. In the netherlands this is perfectly legal.
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
--Sheikh Abd-Al-Kadir, 1587
You actually struck something profound there, with your hyperbole. If some company made a type of seed that would grow, but not not reproduce viable seeds, that'd be immoral. Or imagine a company creating an organism that would spread promiscuously from field to field, and then suing farmers who's fields were cross-polinated from those organisms. You actually don't have to imagine it, such a company exists: Monsanto.
But if you grow fruit and grains and bake a pie, I don't have any choice but to pay for the pie if I want that one you made ethically. If I take the recipe you use and make my own, I haven't stolen your pie. I've done nothing wrong.
If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
Additionally, in large parts of the Netherlands it's impossible to get an HBO subscription anyway. So for lot's of people here it's either download or wait for the DVD, nothing in between. That will probably change as HBO is rolling out across TV providers here. If it comes with proper on-demand and a reasonable pricetag I'll subscribe.
Frankly, I'd rather have the on-demand stuff over the internet without all sorts of strings attached. I'll happily pay to for on-demand HBO if I can watch it from within XBMC without having to install windows. Untill that happens Sabnzbd + XBMC is simply far more convenient then any legal option.
One week late in Australia? That's nothing.
In most European countries, american TV shows are usually at least two seasons behind, and we have to suffer a low-quality dub (except in nordic countries, where people have been educated to subtitles). Downloading, and fan translation and subbing, are the only reasonable ways for people to enjoy such series to their fullest.
1. Excitedly rush to iTunes to buy Game of Thrones Season 2 - I didn't know I could buy it!
2. Discover AC is a lying, prick.
3. Return to paying criminals who actually know how to provide a service
I would love to be able to vote with my wallet. I see that's not possible through legal means, at least where I live. I hereby declare my downloads to represent a lost sale caused entirely by being unable to give money for the product I want.
Your option, though, is illegal.
So was consensual oral sex between married couples in Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Utah, Virginia (and possibly other states) until as recently as 2003.
Please forgive us for being critical of laws coming from a nation that bills itself as "the land of the free" yet still criminalized going down on your spouse in the 21st century CE.