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Take my money, HBO

takemymoneyhbo.com

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Re: Take my money, HBO

#161

Post by philwelch »

matwood wrote: post #106
sneak wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Nah, I'm not really into Pokemon." http://xkcd.com/178/ (Am I the only one who still doesn't give two fucks about four fucks about television shows?)

I don't really get the anti TV people. Like any medium there is good and bad. TV definitely has its share of bad, but there is also some pretty good entertainment. Books, magazines, websites, etc... there is always going to be more crap than not, but for some reason I never read about people bragging about giving them up.

There's decades of good TV to watch. You don't need the newest stuff. Who only reads books that came out last week? If you've never watched The Prisoner or Fawlty Towers, for instance, you can get access to them cheaply and watch a TV episode every day for about a month. And it'll be better than almost everything you could get with a TV subscription today.

Re: Take my money, HBO

#162

Post by jiggy2011 »

hospadam wrote: post #62

I just don't understand what some people are thinking when it comes to this issue. In my mind, HBO is offering people two options: 1) Premium price, instant gratification. If you're willing to pony up for cable TV + a HBO subscription, you're able to watch Game of Thrones the instant it comes out. Yes, you're paying a lot (~$100) - but - sometimes that's the price you have to pay for a premium service. 2) Pay a reaso…

I think people want to watch it sooner because they want to be able to discuss it in the present tense with all their friends in real life and on forums like reddit who all pirate it.

Also , if you watch something 10 months later you're going to have to find a way to navigate the internet for 10 months without tripping over spoilers everywhere.

Buying it via cable, assuming there aren't other shows you want to watch on cable , you are looking at $25 per episode.

Re: Take my money, HBO

#163

Post by peeters »

burke wrote: post #118
trotsky wrote: post #107

I worked on several commercial digital music projects in the time span between early napster and entrenched itunes. One regularly repeated meme of the era was that people didn't want to pirate music, they just wanted it "as easy" or "no drm" or "ala carte" or "all you can eat". While statistically these were all guaranteed to be true for at least some users, in aggregate they were red herrings. The industry was in th…

I'm only one data point, but: I used to pirate (all of my) music. I have bought a grand total of one CD ever. Now I happily consume most of my music through a paid subscription to Rdio. Similarly, I pay for netflix. I (grudgingly) go to theatres occasionally. I don't own and have no desire to own a dvd player, and pirate movies occasionally when they're not conveniently available. Similarly, I pirate Game of Thrones,…

> Similarly, I pirate Game of Thrones, but would happily pay up to $5 per episode if it were an option. I will not buy the DVDs, as I have no desire to see it again. If I could buy the DVDs at the same time as the show airs (without getting off my couch), I would happily do so.

How about when you pirate the episode, you put the $5 aside, and when it's released on DVD, buy the DVDs, regardless of whether you want to watch it again? This has essentially the same result as buying the DVD "at the same time as the show airs".

This is what I have done with shows that are cable-exclusive. And as a perk, I end up with the DVDs.

Re: Take my money, HBO

#164

Post by ars »

jack-r-abbit wrote: post #157
ars wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> has the innate right to take whatever they want You aren't taking it. You are copying it. The only reason not to be allowed to copy it is if it damages the copyright owner. But since the product has zero economic value to the owner from you (they refuse to sell it to you), you are not causing them any damage, and therefor you can not make any argument about why it's wrong. (i.e. it makes no difference to the owner…

> You aren't taking it. You are copying it. If we want to get into semantics we should really pick some words that are more neutral. So.. you consumed it and did not compensate them for it. Better? It is kind of funny when you think about the term leech used in the torrent world. If you download something and don't make it available for upload, you are leeching. You are taking but not giving back. So to consume someo…

> So.. you consumed it and did not compensate them for it. Better?

Not really. Why do I need to compensate them? You give a creator money to encourage them to do more, not to compensate them. Compensate implies they loose in some way and you have to make them whole. That doesn't apply here.

In this case the author of the post want to encourage them to do more, but they refuse because they believe they can do better without his money. At that point his moral duty is complete, and they have no right to complain if he consumes (I hate that word since it implies destroy) their product.

You don't seem to get the point of copyright. You have it reversed - you think copyright lets creators prevent people from doing stuff - not so. The idea of copyright is to encourage creators. (It's right in the US constitution - check if you don't believe me.) If you try to encourage them, and they refuse, then you can do what you want and they can't complain (morally anyway). The restrictions only exist to serve the purpose of encouragement. If encouragement isn't possible then the restrictions are meaningless and are ignored.

A leech is only a leech if he doesn't try to give back, but in this case the author of the post tries, but his offer was not accepted. Even in the bittorrent world that is not called a leech, it's called a seeder.

Re: Take my money, HBO

#165

Post by kamaal »

matwood wrote: post #106
sneak wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Nah, I'm not really into Pokemon." http://xkcd.com/178/ (Am I the only one who still doesn't give two fucks about four fucks about television shows?)

I don't really get the anti TV people. Like any medium there is good and bad. TV definitely has its share of bad, but there is also some pretty good entertainment. Books, magazines, websites, etc... there is always going to be more crap than not, but for some reason I never read about people bragging about giving them up.

I hardly watch TV. Basically because my entertainment demands are asynchronous. I need entertainment on-demand when I need it. I can't adjust my schedule to the TV's schedule.

TV is for people who can sacrifice something else for the sake of a show. I can't and I won't because my time is worth doing something else. And when I need entertainment there are other things that fill that need.

Its like the radio, I turn it on when I need it. If something interesting is playing I hear, else I have a whole hard disk full of songs to hear to.

Also the ads and breaks between shows, movies and songs. When uninterrupted entertainment is available at dirt cheap prices. Who likes to waste their time watching/hearing ads.

TV is becoming the new radio, basically.

Re: Take my money, HBO

#166

Post by philwelch »

IbJacked wrote: post #149
guynamedloren wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I attempted to buy your Porsche for $20. You ignored me so I took it anyway. Obviously it's illegal.

Theft and copyright violation are not comparable. Both may be illegal, but they aren't the same. Would it be illegal to build a replica of the Porsche for myself? The GP's example was bad because he mentioned taking a product or service, rather than making a copy of something and keeping it. I'm assuming he didn't mean it the way it reads.

An exact replica of a Porsche would violate Porsche's trademarks and patents. And the copyright for the operators manual in the glove box. And incidentally also the regulations governing VINs.

Re: Take my money, HBO

#167

Post by ars »

gee_totes wrote: post #112
ars wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> has the innate right to take whatever they want You aren't taking it. You are copying it. The only reason not to be allowed to copy it is if it damages the copyright owner. But since the product has zero economic value to the owner from you (they refuse to sell it to you), you are not causing them any damage, and therefor you can not make any argument about why it's wrong. (i.e. it makes no difference to the owner…

2 things) 1 - But since the product has zero economic value to the owner from you (they refuse to sell it to you) -- In the case of Game of Thrones, you are refusing to buy it (either via HBO subscription, iTunes, physical media, etc.) 2 - Fair use is a legal defense used when you get charged with copyright infringement. It is not an excuse you give upfront. You can only claim fair use after you have been charged.

1: I have not checked, I assume it was impossible based on the post the parent made, I've never watched it myself or tried to buy (or download) it. I take his claim that he can not get it any other way at face value. Selling it a week later does not count BTW, (just in case that is what they are doing). If he wants it now, and they refuse then too bad for them - they lost his money. That was their choice and they should not complain.

2: Fair use is most definitely an "excuse" (as you call it). Fair use lets you decide if you are allowed to do something. You don't have to go to court before quoting a passage from a book in a review - fair use lets you do it without even asking.

Re: Take my money, HBO

#168

Post by res0nat0r »

Karunamon wrote: post #121
hospadam wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've read the article - and I completely agree with Gabe. From a business point of view - you (and Gabe) are probably right. It might be absolutely, completely stupid of HBO to not offer GoT online, 24/7, for a reasonable price. However, just because they may (or may not) be making a poor business decision, it doesn't excuse what people are doing: illegally pirating content.

>However, just because they may (or may not) be making a poor business decision, it doesn't excuse what people are doing: illegally pirating content. Look at it from the other direction. Pirates are gonna pirate and there is fuck all anyone can do about it. Moralize about it all you want, it doesn't change the fact that people will get the content for free, and MORE people will get the content for free if they feel r…

They can't make a relatively simple change and capture that market (read the dcurtis article linked above).

Re: Take my money, HBO

#169

Post by philwelch »

randomdata wrote: post #39
david_shaw wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I will continue to pay $0 until there is an option that does not involve enriching evil cable executives. Wouldn't a standalone HBO GO subscription enrich cable executives? Wouldn't any paid solution enrich cable executives?

Profit isn't inherently evil, so I assume by his comment that the "evil cable executives" would cease to be evil if they offered a product considered reasonable by him.

Aside from the "Time Warner owns HBO" issue, it makes sense to distinguish content producers like HBO from, say, Comcast (who are far more evil).

Re: Take my money, HBO

#170

Post by thm76 »

ROFISH wrote: post #138
tjmc wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interestingly GoT seasons 1 and 2 are available on iTunes in Australia. The latest episodes only take an extra week to show up from when they're first screened in the US. Even so, Australians apparently pirate the show in greater numbers than elsewhere. Could be because it's $3/episode or it's only standard def or it's a week late. My guess is people find it just as easy to torrent it so don't even bother to look at…

Can somebody confirm if GoT Season 2 is available in Australia iTunes? US will not get Season 2 until the disc release next year.

Season 2 is available up to episode 9 as a season pass for AUD28.99
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