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Take my money, HBO

takemymoneyhbo.com

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Re: Take my money, HBO

#251

Post by acdha »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #216
algorias wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it is definitely a reason why the alternative offered isn't a good one. lots of things people do have "silly" social reasons, so don't dismiss those factors out of hand. Also, "taking money from the pockets of others" is an incredibly biased way to frame the discussion, and doesn't help at all.

In what way is money not being taken from the pockets of others? The rationale that someone wouldn't buy it anyway doesn't hold when the argument is that they want it so much they can't wait for it.

Suppose instead his solution was to find a buddy with HBO and watch the show together. Would you still say money is being taken, despite the 100% legality of this approach? If not, why?

Re: Take my money, HBO

#252

Post by mseebach »

falling wrote: post #127
burke wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,…

I also pay an Rdio subscription and enjoy it, but I still buy the records I find myself listening more often. My reason is simply this: http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010/how-much-do-music...

While Rdio and Spotify has some wrinkles to iron out, that chart is simply lying with pretty colours. Full album != single track != single play.

Re: Take my money, HBO

#253

Post by icebraining »

peeters wrote: post #163
burke wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 w…

Therefore promoting the DVD business instead of incentively them to move to digital distribution.

This is why we can't have nice things.

Re: Take my money, HBO

#254

Post by icebraining »

cremnob wrote: post #235
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 think people have an entitlement attitude about digital content (movies, music, software, games, etc) that doesn't exist for other tangible products. And I think this entitlement has come out of being able to get away with stealing the content easily. Many people can't afford/don't want to pay for a Rolls Royce, they aren't their target market, but they don't feel entitled to drive one. So they don't go out and ste…

I'd feel entitled to drive a Rolls Royce if someone offered me one. Which is what happens with P2P: users offering others copies of stuff. There's no stealing except in some people's minds.

Re: Take my money, HBO

#255

Post by Shivetya »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #233
burke wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"In what way is money not being taken from the pockets of others?" In the way that they are taking money out of their own pockets by not catering to this sizeable crowd. Intellectual Property does not fit neatly into our existing socio-economic framework. This is one of the areas where that really shows.

I'd have more sympathy for this line of argument if I wasn't currently watching season 1 of Game Of Thrones. When it aired, sure I wanted to see it. People I know were talking about it. But I didn't want to pay what it cost to see it then. So you know what choice I made? I waited. And now it's available in a format I want at a price I'm willing to pay. So I paid and I'm enjoying it. And, in a development that would e…

Well I watched it at a friends who had it copied on his DVR. Does that make me a pirate? I was given a copy by another friend who did copy if off a DVR. I do have the blu-ray version of season one as well.

I will be watching season two without ever paying for HBO, again I am watching it via a DVR. How is my watching it on someone's DVR not the same as downloading it and watching it? In neither case did I pay for it, someone else did in both.

The true issue is that HBO sees more money at risk than they see to gain.

Re: Take my money, HBO

#256

Post by icebraining »

rickmb wrote: post #209

It's ironic that the amount in the form is in US dollars. In much the rest of the world, it's already pretty much game over. A whole generation has learned to "pirate" these shows because it's the only available option. This is the reality in 2012 outside the US: ordinary people in offices and on schoolyards are discussing TV shows that aren't legally available in those countries . It's not considered anything specia…

Where is this? Where I live, most people don't know English nearly well enough to watch the shows without subtitles, and community created subs are very hit-and-miss, both in availability and quality.

Re: Take my money, HBO

#257

Post by mratzloff »

vibrunazo wrote: post #174
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…

Why do humans are always trying to oversimplify that which is already simple? People choose to pirate because their impression is that the pros (easier, no drm, cheaper) outweigh the cons (risk of getting caught, risk of all art ceasing to exist). That's all, just a simple pros vs cons we all quickly do for every decision we ever do in our lives. No need to try to find cheap pseudo-psychological explanation to why pe…

I buy high-bitrate, DRM-free MP3s from Amazon. It really couldn't be much easier, and it's already pretty cheap (generally $0.99 per song), so the only reason remaining is that people get something for nothing. No one can compete with free.

Re: Take my money, HBO

#258

Post by shrikant »

zavulon wrote: post #115

Kind of off-topic, but it's really use for HBO to bring this entire operation down if they want: the domain name contains their trademark, "HBO". In these cases it's much better to have a generic domain name (i.e. "takemymoneycable" or something like that), than to do trademark violations. I've had to learn this the hard way, unfortunately ...

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark_infringement:

Infringement may occur when one party, the "infringer", uses a trademark which is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark owned by another party, in relation to products or services which are identical or similar to the products or services which the registration covers.

How is this a product or service similar to what HBO is offering..? Merely invoking the name of a product/service is hardly a trademark violation -- otherwise every single HN commenter who has griped about Apple/Google/Microsoft/Facebook products would be infringing.

Re: Take my money, HBO

#259

Post by andrewla »

AJ007 wrote: post #40
smackfu wrote: post #20

This was a good write-up of an interview with the HBO co-CEO: http://dcurt.is/hbo-forbes-journalism Worth reading before spouting the typical "I don't understand why HBO doesn't want my $5 a month."

Very good blog post. Not sure I'd watch the full video interview, but it was worth the time to read. What I took away from it is this: A lot of our paying subscribers don't actually watch HBO, and we don't want to compete against the sources that deliver those subscribers to us. (Every single discussion about this should always include a mention that Time Warner owns HBO, saves a lot of mental hamster wheeling.)

Also, every single discussion about Time Warner should always mention that Time Warner does not own Time Warner Cable.

Re: Take my money, HBO

#260

Post by waterlesscloud »

acdha wrote: post #251
waterlesscloud wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what way is money not being taken from the pockets of others? The rationale that someone wouldn't buy it anyway doesn't hold when the argument is that they want it so much they can't wait for it.

Suppose instead his solution was to find a buddy with HBO and watch the show together. Would you still say money is being taken, despite the 100% legality of this approach? If not, why?

Because someone paid for it, and more than one person watching at one location is factored into the price.
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