Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Take my money, HBO

takemymoneyhbo.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 316 posts

Re: Take my money, HBO

#81

Post by ars »

dbbolton wrote: post #71

The message I get from posts like these: "I am entitled to watch show X right now. If the owner of show X won't sell it to me instantly, then I have the right to pirate it." Is there money to be made here? Sure. I might even say that companies who don't offer popular shows on demand are making a dumb move. But nobody has the innate right to take whatever they want right now just because they can't wait until it's ava…

> 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 whether you copied it or not.)

One of the criteria for fair use is "the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work".

And if you also include "the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes" you have met 2 out of 4 of the criteria for fair use, so you could make a strong argument that it's actually fully legal.

Re: Take my money, HBO

#82

Post by hospadam »

mfringel wrote: post #73
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…

You're correct. HBO is offering people two options. However, there seems to be a significant amount of people who want a third option, which HBO considers itself structurally prohibited from providing. It is precisely no one's fault but HBO's that HBO has painted itself into a corner.

You're exactly right - there is a vocal set of people that want a third option. My point is, however, no business has to offer the "third option". Just because they don't offer the third option doesn't make downloading them for free OK.

Re: Take my money, HBO

#83

Post by jasonwatkinspdx »

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.)

Yes.

They forced a bad deal on competing networks via those networks' own customers. The prize was capturing margin and exporting cost of business.

The language about controlling the examples that consumers use as a frame of reference is telling. This is a business that has mastered the game of baiting 1st parties against 2nd parties while negotiating price as a 3rd party.

Re: Take my money, HBO

#84

Post by rhplus »

Simply tweeting the intention is an empty gesture. How about setting up a publically auditable escrow account with the recipient set to be HBO/Time Warner. Deposit $20 (or whatever is fair compensation) and then go ahead an acquire a copy of the video. That's what I thought this would be when I saw "Take my money, HBO": a realizable offer of money.

Is there any legal precedent for this, i.e. attempting to pay for a product or service, being ignored and then paying and taking it anyway?

Re: Take my money, HBO

#85

Post by hospadam »

juliano_q wrote: post #74

I actually discovered that I am able to pay HBO for Game of Thrones. HBO decided to air GoT here in Brazil simultaneously with USA. I called my television provider, added HBO for R$ 30,00/mo (around $15.00) and after the end of the season 2 I just called there and removed HBO again. I am planning to do the same for season 3. Is it so hard for people around the world to do the same? (real question, not being sarcastic…

Well, this season of GoT was 9 episodes. If you wanted HBO over the whole run so you could watch them live - you would need it for 3 months. However, if you're willing to hold off until last month, you could get by with waiting for the last episode to come out, buy one month, watch all episodes, then cancel.

Re: Take my money, HBO

#86

Post by tptacek »

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."

Wow, I hadn't read that; such a great post. Thank you.

Re: Take my money, HBO

#87

Post by tjmc »

batiudrami wrote: post #75
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…

GoT is absolutely huge in Australia - I am continually surprised at the people I know who are well outside the target demographic and watch it. Monday is Game of Thrones night, where everyone watches it, and then talks about it with their mates, which seems to be a significant part of the experience (I'm not a fan of the show personally). A week later is one week too late - you need to be looking at hours after scree…

Guess we'll find out next week if it's the screening time because season 2 just finished. So from next Monday will there be a drop in Australian GoT torrents because the show is equally available on iTunes? It'd be interesting to see the stats.

The other thing is that on iiNet (Australia's #2 ISP), iTunes downloads aren't counted against download quota. So there's some incentive to buy for people on the basic plans.

Re: Take my money, HBO

#88

Post by hasker »

Let me get this straight because I think this is what other sources are implying: HBO sells a license to their channels to the cable companies for a flat fee. The cable providers then recoup this by selling subscriptions to HBO or pushing more customers to subscribe to cable. In that way, cable providers actually pay more than the cable providers collect from consumers for HBO subscriptions. This really makes the question not would you pay the same price as HBO costs on cable for Game of Thrones access, but would you pay more? The cable provider's contracts may even preclude directly collecting from consumers. If this is true, I think the community needs to realize this remains a lost cause and instead encourage Netflix's model of creating high quality content directly for streaming.

Re: Take my money, HBO

#89

Post by masmullin »

zem wrote: post #76
masmullin wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a purchaser of the season 1 blu-ray... lets get to the secondary issue of buying. The packaging of the videos is SHIT... there are ads, I have to sit through FBI warnings, I have to sift through bad menus to get to the content I want, and I have to deal with trying to find features when everything I select says "please insert disc X" I paid $70 CND and with the exception of the actual quality of the picture (blu-r…

buy the dvd, leave it in its box, and pirate the show. everyone wins.

But why? Why couldn't they have just made a good Blu-Ray boxed set? Why does disc three have nothing but one episode on it (no extra features... everything I click while using disc3 says "please enter disc 5", while disc 4 has three episodes on it? Why do I have to sit through an FBI warning when I dont even live in the states? Why do I have to see ads for other HBO shows when I put in disc 1?

I spent good money on the fucking thing? Why couldn't they have given me a BETTER experience than the people who steal it?

Post reply on HN