HBO Says Game of Thrones Piracy Is "a Compliment" 447
An anonymous reader writes "HBO programming president Michael Lombardo not only says that illegal downloading of Game of Thrones isn't hurting the show, but goes so far as to say it's 'a compliment' and worries about the image quality of pirated copies"
They are showing the full S2 on of the free trail (Score:4, Informative)
They are showing the full S2 on of the free trail of HBO today on HBO2.
And you can DVR it and view it on your time even after the end of free trail.
Re:No shit (Score:4, Informative)
The use of hyperbole does not invalidate an argument, much as we might wish it to. What it does is make it harder for those who disagree to hear the argument, which is unfortunate. The problem with Godwin is not that comparisons to the Nazis are necessarily incorrect; it's that it's such an emotionally loaded claim that reason flies out the door at that point.
Re:No shit (Score:5, Informative)
...especially when the legal means of consuming the content covers most of the intended market.
...after the two/three/four years that it often takes for a top-notch show to reach my country in the first place.
Re:No shit (Score:5, Informative)
Uhh, no it's not. You didn't even bother to actually read what you linked.
Copyright infringement is a civil matter, except in certain specific cases.
(A) for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain;
(B) by the reproduction or distribution, including by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copies or phonorecords of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $1,000; or
(C) by the distribution of a work being prepared for commercial distribution, by making it available on a computer network accessible to members of the public, if such person knew or should have known that the work was intended for commercial distribution.
Re:No shit (Score:5, Informative)
missing out on the cost to distribute it worldwide
Welcome to the internet: Where video can be shared with everyone, worldwide, regardless of their cable subscription or locale, for pennies.
Storage/CDN, bandwidth, hosting. Done. Pennies. Also let's not forget a couple ads in the mix can generate them exceedingly more money than they spend to distribute it. Shit, throw a single commercial in the file and upload it to TPB yourself. Then you don't have to pay for bandwidth or hosting, and you make enormous profit for such a widely-viewed commercial.