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Comment by jquery | Hacker News Reader

I pay $30/month to watch Starcraft 2 tournaments on GomTV.net.

I pay $0/month to watch Game of Thrones, Veep, Girls, and True Blood. I will continue to pay $0 until there is an option that does not involve enriching evil cable executives.

Your move, HBO.

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How can you possibly claim some sort of moral high ground when you're saying "I like the content you produce but don't agree with the methods you use to charge for it so I'm going to steal it!".

If you don't agree with their distribution methods then DON'T CONSUME THAT CONTENT.

Nope! Why would I do that? What good comes of it? Moral high-ground? Fuck that, I'd prefer to watch the show.

I think this is what goes through most people's heads. When it's a choice between benefiting nobody and retaining moral high-ground and benefiting nobody and watching the show, they choose the latter, because they don't see any real rational reason not to.

Now, how about pirating the show, then buying the DVD when it comes out? Gets trickier, doesn't it...

You do realize that without those evil cable executives and their funding these shows wouldn't be on the air right now?

Do you always analyze who gets enriched before making purchases? For example, how do you purchase anything without enriching the evil oil executives who sell the petroleum products used to transport goods used in the production of the products and services you consume?

Even if you manage to perfectly align your beliefs with your purchasing habits, how do you ensure that those who profit from your purchases don't give their money to the evil cable or oil executives?

I don't think this question is asked in good faith, but I'll try to respond anyway. The answer is we don't live in a perfect world, and we all have to make pragmatic choices. If there was an alternative to petroleum that involved painlessly breaking a wrongheaded law, I would do it in a heartbeat. Choosing to pirate Game of Thrones is a win/win. I get the content I want and I don't enrich cable executives who not only try to monopolize local municipalities and fight progress, but who are striking at the heart of the internet itself with crap like SOPA.

How does your action result in a win for the thousands of people (actors, extras, film crew, set construction crew, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, musicians, etc.) who worked on Game of Thrones? If everyone followed your lead and nobody paid a cent to HBO they would all be out of a job. It's only because others are willing to reward the creators for their work that your freeloading is possible.

It doesn't. But the alternative, not watching the show, doesn't either. He also never claims that his actions would benefit anybody. (You probably have the moral high ground here, I just don't agree with this argument.)

The issue is with calling it win/win:

  > Choosing to pirate Game of Thrones is a win/win. I get
  > the content I want and I don't enrich cable executives

Both wins are wins for the pirate with no consideration to others. This is a parasite's definition of win/win.

This parasite would be happy to give HBO money. HBO doesn't want it. Not my problem.

We are in agreement that HBO's business choices aren't your problem. That's a non sequitur. I'm talking about your actions, not HBO's.

If everyone followed my lead, HBO-Go would be available standalone. Today. Not ten years from now after they've had their fill of dumb money. They're greedy, not stupid.

I up voted you, but don't really support the "evil cable executives" line.

I constantly amazed by how quickly people embrace protection racket style tactics over a bloody TV show that they could buy in a few months.

> 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).

iTunes?

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