There are large and influential companies that have come to recognize the piracy is the result of failures of distribution, not pricing. The prime example would be Valve, which since it made Steam its primary distribution channel, had paid very little attention to piracy (compare to EA). The CEO, Gabe Newell, has discussed this publicly, and you can find him discussing it on YouTube.
His example, which is particular to the gaming industry, but applies also to feature films, is that it is not reasonable to think that individuals who can afford $40/month internet connections and $2000 gaming rigs are pirating games because of money. They pirate games because they cannot get them legally conveniently and readily. This is particularly true in countries where English is not spoken. It takes months for a game to be released in Russia in Russian after the game is released in the United States. If a gamer can get a version in Russian faster via piracy, he's going to do it. The same rule holds for feature films, where again, release dates are not universal.
As to your second point, if you cannot see the common sense in the idea that the millions of American and foreign young people who do subscribe to cable or to HBO but who enjoy Game of Thrones want to be able to watch it online in high def the same way that they watch every other show, I think you're just trying to argue for the sake of it. Even if only 10% of these people paid to watch it on HBO/iTunes/Amazon, that is money that HBO is not getting now. Being able to pay a few bucks to watch the episode the same night that it is released in high-definition is well worth it. To take just one demographic, college students living in dorms do not have cable subscriptions. They all watch the show by streaming from sites that violate copyright or via file-sharing.
Perhaps you do not know this, but it is trivial to watch shows online. You can stream video from dozens of sites, with more of these appearing every month. These sites upload new episodes with hours of their original airing. That being said, Netflix has millions of subscribers, including very many young people who know how to watch shows like this. Young people also spend lots of money renting movies and television shows on iTunes that they could find for free online with a little effort. People pay for a high quality stream without the annoyance of pop-up ads and banners, and they like fast downloads and ease of use.
Here's Gabe talking about piracy, so don't take my word for it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLC_zZ5fqFk
Last time I checked the backbone of the early release scene was still Usenet - clearly the playground of the hip, young & funky - no old people there.
Piracy is older than the internet. Some of us don't have the moral flexibility -- or quite honestly the time or the inconvenience -- to pirate. If you do, good for you, but the notion that it's new is utter hubris.
It took me less than two minutes to get the latest episode of the walking dead from a torrent site in 1080p quality about 20 minutes after it aired on cable tv tonight (commercial free).
I think your argument really highlights your advanced age and disconnect with modern technology.
I think your argument really highlights that you are an obnoxious, ignorant prat, with an extremely loose sense of morals (people trust you with their business? Tell them that you proudly thieve. Worse, on a completely public network that literally screams your identity). There are a lot of people whose time is much more important and valuable than yours, so your experience differs. Exult in your worthlessness.
I made the age distinction because many older think piracy means that these people are using filesharing and bittorrent to watch these shows. These technologies are obsolete when it comes to television and movies. You can do it all directly through the browser. It is as easy and convenient as YouTube.
That takes me to a site that has endless scamware ads, tries to get me to download a hilarious dubious "codec" from a third party site, has various false-starts while it solicits memberships, etc.
That is easy? In contrast if I want to watch GoT on my cable box, it's right there under on-demand (included with premium services).
After having dealt with the fallout when people "easily" watched videos online, I have become suspicious of any notion about the easiness of piracy.
It is hardly a common practice, and such sites usually operate on the edges of criminality, with all that such entails (scamware, trojans, etc. There is no honor among thieves and all). Now there are a lot of very ignorant people who think it's great, completely oblivious to the fact that they've completely compromised their PC.
Which really is the point. You can talk about how "easy" it is if you have all the time in the world to filter and find appropriate sites between take downs, and avoid all of the bullshit that comes along with them. I'd rather just watch it on HBO, and have zero troubles with that. The other guy referred to a show that you can buy an iTunes season pass, which is how I watched the last season of Mad Men. Zero risk or hassle, and episodes appear after one ten second purchase. Time is money.
If HBO is not making as much money as before, it's proof that their business model is dumb and stupid and they need to adapt to me.
If HBO is making more money than ever, it's proof that the pirates aren't hurting them at all, and they need to get off our backs, man!