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Game of Thrones was nearly "destroyed" by pirates illegally streaming HBO content (www.forevergeek.com)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Terramaris@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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At first this article reads like your typical anti-piracy screed. It rants about how 10x more people watched GoT illegally (confusing them with lost sales) and ends with how downloading movies can get your credit card stolen.

The middle of the article however, destroys the author's case.

Time Warner (owning company of HBO) CEO Alan Bewkes stated in 2013 how becoming the most illegally streamed show in history was “better than an Emmy” and that torrenting ultimately led to more paid subscriptions.

“We’ve been dealing with this for 20, 30 years—people sharing subs, running wires down the backs of apartment buildings. Our experience is that it leads to more paying subs. I think you’re right that Game of Thrones is the most pirated show in the world and that’s better than an Emmy.”

The CEO of Time Warner, who knows more about the finances of his own show than ForeverGeek writer Tom Llewellyn, championed piracy and said that it brought them more subscribers rather than nearly destroying the show as the article claims.

Needless to say, Tom forwent a rebuttal in favor of writing how you can get malware from downloading it...

Anti-Piracy Propaganda: 0 Truth: 1

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[-] Anders429@lemmy.world 63 points 1 year ago

Incredibly relevant: https://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones

It's been said a million times, but piracy is an accessibility issue. Chasing your favorite shows across streaming platforms is exhausting.

[-] Naia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 38 points 1 year ago

I've always lived by lord GabeN's "piracy is a service issue. You have to offer a better experience than the pirates"

[-] another_lemming@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Can we say Gabe's practice can translate to movies\shows? His products are at least 10hr worth (thus worth subscribing and enjoying an occasional sale), can be further promoted by having multiplayer, cloud saves, achievements...

It's true this old blood can't understand pirated MKVs are better than streaming-only DRMed shit. But is there anything they can really do to make their services work?

I think that it's not a problem of a service itself if it's not too shitty, but promotional campaign with memes like the one of Squid Games. One can be a Hitler of streaming platforms, but if this show is the new Lost, you'd make a bank anyway.

[-] bandario@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 year ago

is there anything they can really do to make their services work?

Once upon a time we had netflix. Almost everything you could want to watch was on there because they were just about the only show in town. During that time there was precious little reason to download most shows.

Now in order to have access to the thing you want to watch, you're expected to pay for 5 or 6 separate streaming services, by which point you end up at the same insane price point as paying for the full package of cable/PayTV channels.

They had a good thing and they ruined it with greed, just like everything else under capitalism. Glorious state streaming network should be only show in town, comrade.

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