Game of Thrones episodes leaked ahead of air date
JohnnyCharisma
Australia
Hi all, just a heads up, that at least 3 (rumoured up to 6 in total) of the new season of Game of Thrones is leaked.
May your spoiler watch begin.
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Comments
Of course I'm not saying you should because I think they deserve every penny they can squeeze out of their official ratings but yeah... if there's a show you should feel less bad about pirating, it's GoT.
When it comes to the why they would be OK with it I can only speculate and speak for myself. I can imagine it increases revenue to release lower quality copies because more people will be hooked on the show and seek to watch HD quality broadcasts. Ultimately it's up to the producers to calculate if piracy is hurting their revenue by reducing their paid viewership or helping them by creating a larger fanbase and increasing the hype (more people included in the public conversation means more people checking out the show and spreading the word). That's why I can imagine the show creators not minding it or why that director made the statements he did on the matter.
Personally there's an element of - I guess - guilt involved and a wish to support creators I like that makes me more likely to pay for something if I get it for free anyway (for instance the Bald Move membership). This is also the reason I have a Netflix account even though piracy is a platform that's just as convenient. Netflix has a very reasonable membership fee and offer pretty amazing service. Their only real downside is the geolocking of content and the vastly reduced library they carry in my country (most people, including me, use a browser plugin that allows access to the US library).
EDIT: Aaaand I just found out HBO Netherlands is only for digital television and not for online streaming so that doesn't work since I don't have a television. It's also 15 euros a month which is pretty absurd because that's two times the amount I pay for Netflix and three times what I pay my ISP in the first place. Sorry HBO, that's just not happening.
When I pirate shows I know what I'm doing is wrong and I absolutely abhor people who try to justify their actions by making it into a moral crusade for freedom of information sharing and such nonsense. Or people who feel so entitled they think it's ok to pirate because it's in the wrong format or there's no app for their phone or whatever. I also hear the "well I wouldn't have bought it if it wasn't free so no revenue is lost" which is equally ridiculous.
Again: not trying to justify my (or other people's) actions here but @Flukes has a point. As a European it's a nightmare. Even the "simultaneous release" HBO promises isn't truly simultaneous. After paying the 15 euros a month + 7 euros for digi-tv they only make the episode available after it airs in the US.
For most shows like BCS they only become available in the EU after the complete season has aired in the US, sometimes even months after. This means having to wait, getting spoiled, not being able to participate in the internet debates etc. etc.
There have been some improvements already so it's going in the right direction. Netflix for the EU has been great and will be even greater when the anti-geolocking legislation gets passed in EU parliament. Services like Spotify give consumers more control and the artist a bigger chunk of the profit. I think this is the way to go to get more people to pay for what they consume.
So our choice is to pay through the nose to a rich old Mr Burns guy, wait three months to get the full season on iTunes (and good luck avoiding Internet spoilers during that time), or... pirate it. That's the reason Australia supposedly pirates GoT more than any other country in the world.
I really feel bad for Straya, you guys already got shafted so hard in the bandwidth and censorship department, now I hear these horror stories about TV... makes me sad man.
However, on the flip side, if I really enjoy a show enough to watch it over and over, I go ahead and buy it on DVD or digital once it's released. I saved up to get all 4 seasons of GoT (HD) on Vudu, and I plan to get season 5 once it's released. So I'm still contributing because it's a FANTASTIC product.