HBO will finally let you watch without having Cable

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Deathwing

Deathwing

<Bronze Donator>
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You're assuming that everyone who torrents would otherwise pay for the content. That's not true. To what degree, I have no idea, but it's not that black and white. As I tried pointing out earlier, there are many many things I'd rather do than pay for cable television and an HBO package. HBO is never going to get my money(currently), I'll just go learn Swahili instead of watching (legal)Game of Thrones.

Now, I will admit that there's a broader discussion as to whether torrenting has changed customer expectation of what their free time should cost. I know Steam sales have changed what I expect X amount of dollars should get me from a video game. And while I don't pirate games anymore due to the convenience of Steam and their sales, I also rarely buy games day 1 and will wait for sales. Maybe torrenting has had the same effect on tv and movies. But not everyone is strictly a leech.
 
iannis

iannis

Musty Nester
31,351
17,657
Brutal, the problem with that entire train of thought is that cable television pricing has always been jewblushingly extravagent. It had that reputation well before torrenting was a thing.

You can tell yourself that you're carrying the welfare load but you're really not man. They're just charging what the market will bear. This ain't a tax, this is not a zero sum business model.

Call us shitlords for stealing if you want. That's fine whatever. But they're not charging you an extra nickel for every seed.
 
Alex

Alex

Still a Music Elitist
14,718
7,536
The amount of people that torrent is such a small demographic. It is almost no different than "My taxes r payin' 4 yer food stampz! Waste of gubment moneyz!" The target of your blame is more or less inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.
 
Malakriss

Malakriss

Golden Baronet of the Realm
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Paying $100 for one package deal vs Paying $90 for 8 different subscriptions. The vast majority would still take the $100 and the ease of a remote control.
 
chaos

chaos

Buzzfeed Editor
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Most of the stuff I torrent I would probably not pay for anyway. If every Sons of Anarchy torrent was cleansed from the internet tomorrow, I would not suddenly start buying episodes from Amazon and 2 bucks a pop.
 
Sterling

Sterling

El Presidente
13,100
8,080
There are plenty of things that I torrent that I would not pay for, and there are a number of things that I do torrent that I end up buying to support. Not sure if there's anything that I torrent now and don't end up buying that I'd buy otherwise.
 
Chukzombi

Chukzombi

Millie's Staff Member
73,144
214,431
The majority of tv shows i stream, were aired for free on TV but because im at work, i missed the episodes and i dont have Tivo. i refuse to give directv more money for their terrible services, its also a nice plus not having to deal with commercials at all. the other shows i stream are shows that are plain just not available on american TV and if they are, they butcher the fuck out of them so they can shoehorn in endless commercials. i have Adblock+ i dont want ads on my internet or in my media. GoT is a good show, but i loathe HBO and wouldnt watch their channel at all unless GoT was on. i can see an option of paying a few bucks to see GoT only, but it has to be available the night the show airs. fuck that wait a week shit.
 
Selix

Selix

Lord Nagafen Raider
2,149
4
BrutulTM_sl said:
I don't think it's "only" because of that. People like getting shit for free. Cable companies suck ass, but the fact remains that if you are torrenting then you are leech on the system and those of us that are paying for our entertainment are paying more because of you. When the leeches reach a certain critical mass, the content goes away or at least gets replaced by shitty reality shows that make nearly as much money and cost 1/100 as much to produce. Don't tell me people are going to produce shows on YouTube either. Felicia Day is great, but she is never going to make Game of Thrones.
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Counter argument
Steam. My pirating has gone way the hell down because of Steam. To the point where I am even paying full price for stuff on release day that I would have never considered before just because it is on Steam. But fuck buying anything on Origin or with the EA tag.

Also you are being fooled if you are thinking the price you pay has anything to do with costs due to pirating. Costs are going up because of lack of competition. Reality shows are taking over because Honey Boo Boo is and Duck Dynasty are what the masses want to see. And don't be so quick to assume shows won't be produced on the interwebz. You have heard of House of Cards right? Netflix is very, very far from a cable network.
 
chaos

chaos

Buzzfeed Editor
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4,839
Maester Chuk_sl said:
The majority of tv shows i stream, were aired for free on TV but because im at work, i missed the episodes and i dont have Tivo. i refuse to give directv more money for their terrible services, its also a nice plus not having to deal with commercials at all. the other shows i stream are shows that are plain just not available on american TV and if they are, they butcher the fuck out of them so they can shoehorn in endless commercials. i have Adblock+ i dont want ads on my internet or in my media. GoT is a good show, but i loathe HBO and wouldnt watch their channel at all unless GoT was on. i can see an option of paying a few bucks to see GoT only, but it has to be available the night the show airs. fuck that wait a week shit.
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But you do realize, I hope, that this is an egregious ethical violation. Using adblock, streaming shows, even "free" shows, without the ads is tantamount to stealing content, it is no different than just torrenting movies or whatever. Of course I do the same thing, minus adblock because I am pretty lazy and just never got around to it.
 
Chukzombi

Chukzombi

Millie's Staff Member
73,144
214,431
dude what the fuck, get adblock, and get it right now. you are giving your computer AIDS. my anti-virus does a scan on my pc every day. before i got adblock it was picking up 80-250 "threats" every single day. after adblock. im down to 4 maybe 8 on a bad day.
 
chaos

chaos

Buzzfeed Editor
17,324
4,839
I'm not too worried about it, IPT is about the sketchiest site I am ever on with my home computer.
 
moonarchia

moonarchia

The Scientific Shitlord
24,512
46,166
One thing worth noting is they are only talking about their original programming. I'm not seeing anything here indicating that they have worked out online distribution deals with their movie studio partners to show it all on the net. I hope they do allow their full programming at some point and that they do well enough to tell the cable companies and satellite to get bent.
 
Gravel

Gravel

Mr. Poopybutthole
40,331
133,629
chaos_sl said:
But you do realize, I hope, that this is an egregious ethical violation. Using adblock, streaming shows, even "free" shows, without the ads is tantamount to stealing content, it is no different than just torrenting movies or whatever. Of course I do the same thing, minus adblock because I am pretty lazy and just never got around to it.
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Holy shit man, get Adblock...or something.

Plus, your argument essentially amounts to "you're stealing from every website that uses ads" when you use an ad blocker.
 
chaos

chaos

Buzzfeed Editor
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Elurin_sl said:
Holy shit man, get Adblock...or something.
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Like I said, I'm not concerned. Almost every instance of malware/virus transmission is related to behavior or known vulnerabilities that don't apply to me, like embedded Java.

Plus, your argument essentially amounts to "you're stealing from every website that uses ads" when you use an ad blocker.
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... because you are. Content of any kind isn't free. Subverting advertisements is stealing.
 
Ichu

Ichu

Molten Core Raider
851
290
Are you arguing that changing the channel during commercials is stealing?
 
chaos

chaos

Buzzfeed Editor
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idk, probably not. But using software to suppress advertising is not the same as changing channels during commercials.

Is this really controversial? I just figured everyone accepted the idea that consuming advertiser supported content while subverting the ads was an ethical breach. Not like I'm saying I am holier than anyone, I torrent like a motherfucker.
 
BrutulTM

BrutulTM

Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
<Silver Donator>
14,762
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Talk about what you would do if "insert situation that does not exist here" is cheap as hell. TV is still some of the cheapest entertainment you can get if you watch at least a couple hours a day. It would be expensive to watch Game of Thrones if that were literally the only show you watched every week but pretty much nobody does that.
 
Malakriss

Malakriss

Golden Baronet of the Realm
12,740
12,135
Ad block is your right, same with every other privacy feature, addon, and content control on your computer. Being forced to watch ads is the unethical side and often the companies are the ones trying to circumvent technology to strap you to the chair with eyes pried open to observe some god awful promo for a product you'll never buy.
 
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