said by swhx7 :

Is it the "free" or the "quality and commercial free" that's the most important factor?

I believe that most of the pirates would be willing to pay for legal content if it were high quality, free from DRM, and priced low.

said by karlmarx :

But, your argument holds no merit. All of the shows on NBC are FREE already. They broadcast it over the air for all to watch. The fact that I choose to WATCH their FREE broadcast on a different medium is what annoys them. But downloading an OTA TV show from the internet is not stealing. If it's HBO or the like, then yes, you are stealing. But getting a FREE tv show in a format that is better for you is not immoral, illegal or wrong.

said by Nightfall :

When it comes to television, I agree.
When it comes to software, games, music, and so on, I disagree.

I am pretty sure he was talking about the later.

said by ross :

I'm pretty sure x544348 couldn't possibly have been talking about anything but TV, if you are referring to x544348's comment which was a direct reply to Chyo, who was talking about TV. And, Karlmarx certainly wasn't talking about "software, games, music, and son on". You are the only one talking about "software, games, music, and son on", as far as I can see. Try to pay attention!

said by Nightfall :

You were replying to what swhx7 said. At least that is what I thought. Obviously, you didn't mean to click on the "Reply" box on his post. You meant to do it on the first post.

As for the "try to pay attention" remark, you might want to invoke a little more respectable attitude. People make reply mistakes all the time. Belittling someone is not really a great course of action.

said by TKJunkMail :

I wasn't just talking TV. I was talking about pirating in general.

said by karlmarx :

But, your argument holds no merit. All of the shows on NBC are FREE already. They broadcast it over the air for all to watch. The fact that I choose to WATCH their FREE broadcast on a different medium is what annoys them. But downloading an OTA TV show from the internet is not stealing. If it's HBO or the like, then yes, you are stealing. But getting a FREE tv show in a format that is better for you is not immoral, illegal or wrong.

said by karlmarx :

But, your argument holds no merit. All of the shows on NBC are FREE already. They broadcast it over the air for all to watch. The fact that I choose to WATCH their FREE broadcast on a different medium is what annoys them. But downloading an OTA TV show from the internet is not stealing. If it's HBO or the like, then yes, you are stealing. But getting a FREE tv show in a format that is better for you is not immoral, illegal or wrong.

said by Hehe :

My VCR automatically skips commercials. I guess it is stealing?

If I manually fast forward, am I stealing?

said by Corehhi :

In a lot of cases I think it actually gets more viewers to tune into something they don't normally watch.

said by Corehhi :

What's the difference in taping the shows yourself or going on the internet and getting a copy of it? Those TV shows really don't have any replay value anyways. In a lot of cases I think it actually gets more viewers to tune into something they don't normally watch.

said by Sammer :

A Supreme Court ruling (Disney vs. Betamax) is the difference between taping the shows off the air for your own personal use and getting them off the internet. Since NBC charges sponsors when it airs reruns (admittedly less) it would certainly argue that there is replay value.

said by TKJunkMail :

And I disagree. As long as it is free, no level of quality and low price will satisfy most pirates. Their belief that they are entitled to everything for free is the major driving force in their selfish philosophy of life.

said by Thaler :

But what's the financial harm in this venture? If only 5% of pirates download a high quality, DRM-free, and correctly priced video file...isn't that making more than the whopping 0% of pirated film "losses" that they're getting now?

It just really sucks that the people willing to pay for entertainment (ie. their paying customers) get a shoddier product than the bootleggers peddle around for free.

said by Ahrenl :

Most People who have or would consider pirating, would rather get the content through a legit service.

said by Nightfall :

To say that its ok to acceptable for 95% of the people to take your product with a cheaper price and no DRM than 100% for a higher priced product isn't a winning proposal for a business.

said by Thaler :

True...but there's two major problems in the marketplace:

A.) Pirates *will* always defeat any amount of DRM a company puts forth.

B.) The more they DRM up their legit products to counteract the inevitibility of A., they begin impeding with customer's fair use. (ie. see the Bioshock PC-game release fiasco)

Basically, these production companies are investing major bucks to effectively piss off their paying customers, and pirates are still getting away with the media they seek to protect. Locks just keep honest people honest. Sticking with some simplistic DRM keeps your average Joe Blow from bootlegging with ease, yet also enables your tech savvy paying customers to still support your venture.

DVDs are the penultimate "happy medium" with piracy. They're cheap enough (and loaded with extras) to make piracy trivial to most, yet simple enough to keep the entry-level techie coming back for more.

said by TKJunkMail :

And I disagree. As long as it is free, no level of quality and low price will satisfy most pirates. Their belief that they are entitled to everything for free is the major driving force in their selfish philosophy of life.