Oh, and you’re also VERY tough, because you use curse words. I bet your mom wouldn’t even let you on the computer if she saw that!!

And “Two and a Half Men”. Jesus, your taste is as bad as your understanding of tech.

I stopped pirating music when there is a paid alternative. I stopped pirating TV shows that I missed when there was a paid alternative. However, I will continue to pirate shows that there is not a paid alternative. Sorry, but that’s the way it is.

Its time for YOU to grow up.

You did the logical thing and got caught with your hand in the Game of Thrones cookie jar. Imagine what would happen if you could just pay a fee to get in that specific cookie jar? And pay a different fee for the Dexter cookie jar? Or the Wire cookie jar?

The more people who stop buying into the cable business plan the better. It will only force the content creators to seek the customers directly, instead of rely on middle men to recoup the costs associated with content creation.

The article is about whether you are justified in pirating their content just because it isn’t available in the format, time, or price that you like. Why not go without it instead?

Going without it sends a message. Heck, start a letter writing campaign too. When you pirate it, what message are you sending? Even if you buy the Blu Ray later, there’s no way to correlate that with you pirating it six months earlier.

It’s a totally fallacious argument to claim that this is soley because outlets like netflix are simply not profitable for them.

Different studios have different contracts with netflix, and some are more expensive than others. It should be obvious to everyone that if the issue was simply dollars and cents, that it would be at least theoretically possible for them to negotiate a contract where they get paid more… it would then be up to netflix (or other content providers) whether they were willing to pay that amount. The driving factor would then be netflix’s decision, not HBO’s. Is that the picture we see here? NO! The fact that HBO is simply not willing to come to the table to discuss, should make it obvious to everyone, that the real issue isn’t just about short term dollars and cents. It’s about how the market grows and develops, and which directions HBO prefers those markets to go.

Cable TV is a dying technology, just like the telegraph. Long past are the days where tech savvy consumers accept that they must purchase 250 channels of garbage to get the five they will watch. If a content provider refuses to let people buy their content ala carte, they will be forced to contend with piracy, and as an entity who is ignoring it’s customer base, rightfully so.

I am simply ashamed of you, someone in your position (where you have a soap box upon which to speak) should be advising the industry it into moving forward rather than scolding consumers who demand content providers change with the times.

Like many consumers, I cut cable years ago, but not to save money. Rather I repurposed that extra cash to buy faster Internet, and got a subscription or two to online content providers. If HBO would sell me their service streamed online for 10 bucks a month, then they would be among those who got paid. I’m not sure what percentage of the $15 premium surcharge that cable companies are billing actually goes to the content producers like HBO, but I’d wager it’s less than 66%.

Are you claiming that HBO has no financial analysts and that somehow they’ve just missed what hipster kids can see – that if they just sold their product for almost nothing, they’d make so much more money? Anyone making this argument has to explain how a large company like HBO somehow misses this, or concede the fact that HBO stays in business by operating in the way that makes it the most money – which then makes all their demands, well, whining. Enough people are willing to pay the price. If Game Of Thrones is HBO’s “killer app”, the content that makes the entire purchase price worthwhile, you would NEVER, EVER allow your killer app to show up on other platforms. Apple learned this when Jobs left and they explored licensing the OS. People pay the inflated hardware prices just to get the OS. Offer the OS separately and at least in the desktop arena hardware sales would plunge. If HBO offered you GoT for a few bucks, the same thing would happen. It’s not “blackmailing” – it’s business, just like platform exclusive titles drive game console sales.