Your view on media piracy. How strongly are you against it?

[davidpdx]

61. Being outside the US I have a different take on piracy

When I first got to Korea I bought a DVD player and all 7 seasons of the West Wing as I never had anything to watch. They do show some programs on networks, but the offering is limited and the times are all over the place.

One of the problems is that almost all content is blocked from outside the US. That means unless a local television station is broadcasting your show, you are just shit out of luck. Even when they do, it's about season behind (sometimes more). In my opinion this just encourages pirating. Shows that are popular are going to be followed in many different countries. On Facebook I see people talking about US shows all over the world. Limitations on the content is a limitation on how it can be obtained legally.

Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu are all inaccessible outside the US. 95% of the networks are inaccessible (Comedy Central is one of the few exceptions, but we'll see how long that lasts. There probably are a few other minor networks that can be viewed online).

I don't listen to music or play games.

That leaves television shows, movies, and books. The television shows have made their money from advertisers in which commercials run about 9 minutes for a 1/2 show and 18 minutes for a 1 hour show. I feel very little pity toward the movie companies these days that charge upwards of $10 a ticket for a movie.

Again I have to be very lucky if the movie actually comes here, I see that it's playing, and catch it in the week or two it runs in the theater (generally they don't run long unless it's a very popular movie). Of the three books are the ones I have a twinge of guilt on. Those I generally can get from an overseas shipper, though it does take as long as three weeks.

My solution is find a way people outside the US can purchase content legally at a fair cost. I don't think any of the networks or movie companies want that.