[tomjen3]

Arrogant nationalist. Not everyone is American and and for that reason gets screwed from everything from current tv (yeah I like to see shows 3 years after they were current) to innovative things like netflix, hulu and even iTunes tv show store.

[xsmasher]

It will probably come to DVD or be distributed on another channel in your country. If not, it still doesn't grant you a moral or legal right to the content.

If you pirate instead of paying then you make distributing to your country unprofitable; that sounds like the opposite effect from what you want.

[babebridou]

Who says anything about paying/not paying? The point is, if you're waiting for an official distribution outside of the US, 99% of the fan websites become complete spoilers.

You can't be a dedicated fan of a US show outside the US and thoroughly enjoy it without pirating it first (...and then, buy the DVD). The only other option is to only watch DVDs and never talk with anyone online about the show, for fear of spoilers.

Didn't they learn anything from the Phantom Menace fiasco? The movie was the first highly and universally anticipated movie since highspeed internet became available. It was released 5 months later in France. It was a total fiasco. Instant surge of piracy, a specific screener became widespread and the only way for Star Wars fan to "survive" a five-months online lockout from their passion. This event was the origin of worldwide releases of blockbusters by movie studios, and the reason why movies nowadays get translated/localized before they are released in their own countries.

[xsmasher]

"Spoilers" or inconvenience don't give you a right to the content either.

The studio has to weigh the benefits of a worldwide launch (possibly reduced piracy?) against the benefits of a staggered launch (ability to pay for and schedule proper promotion, localization, and advertising in each market.) Sometimes the studio makes the wrong choice, ether the wrong economic one or the one you don't like, but that's their prerogative.

Meta: I'm surprised be the amount of piracy entitlement on HN, which I expect has more content creators than the average net audience.

[babebridou]

When a particular product hits home, people feel robbed for not being able to buy it on the spot for any reason, especially when shipping and manufacturing costs are close to zero. Indeed, it really is the other way around, and it will never be otherwise, but it doesn't change the fact that some of your paying customers will be dissatisfied by your service to the point that they will take action to bypass your own faulty distribution channel, and they will even pay to be able to do that.

Heck, let's drop the masks, the majority of your paying customers even bought their very first computer just to be able to do that over the past decade.

I'm not advocating piracy, I'm explaining why it exists in the first place. When the pirated product is available immediately instead of months/years later, and with better features than the legit one, it's foolish to expect even paying fans not to pirate things nor look into piracy as a distribution channel. This is a challenge that content distributors need to deal with, one way or another.

Saying that people shouldn't pirate digital goods because it's illegal is all nice and well, but is this even enforceable? It's my own humble belief that it's not, not with the current state of the art, and that yelling at piracy is like yelling at windmills. Just deal with it and improve your product distribution in every possible way so that piracy is not exactly a better option.

It works, Apple proved it, Steam proved it.

[timknauf]

I'm surprised at the piracy entitlement too, and as a content creator, I don't condone it myself. But please understand that this kind of situation - new Arrested Development only available to US citizens - is incredibly frustrating for the rest of us precisely because we, as HNers, know there's zero technical reason why we couldn't be paying for and watching Netflix from anywhere in the internet connected world.

[chc]

Interesting that you bring up morality. A lot of people don't actually have a moral problem with free viewing of something that isn't offered for pay in the first place. There may or may not be a legal problem with this depending on your jurisdiction, but morality is precisely the area where these people gain their justification.

This is similar to the popular treatment of abandonware.

[xsmasher]

I mentioned morality because I believe it trumps bad law - I have no moral issue with DVD ripping for personal use, or with region-free DVD players to circumvent region restrictions. Or with using proxies to access Netflix from outside the US, for that matter.

[tomjen3]

That's just a silly excuse. You can't see netflix over a proxy because you need a us credit card.

[xsmasher]

I'm not making excuses for Netflix - whose is, after all, financing more episodes of a show fans love. I'm sticking up for the copyright holder who is, after all, making more episodes of a show fans love and getting flack for not getting an international distribution deal set up fast enough.

[tomjen3]

If they aren't willing to sell it to me, they can't lose any money if I get it elsewhere.

But that's the error they will never realize because they are so used to think of the world in old terms.