[smoody]

"Blocking TV Devices Promotes The Piracy You Hate"

That's like saying the high price of Porsches promotes car jacking. People are pro-theft or anti-theft. I'll never download copyrighted content without permission. It doesn't matter what anyone does. Having the Simpsons is a privilege, not a right.

It wasn't that long ago that shows would air once and never be seen again (as far as audiences knew at the time) and I don't remember people rioting or breaking into studios to steal the original tapes because shows only aired a single time.

When you steal copyrighted content, that's exactly what you're doing, even if you aren't busting down physical doors and rummaging through physical storage rooms.

Just my two cents.

[thebooktocome]

Ah, the "You wouldn't download a car" argument.

The analogy is horrifically broken, because while it takes a non-trivial amount of effort to copy a Porsche (not 'steal' it, because piracy doesn't destroy the original -- but you knew that, right?) it takes a trivial amount of effort to copy digital media.

[aaronmoodie]

"Having the Simpsons is a privilege, not a right"

A $120+ a month privilege? If I was paying that much for TV, I'd be expecting to watch what I want when I want.

[prof_hobart]

>It wasn't that long ago that shows would air once and never be seen again

And it wasn't that long ago that no-one paid £120/month+ for their TV.

>I don't remember people rioting or breaking into studios to steal the original tapes because shows only aired a single time.

Firstly, can you not tell the difference between taking physical objects from someone thus depriving them of that object, and making a digital copy of an object that doesn't deprive anyone of anything? How is Rupert Murdoch worse off by someone downloading last week's episode from a torrent site than he would have been if they'd gone onto the official website and watched it there?

Secondly, I'm pretty sure there was a fairly large amount of video lending/copying back in the day - obviously far less than today's copying, but it was a hell of a lot less convenient to do it back then than it is now.