At first this article reads like your typical anti-piracy screed. It rants about how 10x more people watched GoT illegally (confusing them with lost sales) and ends with how downloading movies can get your credit card stolen.

The middle of the article however, destroys the author’s case.

Time Warner (owning company of HBO) CEO Alan Bewkes stated in 2013 how becoming the most illegally streamed show in history was “better than an Emmy” and that torrenting ultimately led to more paid subscriptions.

“We’ve been dealing with this for 20, 30 years—people sharing subs, running wires down the backs of apartment buildings. Our experience is that it leads to more paying subs. I think you’re right that Game of Thrones is the most pirated show in the world and that’s better than an Emmy.”

The CEO of Time Warner, who knows more about the finances of his own show than ForeverGeek writer Tom Llewellyn, championed piracy and said that it brought them more subscribers rather than nearly destroying the show as the article claims.

Needless to say, Tom forwent a rebuttal in favor of writing how you can get malware from downloading it…

Anti-Piracy Propaganda: 0 Truth: 1

    • illumrial@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It was supposed to be Star Wars but they messed up GoT so badly they lost the Star Wars bid.

      • yoichi@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        I believe they’re doing 3 Body Problem next, another adaptation but for a Chinese sci-fi this time

          • MrSlacker123@reddthat.com
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            1 year ago

            Highly recommend it, finished it earlier this year and have been blown away by how much I enjoyed the series

          • ikidd@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Its such handwaving bullshit, I wanted my money back at the end of the book.

            • 雨 月@feddit.de
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              1 year ago

              You are aware that we are in a piracy group here, right? We don´t want our money back. Because we didn´t pay for it in the first place!

              • Osayidan@social.vmdk.ca
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                1 year ago

                Sometimes I pirate something that is so terrible that I still feel I’m owed compensation for the time I wasted watching it and the bandwidth I used to download it.

        • LEX@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Man, that is a very influential and popular series. They better not fuck it up!