harryh

Help! I’m Being Forced To Pirate Game Of Thrones Against My Will! | PandoDaily

I’d gladly pay for it. Just I don’t want to pay for it. Gah. Come on. 

Pay or wait. It’s not that hard. Or go to a friend’s house. If you’d gladly pay for it, you would. Your hand is not being forced, you are being given consumption choices. Why is it their job to give you exactly the choice you want, exactly, when others are perfectly happy to pay a higher price for that? It’s like saying I should get a BMW for free because I want it for free. I’d pay for it, but I wouldn’t pay $50k for it. Well, other people will, and they are setting the price, not you. 

It’s not even a particularly bad deal. I pay $110 a month for ridiculously fast internet, HBO, a phone and hundreds of other awesome channels. It’s a great deal. Shit, it’s cheaper than my entire internet connection just 4 years ago, and three times as fast. Effectively I am getting HBO for free. 

Just because the internet made it so we can get some articles for free online without subscribing doesn’t mean every other bundled thing in the world will or should unbundle. Republicans are still going to have to pay taxes that go to health care and I’m still going to have to pay taxes that go to the military. I still can’t buy a single chapter of a book, and that is fine. You still can’t buy a Mac without RAM. You can’t buy a home without insurance. 

Even ignoring the cost, you’re not paying an absurd amount to see a show. You’re paying an absurd amount to see a show now, to be first, to see it as it airs, to be a part of the cultural conversation. You don’t have to. You can wait. It’s like paying $10 to see a movie in the theater. It’s more than you’ll have to pay to see it later on a plane or on Netflix. You paid to see it sooner. 

I don’t pretend to know the economics of HBO’s business. I don’t know if the cable companies are subsidizing part of my HBO payment. I don’t know if HBO would get its ass handed to it by the cable companies offered it to me a la carte. I assume they would. But even if they offered it a la carte, I wouldn’t turn off my awesome bundle with all these other awesome movie channels, on demand, and my rockin’ internet. I’d keep the bundle. The only complaint I had before was that I couldn’t watch the shows when I wanted, where I wanted. That has been obviated by HBO Go (except where the cable companies won’t let them do it, but, again, that’s not entirely their fault). 

This whole argument is based on “hollywood” being dumb and not understanding why people pirate. I don’t think it applies to HBO. HBO has record profits right now. Piracy isn’t hurting them. Plenty of people are able to pay. It’s adding subscribers. I wouldn’t change a thing if I were them. What would it do to their revenue to let anyone buy any show for $40 when it came out? How many people would do that vs. now, when they pay for a monthly subscription? Does anyone really think their profits would go up?

(via rickwebb)

THANK YOU RICK.

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Start the New Year Fresh! « Flickr Blog

Good. (It’s always hard to blog about your old companies. Like picking at scabs.) Curious to see what Flickr IS going to focus on.

I’ve loved Flickr since back in the day and have been saddened by the lack of innovation in the product so I’m happy to hear that there’s someone at Yahoo! that still wants to make it a better. Also, hooray for focus.

(via arainert)

I am skeptical. Someone needs to buy Flickr and save it. 

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FTFY: SomeoneRick Webb needs to buy Flickr and save it

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