Chris Ihnatko

This is akin to saying that the internet is broken because some videos are prefaced by a commercial. Or HN is broken because some of the front-page are hiring ads for YC companies. I use a PVR for all of my "TV" needs (I have two large wall-mounted screens. They are great entertainment devices. I only mention that for consistency with those proudly informing that they only old some small CRT in the corner somewhere). When I get around to watching it has all of the episodes of the shows I care about. Many of them come from ShowTime, HBO, PBS or the Movie Network, having no commercials. Of course I explicitly pay for those channels individually, well outside of PBS. Other channels have a different business model, but strangely neither my children, my wife or I have any mental issue with it -- it's just the way it is. Nor do I have an issue when a play has an intermission, even though really I'd just like them to keep playing through. In some ways this reminds me a bit of this submission from the other day - http://ihnatko.com/2012/02/20/heavy-hangs-the-bandwidth-that-torrents-…

Andy Ihnatko has a good take on the whole stupid event. http://ihnatko.com/2015/09/16/im-achmed-except-im-not-brown/ "... But they’re happy stories mostly because I was a white Catholic kid named Andy Ihnatko. Not a brown kid named Ahmed Mohamed, and not a black kid named anything."

I found this through Andy Ihnatko (http://ihnatko.com/2013/02/23/three-pipe-problem-alteration-and-invent… who ties it in part to the (software) patent problem.

Some folks are willing to pay for exactly what they want, but they're not willing to pay an additional amount to get content they don't care about. You have the option of buying the DVDs or through iTunes. Using your analogy, they can buy the entire album or a single track. If a band played some new songs at a concert, you'd have to wait until they made it on an album...unless someone records them and releases them for free. Andy Ihnatko nails it: http://ihnatko.com/2012/02/20/heavy-hangs-the-bandwidth-that-torrents-…

Andy Ihnatko about Oatmeal about difficulty of watching Game of Thrones: http://ihnatko.com/2012/02/20/heavy-hangs-the-bandwidth-that-torrents-…

Similar functionality already exists in OS X, in case anyone is curious: http://ihnatko.com/2011/07/22/making-desktop-webapps-in-lion/

"Aussies have to wait an additional week to view episodes of the show. Little surprise then that they turned to BitTorrent in droves..." I think this says a lot about how the internet has changed society. Waiting one week is not a big deal. There used to big release gaps between countries when movies were released in the cinema. Sure it sucked but life went on. I know that many people don't think piracy constitutes theft (although it sounds like these people would have paid, so it is a lost sale), but having to wait one week should not be justification for pirating content. A lot of money is put into making a show like Game Of Thrones. The £1.89 iTunes charges per episode would not be enough to cover the budget and I believe that's why this staggered roll out happens (deals with TV companies are more lucrative). If the episodes were priced higher (say £4.99) but released immediately I don't think very many people would pay. The internet seems to be fostering an attitude of "We want it now, and we want it free or very cheap". I think it's going to be very hard to ever find that sweet spot where people are happy with what the content company can viably offer, and they won't pirate. Edit: I think this article explains my first point well. http://ihnatko.com/2012/02/20/heavy-hangs-the-bandwidth-that-torrents-…