HBO Fights Back Against Torrents
from the peeing-on-a-fire-won't-put-it-out dept
Cable network HBO is the latest entertainment company to actively try to stop file-sharing of its content, apparently "poisoning" BitTorrent downloads of episodes of its show Rome. Basically they are alleged to have put up BitTorrent peers that say they have entire episodes available for sharing, then just pass garbage instead of actual pieces of the file. The strategy appears to be ineffective as well as stupid, as most newer BitTorrent clients have features to defeat this type of attack. The demand for downloads of the show indicates there's a demand for it that's not being met by HBO's traditional distribution, but like other companies before, HBO doesn't appear to realize it. Other TV networks are beginning to experiment with making shows available online, illustrating that the right reponse is figuring out a way to monetize downloading, not trying to stop it.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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As an HBO subscriber...
If the networks don't catch on, Internet based shows will take over in the future.
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HBO
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No Subject Given
Secondly, HBO on demand sucks. You have to pay more for it and you can only watch certain episodes that they have available. If you miss them then you're screwed. Since I have a DVR I can record any shows I want and save them indefinitely so I don't see the point in HBO on demand.
Thirdly, people claim that HBO should provide downloads online but has anyone put any thought in to how they would go about this? HBO is a premium channel that is sold by your cable company. HBO has no idea who you are and how to identify you online. Unless they let just anybody download their episodes (dumb idea) it wouldn't work without drasticly changing how they deal with the cable companies or they could simply charge a fee to everyone to view the episodes but that hardly seems fair to HBO subscribers.
Finally, it's easy to say a company should do this and do that but it's hard to actually follow through with most of these ideas. There is no stopping piracy but making piracy free-for-all with no possible legal implications would make it worse.
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Re: No Subject Given
I have a DVR. But as I said earlier, I have a difficult time actually finding time to sit in the den and watch television there.
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I can think of one (albeit mildly complex) solution in which HBO passes a few username/subscriptions to the cable companies to be passed on to thier customers when they sign up for HBO.
How about another scenario in which the same user/pass you use for your cable service (most have this for thier website, email, or other 'digital' features) are used for the HBO site?
Integrating this information isn't fracking rocket science, and is much more productive than trying to prevent file sharing. PROVED TIME AND TIME AGAIN THAT THAT DOESN'T WORK. If I may rant for a second on the topic, what do companies like HBO expect to gain from activities like this? Will the file sharers stop dead in thier tracks: "Damn! Foiled again! Guess I'll go spend $50 for the season boxed set.". Suddenly, file sharing is over, and the world is at peace again - at least online ...
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It Can and It Should
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Re: No Subject Given
It''s pretty easy, your bill has your customer # they just make when signing up have you require to entire a valid customer # & phone # you use for your cable. Sirius has the same kind of thing to listen online when not in your car.
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Its simple
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Re: Its simple
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Arrr Pirates
Hi, my name is Rik. I download Lost and Smallville illegally because my monitor is 21" and my tv is 13".
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Horrible Box Office
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HBO BLOWS!!
just out of boredom ive watched irobot a million times, harry potter quite a few times.
I cant think of any other stupid ass shows right now, although im sure if i looked now it would be shit..oh i guess i will...Robots, Contantine, a cinderella story (i tihnk thats wut it was called), and Six Feet Under, all shit shit shit shit shit, and ive had 1000 oppourtunities to watch them already. oh and some shitty show called cathouse
When they have new good stuff (rarely) it either doesnt last long at all or is on constantly.
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I would be interested in getting the shows a day sooner and would pay for it, but only if it were about 99 cents a show. More than that and it's not worth it to me.
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The term to describe this is "ala carte"
But cable is deathly afraid to offer this because they know that's exactly what people would do - only buy the couple "good" things that are on.
When you lobby your cable company or congressman or whoever for better service and prices - tell them what you want is "ala carte" service.
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Bittorrent
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Re: Bittorrent
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