TwitchBlog: The only way to stop internet TV piracy - give the shows away

El Beeb has been fussing over the topic of piracy of TV shows over the Internet. "Ohh woe is me," says the TV industry, "for how can I make money with ad-free pirated versions of shows going online mere minutes after broadcast ?"

How indeed. It seems that everyone and their cat is loading up torrents of their favourite shows, from geek fests like Battlestar Galactica to general audience pleasers like Desperate Housewives. Lost gets hit up an estimated one million times an episode, which is plenty of eyeballs not glued to their TV’s.

The sad fact is that the TV industry can do pretty much nothing to stop this, given their current thinking. Increasingly, networks are offering up their shows for download shortly after release, but most, if not all, of those who would previously have said they only download to allow for more convenient scheduling will not be buying these episodes through legitimate channels. The sad fact is that people are stingy, and if you’re offered something for nothing without having to physically walk out of a shop with it under your jacket then you’ll take it.

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