Buying The DVD: Unhelpful And Unethical
Written by J.J. King on February 21, 2008These last few years P2Pers have got used to TV entertainment ‘our way’: unfucked, de-loused, delivered efficiently in economical, good-looking codecs. Because we rarely turn it on, it’s been easy to forget just how cynical, unsatisfying and downright venal television, as a distribution medium, has become.
Whether it’s the stupor-inducing gambling channels dedicated to parting fools from their money, the late-night pseudo-porn selling premium-rate phone sex, or the corrupt ‘competition’ call-ins plaguing the UK’s prime-time (even that Holy of Holies, the BBC), there’s the unavoidable sense that TV is on the rocks. Anyone who’d have you believe filesharers are the only scourge afflicting an industry that would otherwise be healthy is smoking crack, in the business, or both.
This is why Tape It Off The Internet seemed like such a good idea until you actually started trying to use it. There are just not enough good shows being made to justify something as complicated and involved as TIOTI. Enter all your favorites and share them with strangers ‘just like you’ and discover… what? That there are only seven good shows in the world at any one time, you were already watching six of them, and they’re all in the Pirate Bay’s Top 100 anyway. When you strip away the hours of dross and advertising, the truth is that the world’s mighty entertainment infrastructure is only capable of producing half a dozen hours of passable content a week. Maybe it’s because they spend the rest of their time on lawsuits.
One of these rare hours is The Wire. If by some small chance you’re not mainlining it already, think yourself lucky. You have four back seasons to enjoy, of what is quite possibly the last great show television will produce before it’s entirely superseded by — well, by whatever is coming around the way.
I’m not sure anyone has ever attempted to make a show of this scope: The Wire’s by-all-accounts-not-very-nice creator David Simon (Homicide, The Corner) has said his theme over the series’ five years has been ‘the decline of the American empire’ — which means decay of its cities through poverty, of traditional jobs, of the education system, of the police force and of the media. For those getting restless at the back, the show’s also got the slickest, nastiest drug slingers you’ll see on screen and is so realistic that the Baltimore Police have apparently complained it reveals too much about how crimes are — or are not — solved; apparently real thugs love it as well.
Find it and download it — though probably David Simon doesn’t want you to and neither does HBO, which has been actively poisoning Torrents of its other shows. Tell everyone you know about it. Maybe those of them still rocking TVs will raise the show’s increasingly dismal viewing figures.
Or maybe that’s no longer the point. While I sympathise with the plight of the David Simons, David Milchs (Deadwood, John from Cincinnati) and Joss Whedons (Firefly) of this world, and would like to help them in future endeavors, I specifically do not sympathise with the plights of the craven, dim-witted, played-out producers that surround them on all sides. And by ‘playing fair’ and buying the DVD or the cable package, besides the fact that most of our money is not going to the creators and their families, aren’t we really saying we accept the meshwork of shit in order to get the two or three gems that occasionally sift through it? Aren’t we signalling the industry that there’s something we still find acceptable about their way of doing business?
Now I suppose this could seem a bit extreme to some. But again and again in blogs and comments about shows like The Wire you hear ‘I’d pay for this if…’ — if it wasn’t DRM’ed all to hell like HBO’s own online offering, if it was freely shareable, good to be watched whenever, wherever, on whatever, without constant interruption by adverts. The kicker is that we’re not only unable legally to liberate and re-distribute shows from the broken, corrupt mechanisms of television and DVD distribution: we also have no way of supporting creators like David Simon and crew outside of it.
This means that right now, people still stupid or unfortunate enough to sit in front of TVs watching months-old shows or paying massive cash-or-attention premiums for the new ones are heavily subsidising us P2Pers. This is genuinely immoral, because we’re really exploiting people less fortunate than ourselves. Instead, we should be helping them out of the wasteland, and thinking of new ways to get the creators we like creating outside the prison of mass distribution. It cannot be that we are able to figure out how to make GNU-Linux - a world-class operating system — together, but not to make a dozen decent shows a year.
The irony is that TV series really feel like they’re coming into their own, just as the media that spawned them is dying. From the ‘high art’ of Deadwood and John From Cincinnati to the epic modern-day myth of Lost to the (dare I call it) Beckettian dark comedy of Trailer Park Boys, the drawn out tales of our series (often consumed a ’season’ at a time: I know at least three people waiting for The Wire to finish before downloading it) are an undeniable core of our emerging P2P culture.
We are the most passionate viewers ever, talking and writing profusely about the media we love, analysing, promoting, hosting free screenings… And they need us as much as we need them — all of these shows, without exception, enjoy their primary life on the networks, through our blogs, comments, reviews, remixes and fan fiction. Lost in particular has learned that incorporating online feedback can make a great (if utterly Shaggy Dog) story.
Can we find a way to get the shows we want made without buying the goddamn DVD? I remember this guy talking really sensibly a couple years ago about how Joss Whedon could get to make another season of Firefly, and we got this project back up his musings. Why didn’t Whedon try it? Because someone else owned his ideas? Perhaps it could have worked otherwise, and maybe it could work for the future. If you’ve got ideas, throw them in the comments box below. And if you have time in between catching up on The Wire, read this by the venerable guru of Wired magazine, Kevin Kelly — I’m going to try to get him into the next installment of STEAL THIS FILM. See you around. I’ll be back in two weeks to pick up the pieces.
TorrentFreak welcomes Jamie King as our new bi-weekly columnist. Jamie is the Director of STEAL THIS FILM I & II and a member of the League of Noble Peers. He is currently working on a cinema release of STEAL THIS FILM and prototyping an experimental, post-P2P remuneration system for creators.
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we need some dvds…. or where would we get the material for DVDRips?
I gave up on television when X-Files went off the air. I stick to movies now.
why did you remind me of firefly?! I’m sad all over again!
“Blargh blargh TV is shit
WATCH THE WIRE WATCH THE WIRE WATCH THE WIRE
Blargh blargh DVDs are a ripoff.”
Gee, that was an insightful article! Way to go, torrentfreak!
I think torrentfreak needs to un-welcome Jamie King until he gets his head out of his arse and writes some open-minded articles that make a bit of sense.
Most TV and DVD’s are absolutely worthless. I watched “A Beautiful mind” yesterday. Which was “inspired by the events” of John Nash’s life. According to wikipedia there are quite a few glaring historical inaccuracies. Now if they are going to misrepresent the the historical events in John Nash’s life so much then what right have the got to use this man’s name in the movie?
Hollywood should stop trying to rewrite history and manipulate peoples conception of reality.
horrible written article . too much emotional than fact .
I agree,but if you think that people in the UK or US have crap on their tv think agian.Overhere in Holland we are “proud” to have the worst tv system in the world.
There is a public system which brings you nothing but “talking heads” and religion.It’s a total waste of time, money and effort.Watching paint dry is more entertaining. There are also the commercial channels and they are the real stinkers.They really don’t give a shit what they’re putting on,reallity-tv like idols,dancing stars,cooking with stars,walking the dog with stars,and so on,movies
like beverely-hills cop prt. 1(was on more then 15 times, and cops chasing crooks.
If you want so see if tv makes people dumb, take a look at my country.
In total in an average week with ten channels there is no more then one hour a week watchable televion(the simpsons).
If anyone wanders why I got more than 400 TB (downstream) traffic a year just read the above.
cheers,
-the Queef-
I don’t know how it works in the UK, but “The Wire” specifically is distributed by HBO, which is a channel you pay to see. Every episode of The Wire is aired free of adverts, which is why I always felt HBO was worth the extra ten bucks. Same goes for Weeds and Californication (Showtime, the Pepsi of Premium TV). Besides DVD sales (and itunes, i guess), this is the ONLY way those creators make any money. It’s why HBO and Showtime can only support a couple of good shows at a time. I agree that the networks are circling the bowl worse than ever, but you’re not doing any favors to the guys who work on these shows by downloading them. Of course it’s all relative.
welcome J.J. King, great article
get your feet under the desk
now tackle some of the real issues
I don’t know if my words will get the rings about this article, it was a good read and I enjoyed it, for me in Kuwait it was harded to get showes like Deadwood and Heroes, most of us learned about a lot of shows by downloading via P2P or reading classic articles like these around the internet or some blogs of fans who devoted a full website for a show from here to there, we’ve seen how a show like Jericho got saved because some fans couldn’t stop supporting it and sent a big amount of Peanuts to ABC to keep it up and coming.
in anyhow talking too much doesn’t help specialy with my poor english, still I’d love to know about hit shows in the air nowadays so I could follow up about it all, because its never will be knowen if not for those who these big suits tring to hunt and stop! its P2P that made most shows so famous specialy Prison Break which is here is followed by a lot even they don’t watch that much of tv.
thanks and good luck in next articles..
I strongly object to the bozo who referred to ‘Top Gear’ as quality output from the BBC.
For those who don’t watch programme, it is literally a bunch of public schoolboy types being paid a million pounds ($2m) a year of public money a year to drive new cars around. Thats it!
They (the BBC) then have the balls to sell this programme on DVD and people buy it!
When I move out of my current apartment I will leave the tv here and will never even think about buying a new one! I’ve spent the last year downloading every decent show ever made and have enough to last me a lifetime - thanks Bit Torrent.
PEACE!
damn, I was going to comment on your perceptive and accurate description of p2p vs tv/dvd. Then I realised that you were involved with ‘Steal this film N’ : were N is a real number. Steal this film 2 is superb.
You are so right, ads on tv are insidious, pernicious and weapons grade. Even the BBC goes ott with their in house promo-rubbish. p2p just makes for a better quality of life.
I love the wire, like lost, and think ‘the shield’ is great. All other TV i left behind since I lost interest in voyager and got affected by the incessant attempts at manipulating my wants and opinions. Fucking marketing/branding/pr publicity assholes spoilt it for me and I recon are fubar the world with their twisted aims and means.
p2p’s renumeration problem will be partly solved when ppl realize the potential of the internet. Once they see the possibilities of unlimited and customized access I’m sure they will be happy to pay for it in a new way too. Like most of the developed world does for health care, transport infrastructure, education and defense; to name but a few. The problem then becomes (re)distirbution, but that is what democracies are for no ?
[quote comment="296112"]“Blargh blargh TV is shit
WATCH THE WIRE WATCH THE WIRE WATCH THE WIRE
Blargh blargh DVDs are a ripoff.”
Gee, that was an insightful article! Way to go, torrentfreak![/quote]
[quote comment="296113"]I think torrentfreak needs to un-welcome Jamie King until he gets his head out of his arse and writes some open-minded articles that make a bit of sense.[/quote]
If you don’t like the article, then what are you doing here? Go watch your cable and don’t forget to buy some DVDs after that.
The way I see it, there are some people who enjoy being fucked in the ass by media industry so much that they’re paying for it on a regular basis. And you’re one of them.
Who wrote this? Jamie King? While I agree with the tone and message, it was written horribly. Keep directing ‘documentaries,’ don’t write columns, sir. The grammar, demeanor, and language of this column is sure to poison Torrent Freak’s reputation as a decent source of news.
More articles will ruin the esteem of this site and make it harder to be taken seriously by the bureaucrats you so hope to convince.
[quote comment="297657"]The grammar, demeanor, and language of this column [/quote]
Who cares about grammar in the news? As for the language - it’s actually good that for once here is an author who doesn’t use slang in every other line. Remember that TF is an international resource and not people are native English speakers. (For example I’m not.)
[quote comment="297657"]make it harder to be taken seriously by the bureaucrats you so hope to convince[/quote]
Convince? Newsflash for you: we’re in war with them.
Besides are really dumb enough to seriously think that *any* news column could convince bureaucrats of anything? This makes me laugh. Stop watching TV, pal, it has turned your brain into a mess.
In this world it takes either cash or guns to be convincing. And our opponents got all the money, which kinda narrows it down.
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Perfectsea.com will change the way people looking for the job.
I would love to pay the creators of the stuff I download. Just don’t want to end up paying for packaging, shipping, advertising, and all that whatnot.
[quote comment="295468"]What of bunch of nonsense. The reality is that no matter how easy the entertainment companies made it for us (no DRM, cross-compatibility, etc), as long as it isn’t free, most people will get it illegally from TPB etc. It’s because we’re thieves, and all this self-righteous rambling is just smoke and mirrors.[/quote]
You sound like you have a sudden case of self-guilt. Read “RIAA confederate/crony/thug/obsessive”
If you’re really that brainwashed by propaganda you can believe it, but not the rest of us.
I wouldn’t buy them no matter how cheap they were, because YOU’RE all thieves and i don’t support criminal orgs. I’d rather pay the pirates who are non-profit.
Which reminds me, because of your comment I’m off to download another 50 or 60 album discography. The DVD should make a nice gift for somebody, and I’ll have to sell a few copies as well to recoup losses and make a buck. When you start selling things like that at a decent price I may consider it, but like that would ever happen,hahaaa
If the moguls put as much effort into finding the big paying advertisering partners and working with BT instead of against it, they could harness more profit from the audience that never has and prob never will purchase HBO.
Nobody wants the low res clip crap that media companies seem to think is internet distribution. When it is clearly an attempt to keep people watching TV from a TV provider.
Embrace BT or be left behind and forgot!!!
this is a really good article.
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