Piracy is good. Even for the bottom line.
Via Slashdot:
How Battlestar Galactica Killed TV: “Don Melanson writes ‘Following up on the MPAA going after torrent sites, you may be interested in Mindjack’s latest feature - Piracy is Good? How Battlestar Galactica Killed Broadcast TV by Mark Pesce. It includes a post-script written in reponse to the recent Torrent site shutdowns.’ From the article: ‘While you might assume the SciFi Channel saw a significant drop-off in viewership as a result of this piracy, it appears to have had the reverse effect: the series is so good that the few tens of thousands of people who watched downloaded versions told their friends to tune in on January 14th, and see for themselves. From its premiere, Battlestar Galactica has been the most popular program ever to air on the SciFi Channel, and its audiences have only grown throughout the first series. Piracy made it possible for ‘word-of-mouth’ to spread about Battlestar Galactica.’”
This is how it works, people. Just like when bands let people tape and freely trade their music. Ever heard of the Grateful Dead? Phish? Dave Matthews Band? All of them owe their success in part to embracing this sort open trade. They knew that the more people that heard their music the more people would like, and thus buy, their music.
The other part? Quality product. Yeah, that’s the hard part.
July 11th, 2005 at 11:24 pm
a couple of things here. the first is that i don’t care how many geeks agree, the new battlestar galactica sucks! it’s the worst show on tv and “joey” (from friends) has a better written script. that’s right…the show sucks! the second thing (not that you’re pushing something here klaus) is that swarming isn’t all that new and tons of other sites/software do it better, specifically e-donkey. the third thing is that the jury is still out on a few things. In many cases, files sharing seems to be akin to a viral marketing plan…the more people here it/see it they buy it…no harm no foul. the problem is that rock music sales are down an enormous percentage. you could equate this to the sub-par product of many of todays “rock” artists but that just doesn’t jive. when people that have the money can buy something legally they do but kids don’t care. and…kids are the number one buyer of rock music. they’re getting it for free and having fun with it. it’s unfortunate but it needs to be stopped.
November 16th, 2005 at 10:39 pm
a couple of things here. the first is that i don’t care how many geeks agree, the new battlestar galactica sucks! it’s the worst show on tv and “joey” (from friends) has a better written script
No actually it’s has great writting and acting. I’m sorry they didn’t revive that piece of crap from 1978, I don’t know when you little galactica nazi’s are going to grow up, but I hope it’s by your 40th birthday! Which I assume is soon!