Downloading

I have Apple TV, BBC iPlayer*and for a while there, I had Foxtel. That’s a lot of money to still not be able to get the shows I want to watch.

But the ABC is slowly trying to change that by offering the brand new season of Doctor Who on the iView player on Sunday September 8, just hours after it airs for the first time in the UK and a week before it will air on Aussie TV.

ABC1’s controller Brendan Dahill told me that the ABC decided to put Doctor Who online first to reduce piracy because it was clear that people downloading it was a sign that the ABC (and other providers) had not met consumer demand for the series. And he’s absolutely right.

Continue reading "Download content illegally and everybody loses" »

On Monday night, one of this year’s most talked-about shows aired on HBO in the US.

If you haven’t already guessed, I’m talking about The Newsroom – the latest drama from Aaron Sorkin, creator of The West Wing and The Social Network.

The show focuses on reputably private news anchor, Will McAvoy, who loses his mind on a university panel when the MC goads him into revealing his political allegiances, and the corporate restructure that follow his public meltdown.

Continue reading "We shouldn’t have to wait months for top US TV" »

“Illegal music downloading is like casual racism; widespread and inevitable. That doesn’t make it acceptable!” That was a frustrated exclamation from Sydney singer-song writer Josh Pyke during our recent interview.

It’s a notion that’s drummed into children from a young age by parents and teachers: “just because everyone’s doing it doesn’t make it right”.

Apparently millions of adult Australians have forgotten that advice, and as a result we’re not only breaking the law en masse, we’re cheating hard-working musicians out of deserved pay. As Pyke says, music piracy is similar to race-based bigotry; inherently wrong yet widely accepted.

Continue reading "Punch: Piracy on the High Cs is music’s greatest enemy" »

Digital Rights Management doesn’t work. DRM is a method of locking digital media so it can’t be shared. Except it fails. For every form of DRM employed, pirates instantly break it.

DRM only inconveniences honest, paying customers. For example, in the case of eBooks, a person might justifiably want to have their book on their PC and their tablet, but DRM can prevent that.

I regularly get Google Alerts about my books being mentioned online and many times it’s when they appear illegally on filesharing sites. For every download like that, it’s a drop of cash not going to keeping food on my table, right? Actually, probably not.

Continue reading "Counterpunch: I’m an author, take my stuff for free" »

Doubtless we’ve all seen that gritty urban anti-piracy ad that equates half-inching cars and televisions with illegally downloading movies on the internet.

The message, writ large is “DOWNLOADING PIRATED MOVIES IS STEALING, STEALING IS AGAINST THE LAW”. It’s a fair point, and surely one that only a klepto of the highest order would even attempt to argue with. You would think.

The last time I graced a cinema with my presence, for the umpteenth time my peepers were affronted with the Hollywood sign sized words “YOU WOULDN’T STEAL A CAR”.

Only this time something in me twigged. I instantly turned to my mate and blurted, “Yeah, but I would if I could download one”. And though I happily got the laughs I was after, the saddest part was, it was the truth.

Continue reading "You wouldn’t steal a car, but I would if I could download it" »