Download and support

I was recently reading through one of my favourite forums and there was a thread on download tv shows and whether you would pay for the same show if it was made available on iTunes. This response got me a bit hot under the collar:

why pay for it when i can download it for free

I know this is would have been written very much tounge in cheeck, I know I should resist a response to it, I know it isn’t meant seriously, but too many similar comments ARE meant seriously.

So I responded on the thread and thought I should respond here as well.

Why should I pay when I can download for free? How about because somebody has gone to the time, effort, trouble and expense of making it - surely the company making the investment should be due some return?

My personal policy RE downloading stuff is that - if I can BUY it I will, if not then it’s ok to download but if they start selling it then I’ll go and buy it as well.

If everyone took the attitude, why pay when I can get it for free, nothing would ever be made or what was made would be crap because the broadcaster wouldn’t get the budget to make it happen.

If everyone says - I won’t watch it live or I won’t pay to download it because I’ll be able to get it free then the money won’t be there to make it, it won’t get made and you won’t be able to download it.

Personally I think we should all be supporting broadcasters that take the leap and put content online to buy and that’s regardless of DRM - it’s an evil most broadcasters don’t have a choice over.

I don’t like DRM but I do understand why TV companies feel the need to put it on episodes - there are more rights than just the initial broadcast ones you see on the surface.

I don’t agree with DRM on music though.

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