Usually I'm also one of those guys, who never download illegal things. I buy CD's and DVD's and BluRay's. I spend about 150 Euros per month for such stuff. Heck, I even bought HD-DVD's!
I'm even willing to pay the ridiculous prices of today, as long as I categorize it "worth owning". Because I much rather have an original in my shelf, than some cheap copy on my hard drive or a DJ case full of DVD-R's.
But what if you want something and simply cannot optain it in any other way, than downloading it from the internet? Am I really harming the makers's profits, if I "steal" something that couldn't be bought in the first place?
Because that is the case with Top Gear. I would love to buy the episodes as season boxes (given that they contain the original music, are uncut and uncensored).
I would even buy them, if Top Gear was aired here! You are airing in f*cking Korea but not in the country with the leading car industry in the world? How stupid is that?
As soon as the Polar Special was available on BluRay, I bought it of course -- from Amazon.uk, that is. That's a hint. Mr. Clarkson should be thankful for guys like me.
I'm quite sure that many here love Top Gear so much, they would cheerfully pay for buying the stuff, rather than downloading torrents.
The BBC or the TG producers seems to be completely ignorant about their potential profits with their franchise...
The whining of those who make and release music, movies and TV programs really starts getting on my nerves. I wanna yell at them: "We are in the 21st century, so start thinking in the terms of the 21st century -- both for art and business issues -- and stop continuing to think in terms of the 1970's! The money is still out there -- only you
fail in obtaining it!"
The internet is only a monster for those who are too uninterested to grapple with it.
How's that for a column?