
Doctor Who goes back in time to beat TV pirates - iProject
http://paidcontent.org/2012/08/29/doctor-who-goes-back-in-time-to-beat-tv-pirates/
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dazzawazza
It's good to see both the BBC and ABC being level headed about this.

Serving your paying customers and enticing pirates towards being paying
customers is how ALL rights holders should behave.

It's been all stick and no carrot for so long.

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kierank
ABC wouldn't be able to do this if they were not a public broadcaster.
Advertisers would be furious.

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dazzawazza
Couldn't they just ran the adverts in the stream?

Both ITV 1/2/3/4 (UK advert supported channels) and Channel 4 (public remit
but supported by adverts) advertise before, during and after the stream. I
don't know if they are regulated but the frequency and length of adverts it
seem about the same as the broadcast.

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ajtaylor
Finally, someone gets it! Some people will always pirate, but I honestly
believe a lot of people would rather use legal means (even if they pay a
reasonable amount). It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

I can only hope that more TV shows come to Australia this way. The whole
"let's broadcast the show in AU after the season already ended in the US" is
such a huge pain and most definitely encourages piracy.

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RossM
The only real reason I have for considering pirating something is that "it
isn't available in my country for months after it's aired elsewhere", so this
is great news.

Why on earth should I wait months before I can see it? I'm sure there's a
reason advertisers do this but I don't see it.

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paulhauggis
I want a lot of things, but sometimes I just have to wait. I feel like piracy
has spawned an entire generation that feels the same way you do: entitled.

I sell books as a side-business and I see it with college students especially.
They demand things to be exactly their way or they threaten to complain or
send me nasty emails.

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chc
I feel like copyright has spawned an entire generation that feels even more
entitled than the pirates. Our copyrights are an allowance from society
because people feel it is to their benefit to do us a small favor. They are
not handed down to me from the Almighty because I'm so awesome for having
banged together a Ruby stick and a C stick.

If we want to talk about natural rights, demanding that somebody not view my
work until a week later than somebody else just because I feel like making
them wait is some of the most absurd entitlement I've ever heard of. Can you
imagine a painter standing outside an art gallery stopping Australians from
entering? What would you think of that guy?

(This isn't meant as a "Up wit da piratez" screed or whatever. I'm just
saying, the more control we exert through our copyrights, the less right I
feel we have to call anybody else entitled, because the things we can force
people to do through copyright are just ridiculously audacious from a
perspective of natural rights.)

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betterth
This seems ridiculous... BBC America is airing this seasons opener on the same
day as BBC1 in the UK! ([http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/doctor-who-
to-retu...](http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/doctor-who-to-return-to-
bbc-america-on-september-1))

So why do we have convoluted workarounds in Australia if another ex-colony
gets it fine?

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mooism2
Time zones.

BBC America can show it on the same day as BBC1, and it's a few hours later.

If ABC was to show it on the same day as BBC1, it would be several hours
earlier. This might merely be embarrassing for the BBC, or it might cause a
political row in the UK. "Why are TV licence fee payers paying for the new
series of Doctor Who to be shown in Australia before it's shown in the UK?"
"Brits paid for Doctor Who to be made, so Brits should get to see it first"
etc.

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prydonius
It doesn't explain why it's shown a week later though. Why don't they just
show it the day after?

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Tyrannosaurs
I'm guessing because it will go out on Saturday in the UK and they want it to
be in the same slot elsewhere in the world.

The reality is that the loss of a relatively small number of people who'll
watch online ahead of it's screening on TV is a small price to pay for the
better viewing figures they'll get on a Saturday evening over a Sunday.

I think they're to be commended for doing this - it's what we keep saying,
make it available legally and most people will use that in preference to
torrents and other more questionable mechanisms.

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betterth
I disagree. This isn't just a tv show, it's a culture. For the fans who are
willing to pirate, a week is ETERNITY. A week means avoiding Facebook and
social media, avoiding forums and fan sites and blogs who will all be happily
discussing the new developments.

And the worst part is, when you finally see it: you have no one to talk to!
The world already discussed, spent a week fanboying out about the episode!
They'll spend the week discussing yet-another new episode, while you hide
trying to discuss a week-old episode without learning new spoilers.

It keeps you a week behind the world on discussion and prevents you from being
able to use any fan media during an active season without having big plot
points spoiled.

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Tyrannosaurs
I'm not sure I understand your point - they're making it legally available via
their website as soon as it's available world wide, they're just not putting
it on TV until 6 days later. There's no need to avoid anything or pirate or
whatever.

Even if that weren't the case, I don't know about the rest of the world but in
the UK, at least since the Russell Davis reboot, Doctor Who is mass market.

Yes the people you're talking about exist, but they're not the majority,
they're not even that big a minority (though they're very vocal). A network is
always going to go where the money is and that's with the largest number of
people.

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betterth
They're making it available in Australia one week after the release date in
the UK and America. This is because of time zones and a desire to ensure the
show launches on a Saturday.

Thus, Australians have to endure an entire week of UK/US discussion before
they can see an episode.

I imagine many fans will continue to pirate.

~~~
mooism2
Sorry, I don't understand.

Why will Australian fans continue to pirate now that the show will be
available legitimately on ABC's website 50 minutes after UK transmission?

Yes, watching it on a PC/tablet/phone is not the same as watching it on a TV,
but pirated versions suffer from this as well.

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killercup
I would love to see this, but as I live in Germany, I'm pretty sure I'll not
be greeted by the episode or even a video player but a "not a available in
your country" message.

Anyway, BBC probably already knows they could make a fortune if they offered a
season for £9 on iTunes (or something like that) with no delay, so I'm not
gonna call them about it.

~~~
xqyz
Same here (also Germany). Worse yet, even if a german broadcaster was offering
it, chances are you would only be able to get it dubbed in Germany without the
option to switch to the original language.

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rocky1138
Brilliant: "The fact that it is happening is indicative that as broadcasters
we are not meeting demand for a segment of the population."

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Alex3917
"Piracy is wrong, as you are denying someone their rights and income for their
intellectual property."

What a bunch of complete hypocrites. The only reason the show still exists is
because of piracy, because the idiots at the BBC managed to most of the old
episodes. So without pirates supplying the BBC and the general public with
their copies of the old episodes, the show literally couldn't exist today.

~~~
pharrington
Only most of the first and second doctors' runs were lost. Alot of the missing
episodes that were recovered came from overseas broadcasters. The BBC always
had the complete runs of the other five doctors - over 22 years of television.

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dhughes
Here in Canada the channel called Showcase airs their popular new sci-fi time
travel cop show called Continuum soon after it airs.

It takes a while though because Canada is so big, six time zones, only after
it airs on the west coast plus a delay while they upload it which pretty much
means the next day.

Even with that and the delay to put up it's on thepiratebay.org about half an
hour after it airs, a good 12 hours before it's officially put on Showcase's
website. But Showcase does IP restrict viewers to Canada only, I don't agree
with such regional restrictions.

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davidw
I haven't watched Doctor Who since we left Austria and no longer get BBC via
cable. I hadn't seen the new Doctor. Kind of a shock: wow, that guy's young.
How is he as The Doctor?

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debacle
Originally I thought I didn't like him, but in actuality he's a fantastic
doctor and a nice deviation from the Tennant/Edelsson mix. I found the writing
in the last season of the show to be abysmal, though. Didn't feel like Doctor
Who at all.

~~~
fredleblanc
Completely agree with you on Matt Smith. I hated him at first, but I think I
just wanted more Tennant. After clearing my head and going back in, he’s now
_my Doctor_.

(Although I disagree with you on last season. It didn't feel like traditional
Doctor Who, but I really liked the direction, and although Season 5 was much
better end-to-end, Season 6 had some of my favorite episodes.)

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debacle
Season 6 just really felt like they said "Lets try and target our
demographics." There was a lot less science, it was much more earth-centric,
and the level of hand-waving was obscene.

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shardling
It was earth-centric due to budget cuts, so that wasn't really under their
control.

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debacle
Wasn't aware of that. Still kind of sucked for the viewer.

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j_baker
Now if only that would happen here in the US. I simply don't understand why I
should have to pay to get something the next day when I could get it for free
minutes after it airs.

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Apocryphon
So, the Max Headroom hacker will be the villain?

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_broadcast_signal_i...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_broadcast_signal_intrusion)

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unreal37
Giving people what they want - to combat piracy! An innovative strategy.

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eightbitman
"Piracy is wrong" morally sure, but economically I don't know. It's a
complicated question, and without actual numbers the arguments for or against
are totally meaningless.

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Falling3
I'm still waiting to be convinced on morally wrong.

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voltagex_
I hate to be ungrateful but I'd like to see HD versions next time - in a lot
of Australian broadcast areas there aren't any HD stations over the air any
more.

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89a
> Piracy is wrong, as you are denying someone their rights and income for
> their intellectual property

Already paid for it with my licence fee. I'll do what I want.

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debacle
If only they were doing this when Doctor Who still had good writing.

