That analogy is misleading and you know it. It's more like being unable to buy a washing machine without also buying a dryer, snow blower, quad garage door opener, freezer, golf cart, and thresher attachment. Oh and you can't resell the extra stuff. Oh and you can't loan it out either. You're practically burning money.
Come back when someone invents a washing machine that does only cotton and costs 95% less than a normal washing machine, then patents it and won't let anyone build them. Maybe then you'll see the problem.
"The problem" is that you can't see Game of Thrones. Really? REALLY?? Oh the humanity!
I don't know how people ever did anything before Game of Thrones. It would be absolute chaos if people couldn't steal it.... how else would they survive?
Stop getting all indignant. A forced bundle with products made by other companies that boosts the price twenty-fold is a market failure. It doesn't matter if it's petty entertainment.
Oh. You don't like their business model, so you should steal your 'petty entertainment?'
It does matter if it's petty entertainment. I might agree with you if you were having trouble eating over this. But you can't watch Game of Thrones without buying HBO and so you have to steal Game of Thrones? You don't have to steal anything. You can simply not watch their show if you don't agree with their business model.
People don't agree with chick-fil-a giving money to homophobic groups, and they don't eat at chick-fil-a. They don't go out and steal chicken sandwiches because they want them that badly. You have that option as well.
I think you missed the part where these people want to buy HBO. In fact if the first sale doctrine applied to broadcasts then the problem would solve itself, with people selling off their HBO copies at a fair and unbundled price.
Come back when someone invents a washing machine that does only cotton and costs 95% less than a normal washing machine, then patents it and won't let anyone build them. Maybe then you'll see the problem.