Why Pirates Have A Point (Sometimes)

I try to do the right thing when it comes to entertainment most of the time. If there's something that I want to watch or play that's readily available, I pay for it, whether it be new, used, streaming or a rental. But there are times when doing the right thing gets you nowhere.

Last Friday my wife and I were watching that week's episode of Community on our DirecTV DVR, a service we pay for, when out of nowhere the local station decided it was time for Breaking News that had nothing to do with weather or anything that potentially affected more than a handful of people watching Community that night.

So, slightly perturbed, I check the On Demand section of our satellite service where, of course, that particular episode had not been posted yet. I mean, why would it be posted over 24 hours after airing? That's just silly. What was I thinking?

Frustrated at this point, I fire up the PS3 to watch the episode on Hulu Plus, another service we happily pay for. But the PS3 demands a mandatory firmware update. This is always a painfully slow process that in this case takes 20 minutes just to download.

I start to fire up Hulu Plus, but forget that the download is only step one of the PS3's snail-crawlingly slow process. It now has to install. So another 20 minutes...

Finally I can get to Hulu Plus, which of course has lost all of my account settings thanks to the most recent firmware upgrade. Re-entering and re-verifying myself finally gets me into the Hulu Plus library, where come to find out, Community is not offered. At all. It's only on the free, PC version of Hulu. Of course.

You'd think that the name HULU PLUS would indicate that you get all the FREE content available on regular Hulu *PLUS* more. But no! That's simply silly! Again, what was I thinking?

A quick glance at a torrent search engine showed that this particular episode of Community was available in HD, commercial free, seeded by over 6000 people and would download fully in 75 seconds.

Now I ask you, would downloading that episode have been considered a crime? I pay for satellite service, I pay for DVR/On Demand service, I pay Comcast for internet service, and pay for Hulu Plus... and not one of those things would allow me to watch a simple 20 minute episode of television in its entirety.

This is why piracy, right or wrong, will always exist... because even doing everything right gets you screwed.

(And seriously, screw you First Coast News for breaking in with stupid bullshit. I love you Community!)

Comments

[James]

I definitely understand your point for pirated content. It's definitely hard to find the right service, especially with all the companies heading toward streaming content. I tried Comcast's Android app for streaming content but wasn't too impressed. DISH Network, whom I work for, has since launched on demand content. Though, my favorite part is that I can now stream live TV, on demand content, and all of my DVR recordings remotely to my android device. I couldn't be happier with the service!