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As a paying member, why can't other people around the world experience the shows I've funded. It doesn't cost anything to release a torrent and I'm happy to spread our culture.

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Since the BBC create a large amount of revenue from licensing the shows out. If it was distributed free then either our license fee would have to go up or they'd have to drop the quality of the content with the reduced funding.

Not to mention that they can't legally do it in many places, since they already sold the rights to part of the content in other countries.

If the organization (and it's paying members, depending on the governance model) could come to that decision, that'd be great, but that's certainly not the default for most organizations that produce such high-value content (I personally think the BBC is one of the best news outfits in the world).

Also, some paying members might prefer to charge those who don't directly contribute to offset the cost of their own contributions.

Except that charging more people doesn't offset; the goal will never be to offset, it will be to generate the greatest possible revenue. Even non-profit corporations have executives who personally benefit from salaries and the power to distribute them.

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