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Comment by depoisfalamos | Hacker News Reader

Internet streaming/renting is great for the US market. But where I live (Portugal) there's no TV Shows tab in iTunes or Amazon Instant or even Netflix. We are tied to DVDs or Blu Rays. They are much more expansive for sure and that's why people don't buy as much, see as much or consume as much media (movies or Tv Shows). Anyway, when they do, it's in DVD or Blu Ray (or piracy...).

We need physical discs here... but we wish we didn't...

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Do you feel you're being unethical by downloading pirated copies of tv shows that are not available in your country?

Even worse is when you try to _buy_ something but can't because it's not available for your country or because they only take domestic (US) credit cards. No, it doesn't seem unethical to me, not one bit.

Interesting question. My initial reaction was "no". But I realised I don't do it. I guess I just don't watch much TV anymore. Anything worth watching is worth buying the whole series for.

Where I live, most shows air a few years late. I don't feel bad about torrenting them when I want the latest episodes. However I do go out and buy the earlier seasons on disc (though I'm suspicious about how authentic those discs are - they're certainly expensive but the printing on the CDs seem to indicate otherwise)

Absolutely not, I'd be perfectly happy to pay a reasonable fee (for music I now have a Spotify subscription and I love it!) or be forced to watch adds or whatnot. I keep waiting for hulu.com and similar sites to eventually (hopefully) open up to Europe, but I'm not holding my breath :\

But until that time I just pirate stuff of the internet. (They haven't even aired anything past season 5 of Scrubs yet here, at this rate I will have to wait until my death if I want watch Game of Thrones...)

Not at all. Most series I watch don't show here (or with crappy translations), and even if they do sometimes only a few years later. So I just torrent it.

If I actually like something I tend to buy it as a physical disc from amazon.com and let it catch dust in a corner. Even though the quality is (still) clearly superior from a blueray on my screens, the hassle-free experience of torrented mkv's is just much better for casual (re-)viewing.

I am similar. I'm in Ireland and use Linux. They don't cater to me, so I'll just pirate it. It's a much better service. I'm a capitalist and consumer, I've made my vote.

Well, I'm also from Portugal and I can say that...

Actually, most relevant TV shows are available here, on cable, with proper subtitles (dubbing is very rare in Portugal, unlike other european countries). Some shows are just one episode behind their US counterparts, but most are a few months/a season behind.

Cable TV is widespread, and on more rural areas where the "cable" doesn't go, the providers have a satellite alternative. So, every one that wants to watch these shows, can.

So, it's not really ethic to pirate TV shows. But only in the sense that if most people pirate, the cable networks won't have much (financial) incentive to keep the shows close to their original airing.

You're right. I completely agree with your last sentence. Although it's really hard for people to buy movies/tv shows for a lot of reasons: when we get a proper DVD with subtitles it's weeks if not months behind the DVDs from the US; if we want to import (because it's cheaper) you have to pay a lot of additional euros for transportation; if you wait to see in the television for 3 or 4 months, you always get into spoilers from friends, the web or even television;

I guess it's hard problem and everyone has a point. Let's wait and see if the situation gets better because they get to win a lot providing a better service to fans/consumers.

Well actually I do. If they don't want me as a customer, so be it, but that's their choice to make. I'll usually import the DVD box from somewhere around the world (mostly the UK, Singapore or Hong Kong) as soon as I can find it.

These DVD's end up being converted in Handbrake, and end up as a digital copy anyway. It's also a bag of hurt... but let's hope Apple brings movies to iTunes here soon.

I didn't say I do it. I'm just saying that people resort to it in my country as a way to avoid paying very high prices for media. I usually wait for the shows in television, although I have to wait a few weeks to see the latest episodes. Movies, I go the cinema or buy the DVDs because I really like to have DVDs of movies I love.

Tried a VPN with exits in the US?

I feel it has the same moral implications like torrenting while being much more difficult to set up.

It's sad and frustrating - a while ago I spent a couple of hours searching for a legal way to buy music from a Finnish band I really liked, and each and every service was geographically restricted (I'm from Croatia). A couple of clicks on your torrent index of choice, and there was the album in its full glory. The Industry(tm) should really learn a thing or two from the "evil pirates".

I'm not so sure. Renting a VPN seems an awful lot like renting a small space on their network. Sure, it's not residency. What if I rented you a tiny part of my house? Part of the rent includes network access. But you travel, lots, like you're never there. How would you feel about "place shifting" your access to these services?

Okay, okay... I'm reaching. But I guess I'm saying, I don't see it as immoral to use a VPN in order to establish network presence in the US or Canada or wherever.

That's like an escape. I don't want to need to circumvent the system. I would like to be able to purchase and use the same services in my own right. I would be glad to pay for a service like this, if it provided what it's provided in the US for example.

But, that's the reality. If you want it, today, you do have some options.

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