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>Game of Thrones?

You mean the most pirated show of 2012 and 2013?

And the one you can buy on iTunes or Amazon. And yet they still pirate.

Worrying about pirates is counterproductive. Some might do it because it's easier, but I remain convinced that most do it because it's free. Trying to attract them is a sucker's game.

Some of us have HBO GO, pay a cable subscription, have Amazon Prime, and still pirate it. It's nice sometimes to be able to download it once and then not waste the bandwidth watching it again, especially when your ISP puts a bandwidth cap on all customers and calls you "data hogs". I also wholeheartedly support piracy (even of the things I make), so there's that.

The availability delay is significant for the other services.

A large number of viewers live where HBO GO doesn't exist, and since the buzz around each episode hits the internet at the time of first broadcast, the rest of the world immediately pirates the show.

Yes, you can buy it if you don't mind waiting 6 months or sometimes much longer.

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