I just searched the Pirate Bay, and found all ~20GB of the original series available, for free (single magnet link).
If you forget you're competing with free in the marketplace, you've already lost.
If you forget you're competing with free in the marketplace, you've already lost.
But nigh unto all customers aren't so pedantic and technical. Most don't even know what "torrents" are. Most have a library of DVD/BD discs & multiple players and few qualms about expanding it. Most of those wanting digital versions are capable of following simple directions to download the included high-quality digital transfers, and find little value in DRM-free versions when the provided formats work just fine on what most people have. And most viewers won't be squeamish about shelling out a buck-fifty per episode.
Yeah, I used to share such pedantic geeky views. Then I discovered I had other things to do and get wound up about, having been burned too often by technical difficulties and crappy rips. For a few taps and a few hours' pay, I'll get the complete collection - in convenient & pristine form - in time for a mind-searing weekend of '60s campy superheros.
ETA: ok, it releases 11/11. We're talking '60s Batman, I can wait a couple weeks. For those vanishingly small number of people who can't, well, there's always torrents of crummy transfers from ancient videotape recorders.
Some of us like owning the actual product.
Specifically why buy the same thing over again, you already paid to be able to watch it.
You appear to have too much money.
Sure, everyone who worked on Batman got paid years ago. But if I want to produce a film tomorrow, I'm facing essentially the same problem - I can't compete with free, and that makes it harder to recoup an investment. If I don't have an existing franchise to leverage so as to raise capital advance, then distribution rights are the only tool I have.
Believe it or not, people were creating art before copyright existed.
Which is also true with copyright. For the kind of art you discuss, insofar as their is an economic inducement to create complex art from copyright, it is an indirect inducement (since the actual artists still can't afford the up-front costs) that induces patronage.
Back then, it took as much time and effort and money, and almost as much skill and talent, to copy art as it did to create new art.
Ordinary could not afford copies of art. The wealthy and powerful patrons that could afford to have art made wanted original works, not copies of existing works--they were buying art to show off the wealth and success of themselves or of the region they ruled, and copying someone else's art would do a poor job of that.
Also, art tended to be the work of a single artist (with possibly a handful of assistants). They generally did not have anything on the scale of a modern movie or television show or video game.
Legitimate retail isn't in competition with the pirate bay.
These services, and every other retail platform is absolutely in competition with grey and black market competitors. Why do you think the RIAA/MPAA/etc. try so hard to shut them down?
People who want to pirate can download MP3's and PC games with ease. Some of the most pirated games are on steam. Headphones (sickbeard for music) makes pirating music even easier than iTunes.
>Why do you think the RIAA/MPAA/etc. try so hard to shut them down?
Because piracy costs them sales. It's still not competition when you take the product without paying for it.
However, offering a reasonably priced, easy to use and hassle free customer experience has a lot of value, which people are prepared to pay for. The success of the iTunes store proves this.
If you pay for something, though, you are ~98% certain to get the expected and intended quality.