Piracy Of Episodes Could Be Hurting The Walking Dead
By Adam Carlson
These days, the internet is used for a lot more than using Google to search for images of Lauren Cohan or Norman Reedus. Many resourceful folks use the service to look for and illegally download music, movies, and television shows. This is something that Walking Dead producer Gale Anne Hurd is really concerned about.
In a recent interview with The Guardian, Hurd spoke about the problems that can arise when piracy gets out of hand and what it can hurt. Here’s what she had to say:
The Walking Dead producer Gale Anne Hurd on the red carpet for The Walking Dead
"“The truth is you wouldn’t imagine stealing someone’s car [or] a piece of art they have created. We are poised on the precipice in filmed entertainment— TV and movies — because of the prevalence of piracy the content creators will not get a revenue stream to the point that they won’t be able to create. That is the danger of piracy.”"
She went on to criticize the sites that are using their created content to make a profit off the intellectual properties.
"“First of all if you go on search engines you should be able to filter out pirated websites. When consumers do go [onto pirate websites] they look legitimate. They have advertising from well-known brands, and they take credit cards. How would the consumer know the difference between legitimate sites and illegitimate sites? There is a lot the advertising industry, credit card industry and search industry can do to help protect legit content.”"
Not all folks feel this way. Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes is notably quoted for saying that excessive piracy is “better than an Emmy”, but Gale Anne Hurd feels that this is dangerous thinking and could do long term damage to the entertainment industry.
To read the full article at The Guardian website and listen to the interview, visit this link:
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jun/19/walking-dead-producer-game-of-thrones-piracy-google
While this hopefully won’t hurt The Walking Dead too much, smaller shows depend on that advertising and revenue stream to survive. Make a difference and please don’t make smaller television shows extinct just because you want to download them illegally.