I know a lot of us, myself included, like to believe that piracy allows us to consume problematic media without supporting artists we do not like. But piracy demand also indicates to companies an untapped market that they could tap if they create the right product. HBO is absolutely keeping tabs on piracy of their show now and seeing our traffic the same way Crunchyroll used to keep tabs on pirated fan-translated anime back when they cared.
Also, there is a similar ethical zero-sum game with all other Harry Potter media and products. Normally we can buy on the secondary market if we need a hard copy to scan and rip but don’t want to support the creators. But almost every Harry Potter book in circulation is purchased by someone with intention to sell for a profit, and HBO is also likely keeping tabs on sales and resales of DVDs of the old movies. Every time money leaves your bank account for Harry Potter media, you are directly feeding the ecosystem which sustains the Queen of the TERFs.
It’s honestly pretty incredible how morally radioactive this one human is. Orson Scott Card is equally repugnant, but the Ender’s Game series doesn’t even have a small fraction of the market share of Harry Potter (IMHO this is the fault of that movie being just okayish, not good or bad, but that’s another topic.) Trump’s MAGA movement is comparable in badness, but there really isn’t much most of us can do other than voting and never shutting up about how unconstitutional the things he is doing is. Rowling really is comparable to Disney or Nestlé, and she’s just one person, not a whole company.
Right now, the only ethical way to consume Harry Potter is watching or reading movies and books on your copies that either:
- you obtained before 2020
- were given to you for free in some non-trackable way, e.g. offline or sneakernet.
There is no ethical Harry Potter consumption within capitalism. We will have to see if this changes once she is dead.
But piracy demand also indicates to companies an untapped market that they could tap if they create the right product
I agree with your conclusion of not watching it, but the reason that companies might observe and take a non-purchase as some kind of hypothetical market signal doesn’t seem like the strongest argument for that, especially if people are avoiding the purchase specifically to deny them money for ethical reasons, that’s not something they can resolve by making ‘the right product’.
If pirating a Harry Potter show provides support to its author, I think that support is going to be more in the form of cultural relevance and mindshare than anything directly financial. Being a fan of an IP gives other people a reason to engage with it because your interest signals things to other people, like it means that by not watching it they might be left out of the loop etc, and since the law enforces property rights over what can be done with it and who can profit, that adds to the power of its owner by influencing the choices and interests of other people in their favor.
Never thought I’d see the day when hexbear users would make a ton more sense than anyone else on a given topic. But here we are.
i agree OP
fuck the haters and lowkey transphobes
OP, have you heard of the Streisand effect?
Please reread my post, I think you missed my point.
It’s shocking to me someone would want to watch this.
Harry Potter was never good. Why would someone even want to read a Harry Potter book obtained before 2020???
The TERF stuff didn’t make Harry Potter bad. It always sucked, and people only realized after the TERF stuff.
I’ll die on the hill that Cuarón’s Prisoner of Azkaban adaptation is the only good HP media.
And not just for the sneaky sex scene in the credits. ;)
I liked Harry Potter but I’m no longer a child.
Omg… About to go find out why I should stop reading Orson Scott Card… Thanks a ton OP.
He’s as rabidly against the existence of gay people as She Who Will Not Be Named is against trans people, he just isn’t able to actually do anything about it, partly because a large part of the income from his books is tithed to the LDS church.
Sci fi and lds man. Yeah, I looked it up and was very disappointed. I had never looked up anything about him personally before that
Removed by mod
Removed by mod
Boycotts for media work about as well as those for Hogwarts Legacy, not buying a Tesla post 2024, or staying off PSN after Sony announced game discs will no longer be made. Sadly most people don’t care about the political views of those who make these things unless it personally affects them. The only successful boycott I’ve seen recently is Canadians avoiding American goods in supermarkets and even that took an existential threat of annexation for them to act on it.
You’d have an easier time herding cats.
the hogwarts legacy boycott was effective because it showed trans people which cis people in our life didn’t actually give a fuck about us or our rights
At least one of those things was very effective (Tesla’s sales took a huge dive)
Removed by mod
Removed by mod
“I have no qualms giving money to bad people because I can also give money to worse people”
Yeah, lots of people are either terrible people, or have enough money to fund hate crimes, or are willing to act on their beliefs. Rowling is special because she is both a raving bigot, rich, and 100% willing to pour all her money into making sure no trans person feels safe again. You know, Morgoth’s Trinity: Resources, Hatred, and Will to Power.
Part of the difference is Rowling still holds so much cultural weight (somehow). So many people still know and watch and purchase Harry Potter stuff. Seinfeld only really holds that weight amongst older conservatives. He’s only popular amongst the people perpetuating the hate. Rowling’s stuff is popular amongst those who should know better.
I do agree we should boycott more (I personally do boycott a fair bit), but comparing the current impact of Rowling to the current impact of Seinfeld is crazy.
What has he done horrible? Maybe we shouldn’t support him either.
He claims Palestine doesn’t exist and that calls to free Palestine are akin to the KKK.
Damn straight!
Even if I wanted to watch a worse version of the movies I already watched, no fucking support for transphobes!
I’m barely aware it exists and almost never see anything about it.
Making a post called “Reminder: do not watch HBO’s Harry Potter.” Is literally marketing it and forcing people to think about it.
Do not think about pink elephants
We all just lost The Game.
Dang it, now I’m thinking about pink elephants? Why’d ya have to bring it up? /jk
That’s a fair point. But I’m not sure how to make a clear title without the keywords. Naming things is such a frustrating, imprecise art.
Removed by mod
Goes to reply.
Sees username.
That’s bait.gif
Why, are your feelings so hurt that you can’t create and form logical thoughts for yourself, but instead need to be guided by internet rage?
Do I like or agree with JK Rowling and her views? No. Do I think her work on Harry Potter had an absolutely large positive contribution to literacy? Undoubtably so.
Sometimes the people who create and leave the largest legacies and contributions to society, are also people with unpopular opinions and viewpoints. Again I’m not defending or trying to justify this woman’s viewpoints, but I also can understand the fine nuance that learning from and reading Mein Kampf doesn’t automatically make someone a Nazi.
If you get enjoyment out of Harry Potter, knock yourself out. It makes you no less of a person, and OP so much less of a person for trying to make you feel that way.
Sorry you can’t offer a contribution, and instead feel the need to act like an absolute child.
deleted by creator
Removed by mod
“I’m going to be a transphobe out of spite” is a really weird hill to die on
I know right?
Removed by mod
To me, it’s pretty clear cut. Supporting a transphobe makes you a transphobe. I obviously can’t control your actions, but it is interesting that you feel the need to defend a position that allows you to support a transphobe.
I’m glad you said this because I tried to word my post in a way that did not include or suggest this phrase, and I see now that trying to be diplomatic to transphobes may have been a mistake. But I still hope I changed some minds.
How am I defending someone when I’m pirating it? Money does not flow to the person.
I’m not defending my position, I’m just surprised on how authoritively the left sudden get while blaming the right for being authoritarian. Especially in a Piracy community, where people pirate and download whatever they want without caring about… authority or opinions most of the time.
Then people get all squishy, emotionally and insult. Yeah, that will help the statement someone is trying to make.
Honestly, I don’t even care anymore. I’ll watch what I want to watch. The internet gives me a internet-headache lol. Reddit, Lemmy, whatever platform all the same crap with a different name.
Want to call me slurs or hateful names? Go ahead, you are a stranger on the internet.
Haven’t used insults or slurs, but if you’d like to imagine some for your emotional security, feel free. If one line from a stranger on the internet is enough to make you watch a subpar show made by a transphobe you weren’t going to watch, I don’t know how much “anti-authority” you can pretend to be.
You do you, man. Stay agitated on the internet. I’ll watch and enjoy content that I like, lol.
