‘Lost’ and ‘Desperate Housewives’ downloaders crash ABC servers, and the meaning of piracy

What does it mean when music and movies and books are pirated online, or via bootleg DVDs or CDs? It means there’s an avenue of demand that is not being met by the legitimate producers of the material and not, most likely, that ordinary consumers are looking to get away with getting something for nothing. iTunes has proven that people will pay for what they want -- in this case, downloadable singles -- when they are offered the opportunity to do so.

When I see people selling bootleg DVDs of new theatrical releases on the subway in New York (early this week, copies of An American Haunting were already being hawked, even though the film didn’t open till today), I don’t see people looking to undercut the efforts of the creative artists whose work they clearly enjoy -- I’m not even sure that most people appreciate that piracy means you’re taking money out of the pocket of actors and directors and musicians and writers. What I do see are people for whom the multiplex experience is not a vital component of enjoying a film, or people for whom extras-packed DVDs are not a vital component of enjoying a film at home. What I do see are people saying, “This is how I want to see a new movie,” and what I do see is that they are indeed paying for this... but instead of paying the legitimate producers of the material, they’re paying the well-oiled criminal organizations that produce the bootleg DVDs. It’s a revenue stream that the movie studios are ignoring, to their own detriment, for no reason that makes any sense. These people who want to watch movies like this are not going to go away, and if the studios were smart, they would figure out a way to get these people to pay them.

The TV networks are finally catching on to the concept that if so many people are willing to download episodes of TV shows from illegal sources, they may well be willing to download episodes of TV shows from legitimate sources. But maybe they don’t realize how huge the demand is. ABC got a shock early this week:

ABC Site Buckles as Network Streams First Ad-Supported Shows

ABC's Web site crashed twice [on Tuesday] as Internet users flocked to watch streaming versions of its most popular shows, including "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives."

It was the first time the shows were available online directly from the network, and the first time the advertising community had gotten a look at what ad products would be offered. It was also the first opportunity for the industry to gauge how popular such an ad-supported offering might be with consumers.

[from ClickZ News]

What floors me is that ABC obviously dramatically underestimated how popular these offerings would be -- that’s the only explanation for the fact that its servers were overwhelmed. How execs there could not have had an inkling of the demand is a mystery... but perhaps if they see that there is money to made by giving viewers what they want, they’ll, you know, give it to us.