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.
That is another reason to avoid it, at least for now. If you don’t watch it, you don’t talk about it, you don’t give them free advertising. Piracy evokes demand in many ways. It will still be around in 20 years when no one is looking, anymore.
i agree OP
fuck the haters and lowkey transphobes
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.
Omg… About to go find out why I should stop reading Orson Scott Card… Thanks a ton OP.
The fact that the man who wrote Speaker For The Dead is a bigot is mind boggling
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
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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.
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‘The unmitigated gall of these [redacted]s not to bow and scrape before OBE holder and world’s greatest author Joanne Rowling’ - that’s you, that’s how you sound
I’m doing my part
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)
The Montgomery Bus Boycott led to desegregation of the transit system there and helped ignite further civil rights causes, marches, protests etc(although it’s still not a complete process the US still discriminating against its Black population)
The Sugar boycott led to the fall of several sugar firms and eventually led to Britain abolishing slavery
The Boycott against Apartheid South Africa led to several south-african companies going bankrupt and eventually to the fall of apartheid
And most pertinent to this discussion as it was against a single person and their revenue streams the origin of the term ‘boycott’: the shunning of Charles Boycott by Irish people, leading to massive social and political reputational loss, forcing him to flee Ireland
Not to say that boycotting a single show(or all media based on her IP) to harm the profits of a single bigot is quite comparable to ending the triangle trade or South African Apartheid, as said it more like the (successful)Boycott of Charles Boycott. Anyway to say their haven’t been successfully boycotts is ahistorical
I didn’t say all boycotts are ineffective, merely that most recent ones have been directed at things meant for entertainment and personal use. It takes a big enough threat for enough people to want to do it: slavery, apartheid, segregation, and annexation are. An angry billionaire tweeting their evil bullshit can be, but isn’t perceived as such by the general populace enough to avoid purchasing a game licensed from them.
merely that most recent ones have been directed at things meant for entertainment and personal use.
Most are, the Sugar Boycott surprisingly boycotted sugar(a good for personal use) produced by slavery, the Boycott against South Africa boycotted buying goods(for personal use) from South African companies, and included artists refusing to play gigs there and criticism of artists that did, sometime leading to them losing gigs elsewhere like Laura Branigan who lost bookings in the US after playing in SA(entertainment)
An angry billionaire tweeting their evil bullshit can be, but isn’t perceived as such by the general populace enough to avoid purchasing a game licensed from them.
After Kanye West’s anti-semitic tweets, a boycott of his brands like Yeezy began e.g. His branded Adidas shoes(personal use), his music(entertainment)
Eventually leading to many companies cutting their ties(endorsements, appearances at festivals, selling of ‘Yeezy’ licensed goods etc) with him, this led to him losing his Billionaire status(he’s now worth ‘just’ $400 million according to forbes, so perhaps not a ‘total victory’, but seeing Joanne have a similar reduction in wealth and mainstream reputation would lead me to seeing it as a successful boycott),
this shows people can and will get inspired to boycott the licensed products of a billionaire if they tweet some bigoted shit
Damn straight!
Even if I wanted to watch a worse version of the movies I already watched, no fucking support for transphobes!
In any case, aside from JKR being a piece of shit who deserves zero support:
These remakes seem completely and utterly unnecessary and of questionable production quality anyway. Why rehash the classic movies that were actually decent adaptations of the source material? Is this one arc really the only story worth telling in that universe?
Boycott it because JKR is a Nazi. Don’t watch it because it’s yet more Hollywood remake slop.
Is this one arc really the only story worth telling in that universe?
JKR tried with the fantastic beasts films, it failed so hard it only get three out of the five planned films.
they did not fail:
collectively grossed over US$1.8 billion across three films, three times more than the budgeted costs
they just weren’t as successful as the Harry Potter movies, and the second and third films had bad reviews (because they weren’t very good movies. but still, they had audience polls of B+)
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
Damnit
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.
OP, have you heard of the Streisand effect?
Please reread my post, I think you missed my point.
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“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.
Seinfeld (thankfully) doesn’t have a theme park
I dunno, the rise and fall and extreme mismanagement of a Seinfeld theme park would make for some great background documentaries for while I work…
Fuck it would be like 3 hours it would be so good
If only AI was real
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.
ok and I’m going to say you’re indulging a cultural movement of transphobia
Meh, sail the seas and do what you want. This sounds like a plea from the corporate overlords to get you to not pirate their shit. Also, what show?
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