Will copyright pirates kill television?


I think it rather unlikely that Television will be killed by YouTube, although if I'm honest I spend more time watching clips online than I do watching standard TV.For your average person though I think the idea of sitting in front of a computer for their evenings entertainment is not a very positive one. The effort required for getting online content is not something the majority are prepared to undertake at this moment - although I guess the easier it becomes the greater this appeal will become. To say it will kill television though is scaremongering in the extreme. What YouTube in particular offers is the possibility of watching content that is not available on normal television - some of this may infringe copyright but surely if it has already been broadcast and the advertising has already been paid for a show what is the problem with creating a little more interest and buzz by having it popular on the net?Since the Video Cassette was introduced in the '80s it has been possible to copy television content - the only difference now is the medium - it is slightly easier to disseminate the recorded video online but if television survived VCRs, DVDRs and Sky Plus style technology then I can't see how online piracy is going to be any different. If there is inherent value in any piece of work then surely that will bear out in the end. The trouble with the current trend in extending copyright restrictions is that you are restricting who can see works based on a financial gain - in an era when there is so much content being bandied about - surely the whole value of the Internet as a medium is being restricted. I have gone well off topic here but the "will pirates kill television" argument is one which can be extended to all forms of entertainment, and with the overwhelming answer being no. If Television was "killed" by pirates then pirates would have nothing to pirate - so what would happen then? Piracy has not killed video games, cinema, DVDs or any of the other markets that claim to have been threatened in the past - the truth is that if you have a product that is good enough people will buy it - whether it is available pirated or not. In fact pirated copies often just provide the opportunity to try products that would not otherwise have been considered - the argument that it is theft doesn't hold up if you would never have purchased the product in the first place. The other truth is that creative people will always create - musicians will make music and filmmakers will make films - at the end of the day it is the corporate bodies behind them that are trying to recoup costs that lose money.