A Conspiracy Theory

"To get what you want, STOP doing what isn't working"(1)

"The time to stop a revolution is at the beginning, not the end"(2)

According to Nielsen ratings (HERE) the most popular cable television show in America is "The Closer, starring Kyra Sedgwick, with almost 7 million viewers. When you enter the search term 'watch "the closer" online free" in Google you return 963,000 hits. Clicking on some of these links will bring you to websites where full episodes have been posted by other individuals. You can watch these episodes, hosted on websites such as youtube and dailymotion, for free, without commercial breaks and whenever you choose.

My question is this: if I can find these links, why can't the copyright holders who are demanding more draconian copyright protections for their content?

It is so easy to find the allegedly infringing material that it would appear that copyright holders are not actively seeking these links, perhaps tolerating them because they build up a wider audience for their shows, as well as generating discussions amongst internet communities with the result that word of mouth increases the show's ratings.

Copyright holders seems to be having their cake and eating it too. Gaining more legislative protection for their content while also gaining more customers. Perhaps new legislation is not what copyright holders should be concerned with, instead they should police the web themselves and utilise the current legislative framework to protect their interests.

At least TNT and many other cable networks have realised that jumping on board the new technology is more profitable than not, and they have made "The Closer" available on their own website supported by online advertising.

Footnotes

(1) Earl Warren
(2) Adlai E. Stevenson