Digital Cheapskates Explained: Mad Men And iTunes

August 20th, 2008

Right now I have a “problem.” I have season 1, disc 1 of Mad Men lined up in my Netflix queue. It’s marked with “Very Long Wait” and hasn’t yet arrived.

Meanwhile, the entire first season (13 episodes) is available in iTunes for $19.99.

Of course, I could always Bit Torrent the whole shebang and get it relatively soon, for free.

But I’m not going to pirate it. My initial thought is wait for Netflix, but now I’m thinking, $19.99 for a whole season - 13 episodes - is actually a pretty fair price. My wife and I just blew $20 to see Tropic Thunder this weekend.

Yes, I know some of you are shaking your heads. Fire up the Bit Torrent, Jason. What about the evil iTunes DRM? Why pay for what you can get for free?

This is where I get annoyed. Since when did piracy become the “smart” choice, and buying something legitimately, at a reasonable price, become “stupid”? And if I don’t choose iTunes, can anybody really say with a straight face that Netflix - at $10 a month - is too expensive?

Which is where we come to the term I’ve bandied about recently: “digital cheapskate.”

If a legit option for downloading content off the web exists and you choose piracy instead: you’re a “digital cheapskate.”

Now there are some folks like Steven Hodson who lives in Canada where there is no Netflix and he doesn’t have access to iTunes due to lack of a credit card. That’s a different issue, one of “geotarded” access or just plain not having access to a legit option.

“Digital cheapskate” is aimed at people for whom a legit option is right here, right now, staring them in the face - yet they choose the piracy for increasingly weak reasons.

Price too high: as mentioned above, music, TV shows, and movie rentals are really reasonably priced through iTunes or Amazon. Netflix and Blockbuster are even cheaper with their subscription model, and if you want free, there’s Hulu, or just use your TiVO and record the show when it comes over cable.
DRM: iTunes has a lot of tracks sans DRM and Amazon more. I’ve never found Apple’s DRM to be a problem since I just push everything to an iPod or the Apple TV. But if it ever became a problem, I trust I’d find a way to break it.
It’s too hard: Must I really recount how we used to buy music - going to an actual record store? I actually find it harder to purchase a latte from Starbucks than buying a track from iTunes. That involves actually moving my legs and waiting in a line.

And if all of the above fails you, why not just go sneaker net - borrow your friend’s discs and rip them? Even that is more legit than downloading and distributing stuff over the Internet via Bit Torrent or P2P.

Straight and Narrow

Over the past few years I’ve cut way down on piracy. Still, I’m no saint. I’ll admit to firing up Bit Torrent to get my hands on media I couldn’t get elsewhere. I used to get a lot of software programs through questionable methods as well - back as a broke college student. But even back then, I made a loose promise to myself that when I did have the means, I’d start paying for stuff.

Now that I actually have disposable income and companies are finally coming around to distributing media online, I find my old piracy arguments sounding rather pathetic.

I also want to support business models I’d like to see succeed with hard earned dollars. When I take a step back, the place we’re in now with iTunes is really very awesome - a huge content selection at a reasonable price with decent quality. Steve Jobs really pulled off something amazing when he coerced the big, old, clueless record companies to join iTunes. And tons of people are using it. It’s no surprise iTunes is the number two music retailer in the US.

And as for the future, I want “digital video nirvana” to happen. I think it can happen legitimately without resorting to piracy. I’m willing to pay for it.

So that’s where my “digital cheapskate” originates. Yes, it’s meant as a wagging finger of shame. You may be dooming old media by choosing piracy but what new business models are you supporting? One where all content is free and everything is covered with ads? No thanks. I still believe strongly - content is king, and quality content should be paid for.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve convinced myself to download Mad Men season 1 through iTunes.

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