https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Married..._with_Children

> Its theme song is "Love and Marriage" by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen, performed by Frank Sinatra from the 1955 television production Our Town.

...

> The Sony DVD box sets from season 3 onward do not feature the original "Love and Marriage" theme song in the opening sequence. This was done because Sony was unable to obtain the licensing rights to the song for later sets. Despite this, the end credits on the DVDs for season 3 still include a credit for "Love and Marriage."

Here I stand on "right to burn" author's side. They can do whatever they want with their music, like putting a trillion dollar price on it, or selling it to an evil publisher. It's authors's nonprescribable right. If you don't like it -- feel free to write your own music.

That game makers should have probably make a modification to the game to replace original music with something else.

It seems unwise of the game maker to purchase a music license that expires. Though, I suspect it was a calculated risk, and that they believed potential sales this late after release weren't worth paying more for. Alan Wake was released seven years ago.

Why so? It only happens in unhealthy monopolized markets. In healthy competitive markets, content providers should be independent from distributors. They create something (films for instance) and distribute them as widely as possible (i.e. through all distributors), to maximize reach and in turn profit. That would include global unrestricted distribution. But when market is monopolized and there are cartels, all that becomes totally messed up and restrictions pop up all over the place.

Honestly, if you're at the point where you're circumventing region locking to access Netflix, you should just pirate it. You're violating copyright either way.

Many people think it's an ethical requirement to pay artists for their work. So even if they're okay (arguably) violating the law, they might not be okay with just taking the art without paying at all.

I pay for Netflix and Amazon Prime, and still pirate all the content.

I’m on Linux, and they only provide 144p video for me, so pirating is easier for getting access to content I paid for.

It also may make it more likely that Netflix will drop the content if it's not getting good enough numbers.

So even if there isn't a per-view payout, I'm sure the view numbers do contribute to the studio getting more money.

Netflix mass-negotiates content contracts with distributors for lump sums. The distributor then pays out one-time royalties from that lump sum.

If a show is getting press and social media talk then they probably value that higher since new subscribers is of very high value. Retention is a different problem and not as particular to one show.

Who knew Cisco was selling enterprise-grade circumvention devices to the world's corporations? Somebody better notify the MPAA!

More seriously, this type of thinking is pernicious. It demands "consumers" simply "consume" is easy-to-control ways, stay in their lanes and not be suspicious.

There would be no internet if people did that. Don't get me wrong; if people want to be sheep, they can be. I will happily encrypt, tunnel, send weird packets and otherwise play on the net the way it was intended, and anyone with a problem with that can chose not to do business with me if they prefer more tractable clientele who will shut up and eat what they're fed.

Let's not be disingenuous here: we're not talking about VPN the technology -- it's impossible to detect if someone's traffic has passed though a VPN. We're talking about public 'VPN Services' which are all but billed for circumventing region locking, ISP throttling, and piracy.

Any kind of content provider would blacklist those endpoints in a second.

I honestly don't care if "content providers" want to block VPNs, as I mentioned in my comment. I much more strongly object to this notion that there's something somehow wrong with users using things like this. The attitude of suspicion directed at anyone who values privacy, wants to learn how things work, or even does somewhat dodgy things sometimes is what I object to. That creates sheep, not citizens, and discourages engagement and learning.

It is up to businesses that depend on artificial scarcity (really, any business, but the legacy copyright industry is being discussed here) to make their businesses work; it isn't my responsibility to make my behavior fit their business model. And if they can't, well, they deserve to die.

You can use most (any?) dedicated server or VPS service as a VPN. I personally just create a SSH tunnel to my server in order to browse any site. You do not need to rent any shady "VPN Service".

> for circumventing region locking, ISP throttling

Circumventing either of these is a fine act.

> and piracy

If they wanted to "pirate" they would not have used Netflix.

And on the flip side, certain firewall providers have marketed similar features to restrictive regimes such as China for the Great Firewall. And not just 'nudge nudge wink wink', but produced marketing material saying "This will help you prevent Falun Gong material being available, and help identify end users trying to access this material."

Because to me, it makes sense.

I don't think that way. Everybody deserves a reasonable income, but what these "artists" make is totally insane. The only reason I watch their movies is because with the help of their fans, they have created an artificial monopoly around their persona and I am basically forced to watch them. In a free market with intelligent consumers, these people would not make this much.

You're also not "basically forced to watch them".

HBO operates with a margin of 33% (1.7Billion income on 4.9 Billion of revenue). That's healthy, but it isn't "totally insane". There isn't much room to spare before they'd have to sacrifice quality. That'd be quite sad, considering the last decade is generally regarded as a golden age of TV.

What other method do you suggest for me to stay up to date on pop culture, considering I do not want to support it?

Now I don't watch TV anymore, or ever so rarely. I've converted the time to reading. It changed my life in dramatically good ways —pun very much intended. There's a time for everything, and quite frankly after some time it's like you've watched it all, you could predict plots and even lines (sometimes it feels as though all authors just get inspired from their peers and much of the writing/directing feels recycled).

There's no "keeping up to date" with pop culture imho, at some point it becomes anthropological. You just overgrow pop culture beyond a certain amount of experience. You could actually produce it for that matter. As it relates to the medium, thus technology, I'm thinking it will evolve once again with VR/AR/etc.

Most productions that people watch have somewhere between hundreds and tens of thousands of people working on them. Almost none of them are rich, including most of the producers, directors, and stars of your favorite shows--who are usually locked into contracts they signed before their shows got big, and shows almost never get big. The number of people who will get rich from a given TV show or movie is between zero and almost zero.

99% of show business is folks trying to get by, same as anywhere else. Most people in show business could earn more doing almost anything else. Almost all of them make less than some kid in Silicon Valley building Tinder for Dogs. Programmers at Netflix make far, far more than almost every artist and even many of the financiers, and few here would complain about that.

Pay for your content.

Also, we should all benefit from economies of scale, not just the film producers.

I think I've seen that scene... Clockwork Orange, right? http://www.criticalcommons.org/Members/ccManager/clips/clock...

Perhaps... perhaps you might choose a different phrasing than "forced to watch"?

In a free market with intelligent consumers, these people would not make quite so much, but it would still be a significant amount.

People that can uphold a willing suspension of disbelief are rare enough, but those who can invoke it are the ones truly deserving of that reasonable income. Those folks aren't always the actors. Sometimes it's the writers, directors, or even the make-up or foley artists. Those people that don't get face time in front of the public might not always get the recognition they deserve, and they're the ones we really want to be paid for their art. But there are a lot of people shaving money off the wad before it gets to them, so putting too much cash in their hands is a small price to pay so that those who deserve it can actually make a living.

It's like buying stolen art.

The difference is "This dollar came from a user in the US", versus "This dollar came from a user in Eastern Europe (or wherever Netflix isn't available)".

Netflix is still licensing the content, just not for your (real) jurisdiction.

To imply that it's better, then, to just outright pirate the content is... confusing.

You don't really need to, you just need to say "VPN IP? Okay, you get our own global content only."

They're already doing the VPN IP test.

Films I can't get there, I just pirate. I'm not interested in installing DRM platforms on my computer to be able to watch very heavily compressed videos if they haven't been yanked offline yet.

If you're looking for a weekend project and have a movie/TV collection I'd highly recommend it. The base software is free and it runs on linux (and Windows/OSX).

Edit: Or that might be wrong and the framerate can be changed separately.

That probably doesn't help with things that aren't on DVD/Blu-Ray, such as some of their original content. I don't think you can get Stranger Things in that format yet.

> I'm not interested in installing DRM platforms on my computer

I believe the majority of people don't watch Netflix on their computer, but instead on set-top devices connected to their TV's That may also include hybrid solutions like Chromecast, where something may be installed on a local computer (likely a phone) as well, but those generally already have DRM platforms installed...

I rarely rewatch seasons after more than 5 years so streaming is usually the best/cost effective option.

Ditto, but almost everything I watch is one-and-done. The series that I like enough to watch more than once are few and far between...so I tend to buy those, whenever they come up in a particularly good sale. Among things I liked enough to buy, the longer it's been since I watched it last, the more likely I am to watch it in the near future. But the longer I wait, the more likely that some contract expires, and it disappears from streaming services.

Recently I picked up a couple Blu-rays with digital copies for $3 at Fry's. Vudu had one of them on a huuuuuuuge sale this weekend, digital copy only, for $5. The iTunes price is $14.99. Again, I got that $15 iTunes price... for $3 as physical copy with a digital code. And if I wanted, I could sell the disc at a resale shop and get back a buck or two. Buying video on demand online right now makes no financial sense whatsoever.

That's only if you place little or no value on convenience. I don't spend much money on video, so the occasional $10 or $20 purchase is bearable.

I don't want a physical copy and I certainly don't want to go to Fry's. For me, iTunes / Google Play / Amazon Video all make more sense.

I've actually thought about cancelling cable and buying everything on demand because I think I would save some money. We're paying more than $1000 / year for TV. That would pay for a lot of TV at $2-$3 per episode. We've never made the jump though because of live sports and the stupid blackout rules.

I place a fair amount of value on convenience, but I weight it differently than you do. Not having to worry about my player's internet connection is a big plus. Not caring where I bought the video from is also nice. I like that it's a fire-and-forget operation to convert the video into a format that works on virtually every piece of video-oriented electronics that I own.

Bonuses: I get to choose which version of a particular video that I buy (there are often several available), often receive it in multiple formats, can loan it to a friend, and local media tends to have fewer compression artifacts than streamed media.

Of course, all this only applies to things that I care enough to buy separately. I've got Netflix and Amazon. I've got a few hundred games through a combination of half a dozen services, and it's a pain figuring out which service I bought a particular game through, and all that. I'd rather go to my wallet of game DVDs and pull it out (and I do, for services like Humble Bundle and GOG, where I can download the games and put the installers on external media).

That really is the key. I get it that all those things you list go into the choices you make. I value similar things, but differently so my choices are different. There's no right or wrong.

I bet you do it too. Ever order a pizza for delivery rather than make it yourself? Or buy a book rather than borrow it from the library?

I'm a bit of a digital packrat who likes to collect media, but a large chunk of my present movie collection is stuff for my daughter who wants to rewatch the same movie constantly so purchasing content to keep is the way I go 99% of the time.

So, like stopping paying AT&T to essentially lobby against better connectivity in my neighborhood, it's time for my financial support -- playing "by the rules" -- to these big IP rent-seekers, to stop.

P.S. I'm the guy who actually buys CD's after a show. Will cough up bucks for funding. I'm not opposed to paying for what I get, in reasonable -- even generous -- measure. However, I no longer feel that's what's going on, here.

This is a good point, but note that a bunch of the special "Netflix" content is actually licensed from another country. Also some of "their" content is stuff funded in concert with others, who will have retained certain restrictions (bogusly called "rights" in legalese)

So the total amount of material Netflix owns free and clear probably isn't big enough for them to bother with special-casing. If it were it would be in their interest to do so as a way of putting pressure on others.

So cancel your Netflix.