You've deprived the content creator (well, a distributor) the chance to make money from you consuming the content at some point in the future.

eg, Fox will let you watch their content on Hulu 8 days after broadcast. But you don't want to wait 8 days, so you go pirate it. Fox makes no money.

If you'd waited the 8 days, Fox would show it to you via Hulu, and show you some ads, and they and Hulu would have made some money.

When was the last time you talked to your friends about that episode that was broadcasted eight days ago? In case of media time is a very important aspect of the product that has a significant value.

I was just talking to someone about Tom Goes to the Mayor, which is a few years old, and The Adam and Joe Show that is over 10 years old.

He isn't paying Hulu per episode watched, only per month. Fox and Hulu still get their money.

But, by your logic, purchasing any non-expiring stored media, such as a DVD, would deprive "the content creator (well, a distributor) the chance to make money from you consuming the content at some point in the future."

>He isn't paying Hulu per episode watched, only per month. Fox and Hulu still get their money.

...if Fox gets a cut of the Hulu subscription cost regardless of whether that individual watches any Fox content during the subscription period or not.

> But, by your logic, purchasing any non-expiring stored media, such as a DVD, would deprive "the content creator (well, a distributor) the chance to make money from you consuming the content at some point in the future."

Yes. But they've made your money off your consumption of that content at some point in time.

As Fox did in the Hulu circumstance.

Right, if I actually interacted with a distributor in any way, you might make a case that I owe them something. But the whole point is, that I have no interaction with the distributor, so I don't owe them anything. I'm not using their services, so I don't pay them for those services.

The content creator typically sells some or all rights to their content to a distributor. Often it's that money that allows the content to be made in the first place, and if the distributors weren't there you wouldn't have the same range as content as is available today.

The distributor is a very important part of the creation process at the moment.

And if distributors had anything to sell me that I wanted, maybe I would give them some money for it. But they don't sell anything I want to buy, and that's why I'm not giving them any money.

You don't want to buy it because you don't like the price they want to charge for the thing you want to consume, or you don't want to buy it because you have no interest in the product they're offering?

The day after a show airs on FOX, I can't buy it from FOX for any price.

Actually, they do offer it (on Fox.com and Hulu.com) the next day to people who prove they are current Dish customers. They're surely extracting some money from Dish for this arrangement (the way ESPN 3 does from some ISPs), and they created a situation where you can indirectly pay for access to the cotent the next day (assuming Dish is available to you in your part of the world).

The way i'm reading it it's free to watch the next day on Hulu for existing Dish subscribers, or you can watch it on Hulu the next day if you're a Hulu Plus subscriber:

http://www.hulu.com/support/article/20362238

I mail them $1 every time I pirate one of their shows, so my conscious is clear.

He hardly exhausted all avenues. He listed two avenues which cost a total of about $20 per month. Does anyone really believe that we will ever have access to all movies and television shows for $20 per month?