I'm not sure about HBO making more money one way or another, but there's ample evidence at least some people would pay for movies they are now downloading if they could download them in the same convenient manner with good quality and reasonable timeframe and price. I, personally, would gladly ditch my TV subscription and pay the same - or even slightly more - say, $50/month to an internet solution that would deliver me the same dozen or so of shows I am watching in a convenient manner. I'm not using 99% of the channels I'm paying for anyway. In fact, I am regularly checking current offers from various places - Hulu, Amazon, etc. - but none can offer enough coverage and convenience for me to go with them. And if my brain-dead DVR (my punishment for being cheap and getting into Dish contract I can't wait to end) misses an episode or they decide to run a baseball game over the time and the brain-dead DVR doesn't know how to adjust, I'm pretty much out of options when online solutions won't feature it for a year or so and I can't continue watching the series since whole story arc will be messed up. That unless I do the obvious thing and just download it - because unlike what Dish or Amazon could offer, somehow those pirate guys actually can deliver convenient, easy to use and reliable way to get the content to me, and I could watch it anywhere any way I like. I'd pay money for something like that if somebody would bother to do it for me for money.