Ah, Piracy and Copyright, a very hot topic! Time for me to weigh in: After reading every post in this topic, I went searching the Internets for pirated episodes for Journey to One. They exist, not a lot, but they are rather easy to find, albeit I swear I didn’t watch any. I watched the first episodes of Journey to One on a friend’s Netflix account. I canceled my Netflix subscription after my free month ended a year ago. In July, I’m set to have a second job, and will definitely have enough room in my budget for another month of Netflix, JTO, and other things.
I did not pirate JTO because it was available on Netflix, and because this is the one chance Bionicle has to make a big splash and get traction in the mainstream audience. At day’s end a view is a view, yes; and people are watching it, but I theorize that most of the pirates and bootleggers are long-time fans of Bionicle. I believe that Bionicle’s best hope of reaching new fans and a new audience is Netflix and JTO. The best way for Bionicle to grow into something bigger is for people to either watch Journey to One on Netflix or buy the sets. I love Bionicle; as far as media coverage is concerned it is in its infancy, every view on Netflix counts to help it reach the heights of other beloved kids’ shows such as My Little Pony, Adventure Time, Steven Universe, and Gravity Falls just to name a few. Pirating JTO is extremely selfish, as it stunts Bionicle’s growth and stops it from living up to its full potential. I have wanted to re-open my Netflix account, but as a college student with loans to pay off, money is tight and I restrict myself to a budget. I want Bionicle to grow, to become a household name, so I refrained from pirating. While I may have pirated other things in the past, I did not feel as strongly about them as I do Bionicle. (Also, 90% of my piracy was music from old video games whose soundtrack wasn’t commercially released.) If Journey to One had been aired on TV and not uploaded to Netflix, then I may have pirated it because I don’t have TV, and can’t watch it repeatedly. However, JTO is on Netflix, so anytime I want I can just ask my roommate for 20-40 minutes of his account anytime he’s not using his computer.
I have pirated in the past, but being a passionate fan of Bionicle and JTO has significantly challenged my view on online piracy. (And I respect anything/anyone who can honestly make me re-think my values.) Maybe JTO will stay the exception, or maybe it will become the rule. I’ve been re-evaluating a lot of my habits lately, the occasional viewing of pirated material being one of them.
TL;DR
JTO is still small enough for piracy to be majorly detrimental. Let’s keep an eye out for pirates and nip ‘em in the bud.