FarscapeWeekly Farscape Download Episodes Debate Final Round opinion essay

She Said, He Said: The Final Round of the Download Debate
Joan Hedman, Tom Francis ¤ February 2002

Round 1: You say you want to download the new episodes? (Joan)
Round 2: Yeah, I want to download those episodes (Tom)

She Said: Joan's reply to Tom
He Said: Tom gets the last word in

Enron, Napster, and Farscape
In which Joan responds to Tom... click here to see Tom's original arguments.

SCI FI (and Henson) don't owe the fans an explanation of anything they do. They are a corporation and as such exist to make money for their shareholders (like Enron, who seem to have forgotten that). There is the assumption, hopefully a good one, that sound business practices and experience are behind the decisions they make with respect to scheduling. If their scheduling leads to a drop in ratings and thus to a drop in advertising revenues and profitability, you can bet that the stockholders are going to be upset. They are the only ones with the "right" to complain, or to demand an explanation from SCI FI regarding their business practices.

There is an underlying assumption here that Farscape is SCI FI's ratings godsend. While Farscape is SCI FI's "highest rated original programming", it isn't SCI FI's biggest ratings draw, by a long shot. From the data I've cursorily reviewed, SCI FI brings in much more share with its stable of genre movies. SCI FI is also "burning off" its new episodes of First Wave and Invisible Man, two series that won't be returning. We already know Farscape is in the bag for seasons four and five, so the big anxiety that a long hiatus would normally generate -- "Is Farscape cancelled?" has already been put to rest.

We've all made tradeoff decisions, and in my opinion, that's what we're seeing now with SCI FI. Starting in April and continuing through the fall, we should be getting an unprecedented number of new episodes. A little sacrifice now in order to get a nice long run later in the year. Is it worth it? Obviously it's a subjective call.

Regarding the view that once something has aired, it's "free", I have one word in response: Napster. Those boys got shut down and forced to rethink their entire strategy for allowing anyone and everyone to download copyrighted music, rightfully so in my opinion. According to you, anything that has ever been broadcast is fair game for pirating, because it's out there in the ether, waiting to be grabbed. That's crap. Music you hear on the radio or piped into restaurants ain't free; the owners of those establishments pay licensing fees to the big music publishing houses like BMI and ASCAP. I have no idea about this "legal precedent" you're talking about. I do know that the concept of "time shifting" (recording something for personal viewing at a later time, with no intent to resell) has been OK'd by the Courts, but recording for your own use is a far cry from making that recording freely and widely available, as it is when posted on the 'net.

You say "If somebody was profiting from this, then that is an entirely different issue." The availability of the episodes for downloads puts that possibility in play. Just because you, and no one you know, are not burning VCDs of the episodes and selling them doesn't mean that it is not happening, or not going to happen, ever. Every time you, or someone else, downloads an episode off the 'net, you are supporting the idea that it's OK for them to be there. The fact that anyone with the right technology can download them means it's only a matter of time before someone does download them with the intent to resell the content. In my view, you are condoning that illegal behavior even if what you personally are doing is morally indistinguishable from popping a tape in the VCR when the episode is airing, or getting a tape in the mail from a friend.

As for Henson and SCI FI pursuing the 'net pirates: Get real. Of course they care, but they also have limited resources. Shutting down the pirating of the episodes probably doesn't even make their To Do list. The fact that they're not after you doesn't absolve you.

I've been a fan since the premiere in March of '99 and became active in the online community shortly thereafter. I have no idea what you're talking about regarding fractures in the fan base. Yes, there are some folks who were ticked that the BBC aired some episodes before we saw them, but as far as I know, they are in a minority. The perceived insult you describe with respect to the season two hiatus is a completely new idea to me; most 'Scapers I associate with took it in stride, "Oh yeah, they did this last year." We didn't like it, mind you, but we accepted it. The assumption was, this is the way scheduling works with SCI FI. They're a tiny, niche network, and they have to scrape and claw for every rating point they get.

You keep coming back to this idea that SCI FI owes it to the fans to explain their scheduling decisions. I disagree, but I doubt I'm going to convince you on that point. Besides, I doubt that anything they'd say would satisfy you, anyway.

Both Henson and SCI FI are caring about the fans the best way they can: they're seeing to their continued existence. SCI FIcould run Farscape every night and the fans would be thrilled, but if the ratings just aren't what they need, or what they could be, then ultimately where would we be? Not only would there be no Farscape, but there'd be no SCI FI to show it on, either.

Nothing in this debate, or others I've read, has convinced me that downloading the episodes is justifiable. Condoning illegal behavior isn't as bad as engaging in it yourself, but it's not right, either. Obviously there are many worse things we can do, and nobody is perfect. If the worst thing you've ever done in your life is download a few episodes off the 'net, I'd say you've lived a pretty good life. But I also ask, if you're living such a good life, why compromise yourself for something as trivial as a television program? Is it really worth it?

It isn't to me.

¤ ¤ ¤

There's a lesson in here somewhere.
In which Tom gets the last word.

Joan, Joan, Joan - you ignorant...um, never mind.

Let's suppose, for arguments sake, that I agree with you about the moral and legal issues surrounding downloading the episodes. I will even grant you the Napster point.

Instead I'll ask you this: Who "spoiled" who?

When you come right down to it, SCI FI chose not to air the episodes for their own reasons. I'm sure that they have a certain logic that includes the phase of the moon, calculates the impact of thousands of sparrows landing at Capistrano at the same time, multiplied by the price of tea in Bangkok, the sum spoken over a boiling caldron of spiced extra extra extra extra virgin olive oil. The results of this arcane ritual is the reason why.

Frankly, I don't care. The simple truth is that SCI FI chose not to exercise their right to air the episodes first and thus, "it" happened.

I suppose one could argue the whole "attractive nuisance" issue - the episodes are out there - they are the "shiny" object, if you will, that attracts attention, but that is silly at best.

Instead, let's just say this.

SCI FI doesn't care, Henson doesn't care and the people downloading don't care. One could argue that the individuals downloading the episodes are the real fans, but I'm not at all sure about that either.

With respect to the moral and ethical issues, well let's just say that this is a TV show. I am having a hard time understanding how moral and ethical enters into the business of entertainment, but that's a whole other debate.

Personally, I don't feel strongly about the morals of downloading episodes that have aired in another country - once it's out there, fair game. No other way around it.

To put paid to the argument, it all renders down to this - SCI FI chose not to exercise their rights to air the episodes first, the fans were impatient and didn't want to wait seven months and the results are what we are currently discussing.

Let's hope that SCI FI and the fans have learned something from all this.