14 DAY TRIAL // Slowly but surely, the media industry is warming up to piracy, or at the very least it can have an honest conversation about it. At least some of the creative people can, as most of the executives still only see red when they hear about piracy.
Still, it's nice to hear about some of those who realize that simply trying to fight piracy without actually understanding it doesn't work.
Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan is well aware of the effect piracy has had on his hit show and he believes it's not all negative.
In fact, he's glad that piracy helped build awareness, getting people who might not have heard of it or tried it hooked on the show.
Granted, that awareness may have come a bit late. The final episode was actually the most popular, and TorrentFreak reports that all in all it was downloaded by about three million people, making it one of the most pirated episodes of the year.
But with a lot of revenue for shows these days coming from streaming and other avenues, not just the first airing, even that can prove useful.
"I see that there are two sides to this coin. If I'm being honest I see that the illegal downloading led to a lot of people watching the series, becoming aware of the series who otherwise would not have been," Gilligan told the BBC show Newsbeat.
"I see that in some ways illegal downloading has helped us, certainly in terms of brand awareness, so that’s a good side," he added.
"The downside is a lot of folks who worked on the show would have made more money, myself included, if all those downloads had been legal. We all need to eat, we all need to get paid, and I get paid very well, I can't complain."