'Breaking Bad' Piracy Rate Increases After Emmys

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-breaking-bad-emmys-piracy-rates-20140903-story.html

The hit television show "Breaking Bad"  won a numerous amount of awards last week in the 2014 Emmy Awards. As a result of its popularity, the anti-piracy firm, known as CEG Tek, has analyzed that the piracy rate of the show had increased by 412%. 

What caught my eye about this article is the word "illegal". Piracy in the United States is not only illegal, but it is also a federal crime which can result in a hefty fine. Although many of us already know that "Breaking Bad" has a multitude of pirated versions on the Internet, but what's special about it this time is that after the Emmys aired, more and more people made, watched and shared illegal files (412% more). The question is "why did that happen?" and the answer is recognition.

What I've learned from ,this as a film student, is that recognition may not always be a good thing. Say if you were to make a television series and it was one of the best t.v. shows out there, so big that it was fortunate enough to be the reason that you recieved a number of awards and an enormous amount of recognition. Although this may seem like a great thing to think about, the show is bound to be pirated and illegally shared across the Internet. You're not making any money off of any of that and you are technically being robbed of your show and your money. Th whole point of the recognition is to get people to buy your product and you to make money but nowadays recognition has gotten to the point where it may not even result in money. People will most lieu deprive you of money that you could've earned by illegally sharing it on the Internet. Over all what I have learned is that even though you have such a popular show, even if its "the greatest show of all time", it's great recognition may result in a loss of money.

Now as I have said many times, piracy is a federal crime. The question is though "Will the creators take legal action?"  Personally, I think it would be a waste of time and money to pursue every single person who has ever illegally shared an episode of "Breaking Bad" but it still may be a possibility. Another question would be "How are they going to prevent this?" The creators of the show should definitley  come up with a way of keeping people to access their show in order to keep losing potential money.