Leaking Episodes. It’s been a part of fandom life that’s only growing as time moves on and technology gets more advanced. It's really been on my mind since what happened with The Name of The Doctor last week (loved that episode). The debate of watching a leaked episode is pretty heavy only grows as rumors of who are doing the leaking turn from the fans to the broadcasting companies themselves. My Opinion? Go for it.
The law is pretty clear, don’t pirate episodes. Don’t download free episodes. Don’t do it. The matter gets a little hazy on who’s really in the wrong when episodes pop up on YouTube and Vimeo, public players for all to see. No one really needs to download the episode to watch it anymore, there are entire websites built on publicly leaking the episodes with players that don’t require putting anything on your computer. Shady? Of course. But not illegal. If you really need to resolve your Merlin cliffhanger, you can without needing touch Pirate Bay. Piracy laws just aren’t tight enough to really catch the public when the episode is just sitting on YouTube for a few days.
As I stated before, leaking the episodes isn’t just a matter of hacking fans. This slightly unorthodox manner of hyping an episode is growing in America and could only spread. Most people who ‘pirate’ the episodes are loyal fans who aren’t really going to make the broadcasters lose money any more than watching the episode on one TV with all your friends would, and they recognize this. Episodes released ‘accidently’ only bring more attention to the show and reawaken the fandom to fight over watching it now or waiting until it airs on television. Realistically, if they can they’ll all be watching it on television later anyway. What, do you think we have lives or something? No, we've sold our souls to these shows, we're not going anywhere.
If you are a loyal and anxious fan of a show that’s been on hiatus forever (I'm looking at you Sherlock), the last thing you want is the ending spoiled the day before it comes back. But as the Doctor Who fandom proved when more than 200 copies of the last two episodes were released almost three weeks early, the true fans really aren’t the ones to spoil it. The entire three weeks, not a word was breathed and several sites even shut off comments to help keep the finale a secret. Every show has trolls who really just want to ruin it for everyone, but there’s not much anyone can do but try to remove them after it happens.
As long as there are television shows there will be leaks, whether they are caused by clever fans or perhaps a clever marketing team. There is a lot of stigma around watching the episodes but if you do it on a public player without downloading there’s not really anyway to stop you. I believe firmly that as a fan you need to make your own choice on whether you will watch it or not, although there is no reason for there to be such a taboo on the people who do. If you watch leaked episodes, do it with pride. The most anyone can really do is shake their finger at you
x Drew
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