Yeah, but HBO want to offer the show on their ridiculous terms, which also isn't how life works.

Both parties have certain terms they want. His point is that he was prepared to try all kinds of methods to compromise and meet them part way, from monthly subscription to paying for each episode even though it's DRM-encumbered; but that they were utterly unwilling to compromise in any way. And that's why they are seeing their stuff pirated.

I'm the same way. What I *want* is go to a web site, pay some cash, and download some MPEG-4 files. But I'm prepared to compromise -- I'll rent DVDs, I'll pay a monthly fee for Netflix, I'll pay rental fees for an indefinite rental of DRM-encumbered content. I'm pretty flexible. I'm even considering buying yet another box of circuits so I can use Amazon Video as well as iTunes.

Unfortunately, I still run into stuff that is unavailable by any of those methods. Stuff I can't watch even if I were to subscribe to a cable TV package. Stuff that even if I bought it on DVD, it would (according to the TV and movie companies) be illegal for me to watch it, because it's region-coded for the wrong region. That's why I still pirate TV shows and movies.

Basically, compromise is a dance for two.