Pirates in sheeps clothing

I’m not sure if this is something other techs have to deal with alot but it comes up fairly regular in my day to day job.
People, normal and otherwise law abiding people downloading the latest TV show from over seas.
They aren’t selling them or passing them around or even keeping them in most cases.

Wondering how come I know when it is something that is not usually discussed ?
Thats easy, I repair the computers, I see what they have installed and I clean up the mess when they download something that is malicious.
And they ask my advice. Yes thats right I do give advice about downloading.
First piece of advice is
You shouldn’t do it.
But then if they are are just going to keep downloading it I explain some methods on keeping their systems clean and unaffected as possible.
I run through reading comments, reputation and not downloading anything that requires you to run it as a program first.
Its obvious stuff I know, but a lot of people simply search for a title and click on the first or second thing they find. The idea of malicious programs don’t occur and if they do occur it’s assumed their antivirus will take care of it. (I tell you what, theres an article which would cause an issue, my views on different antivirus programs)

Again I don’t condone downloading and the people I’ve met who do movies (strangely its very few compared to TV) tend to buy or even rent a copy when its finally released in Australia.
Then the people who download TV shows tend to delete them after they’ve watched them, they don’t have the HDD space to keep them, even with external drives being cheap, plus they couldn’t be bothered.
Though I have met a few clients who are avid movie collectors, but go through Ebay, Amazon, or other online DVD stores, buy it, get it, rip it to disk and then store the original disc on a shelf, but all available from the DIVX player at will.

Curious as to why I bring this up? I saw a machine dropped into my shop yesterday. The client said their teenage daughter had been downloading music from somewhere (Have to say I am glad the LimeWire network is gone) and instructions where, wipe it all, remove the program and generally clean it up.
But leave the TV folder, the client (50 something male) hadn’t finished a few of the shows but remove anything that was infected.
We had a short discussion about why its so hard to get TV on demand and why it is that shows are so behind in general compared to their American/British counterparts.
He voiced the comment that he (remember he is a 50 something male and he also travels OS for work alot)
is tired of either paying for channels he hardly watches or has to put up with the free to air odd scheduling, delays in bringing new content, and shows running over time.
He also raised an important point as well. How long have their been TV remotes, and who exactly watches ads any more. He said if he is watching TV and an ad comes on he skips channels or hits mute and has been doing so for years, even his kids did the same if they watched at all.
So who would advertise this way now days.
I directed him to a book I read a couple of years ago called ‘Meatball Sundae’ by Seth Godin.
Seths blog page on his Book
Explaining it was a good intro text on the difference the availability of the Internet has had on mass advertising IE TV ads. I also voiced the opinion the content owners are still trying to wrap their head around the way the Internet has changed the world and haven’t quite got it. (movie advertising in a urinal anyone)

Its an interesting point there are so many other ways to get your product noticed by people who are actually interested in it compared to the shotgun approach of TV, Radio and Newspaper why would you waste your money.
Heres a challenge for all you business owners who have been using one of the old media types to get your message seen. Set up a one off phone number, it isn’t difficult takes about 5 minutes or so, and use that in your next ad, and count exactly how many responses you get.
The last newspaper ad I had I did this exact same thing, definitely not worth the cash I spent on the advertising.
How do you think the older media companies should approach the ‘new’ media ?