Thursday, July 31, 2008

There are two types of pirates surfing the information superhighway: first, there’s the normal variety, media thieves content with viewing the latest box office hits in grainy, Chinese-subtitled fidelity on some unpronounceable site. I imagine these deviants also shun liquid soap and eat Hot Pockets willingly. And then there’s the other class of pirate. The only class of pirate, really. The discriminating pirate.

I’m talking about standards, people, and Stage6 was once the premier destination for illicit materials among the thieveratti. At a certain point, however, I guess the founders realized that allowing millions of users to stream terabytes of data for free didn’t really lend itself to a viable business model. But that’s one for b-school, right?

When catastrophe struck, this pirate cast his Internets to the right of the boat and, thanks to a hot tip from King Calm, discovered Hulu, a place where media is legitimately dispensed with brief advertisements. Legally watching flicks online offends every one of my sensibilities, and yet I continue to click. One show has been especially compelling in its ability to deliver utterly tasteless situations in a delicious fashion. The movie selection is older, sure, but they just added–prepare yourself–The Scorpion King! I can already feel the cranial fluid escaping from my nostrils.