Well, I don’t think a bootleg copy from Iraq is the easiest solution! I suppose they could’ve gotten a copy off the street in Manhattan (where do they work from anyway?) FedExed to them. Six days isn’t a lot of time to go poking around, though.
No, but it would take about 6 seconds to find a torrent.
That would be illegal. They do work for a major cable network which has its own legal interests and public image to support. I doubt Comedy Central would give its blessings to a production crew breaking the law. Parker and Stone do have bosses.
I didn’t see the episode, but from what I’m reading here, it sounds like the Inception stuff wasn’t even the whole episode, and that it was a little half-baked in general. If they had six days to make the whole thing, by the time they decided to put in the Inception material, they might have had significantly less time to get their hands on a copy of the film.
They also might have ethical objections to pirating the film. Just a WAG, but I suspect that South Park is a pretty common target for copyright violations, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Parker and Stone are especially sensitive to the issue, especially given their reported libertarian leanings.
So that’s what that episode was about. I didn’t see Inception so didn’t have a frame of reference for the plot. Mostly I just thought it sucked and think they should apologize to the audience instead.
I wonder if their show is actually watched illegally less frequently than other shows, simply because they do have every ep available online (albeit with commercials).
I personally think it’s a brilliant business model.
Yup. Good insight.
Pretty much, yeah. I’ve seen so much denial in utterly obvious copies over the years that i found their approach quite refreshing. I have to say that it is a bit depressing to see honesty as something refreshing, but such is life.
Oh and rich and famous has nowt to do with it. Hell, so many people rip off the rich and famous, through downloads and whatnot, that no one really has the moral high ground anymore.
South Park earns its keep slagging anyone that crosses the creators’ minds. But they should get no stick themselves?
I don’t believe they thought they could steal gags off a semi-major internet site and not get caught, so I believe their explanation. It may have been plagiarism, but their gaffe was stupidity. (IANALawyer, but am guessing it does qualify as actual plagiarism.)
Get some quotes from IMDB or from a publicist or just fill the minutes with something else.
I’m unimpressed by how brave and honest they were. It would be pretty much impossible to plausibly deny the copying, and to do so would seriously damage their reputation.
It’s their turn in the barrel. I don’t care about the matter, but to be offended that they’re getting some grief (their own stock in trade) seems silly.
They can make an episode out of this now, everyone wins.
Not bothered by the “plagiarism” per se. Rather by the lazy writing. The part of the episode that made fun of Inception were generally not funny or apt (other than ‘we need to shoot at everything!’). That they didn’t bother… well… it showed that they were phoning it in. No outrage. Just… boredom.
FTR, I was able to download a (albeit mediocre quality) torrent.
Well, that doesn’t really help if they don’t live in Houston, no?
Yeah, the upsetting thing wasn’t the plagiarism (or lack thereof). It’s that they’ve gotten so lazy that they didn’t even bother to parody something they had actually watched.