Why Kurt Sutter Is Wrong About Google

I think it's fair to say that I have mixed emotions about "Sons of Anarchy" creator Kurt Sutter. He's without a doubt a genius and I admire the passion he brings to every conversation. But while I respect his views, I don't always agree with them. I think it's pretty clear he's a smart guy, but even smart guys can be wrong sometimes. He's also someone who doesn't always take criticism well. The last time I wrote about him, he ended up calling me a "cunt" on Twitter before blocking my account.

The thing is, I don't like writing pieces that publicly call someone out as being wrong. I personally don't take criticism well, so wailing on someone else's beliefs - even if it's my job - leaves me feeling a bit uneasy

But I feel that I have to write some response to two pieces Sutter recently wrote about Google and piracy and the future of Hollywood. Given the high profile places they were published (Slate and Variety), I'm guessing he was expecting a bit of public conversation about the topic. If not, screw it. He's getting it anyway.

So here's my contribution.

In both pieces, Sutter argues that Google enables piracy and copyright infringement by refusing to remove links to piracy web sites from its search results. He accuses Google of having an "anti-copyright stance" that devalues content and he paints a pictures in which children "will be told unbelievable tales of the magical days when creatives flourished, and artists were handsomely compensated for their work."

Sounds scary and it's true, the artistic community is facing some real economic challenges in the upcoming years. But those challenges are more the result of changing technology and the increased power of media monopolies than the consequences of some college student downloading episodes of "Game of Thrones."

Online piracy has been a serious problem for more than a decade and while it can be infuriating to see, there is little evidence that piracy has an impact on the value of content. Sure, there have been numerous studies that try and project the economic effects of piracy, but they all suffer from a common problem. How many of the people downloading a movie or TV show would actually have purchased it legally if it were available? Is online piracy really costing jobs or is it this generation's equivalent of passing around mixtapes or recording songs off the radio?

After a decade of piracy, we live in what is arguably a golden age of television. There have never been more outlets for scripted television and while the overall average audience for most shows is much smaller, the total audience for the industry has never been bigger.

And look at a show such as "The Big Bang Theory." Despite the number of places it can be seen legally, the show regularly appears on lists of the most pirated TV shows. Yet the value of the episodes is only increasing, ratings of both the first-run episodes and reruns continue to impress and the show's three stars just received a huge raise and a bigger piece of the back-end money. Piracy may have hurt the show tangentially, but case after case shows that the people engaged in piracy (at least from the downloading side) aren't the primary audience for the show anyway.

Hollywood critics of Google and other search engines tend to put too much emphasis on the effect search has in driving traffic to pirate web sites. While there hasn't been an industry-wide study, I've seen the traffic numbers for several prominent pirate sites and the largest hunk of traffic comes from people directly typing the name of the site into their browser. The best (and most-trafficked web sites) are private and their listings don't show up in search engines. They might be a valid target for Hollywood's wrath, but slapping Google around isn't going to solve the problem.

That having been said, yes, there are certainly some measures Google could implement to lessen the number of pirate sites listed in their search results. And they could be more vigilant in policing sites such as Blogger, which Google owns.

You know the one thing that has slowed the growth of online piracy? Streaming media sites such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon, as well as an increase in the amount of prior episodes available legally online and on demand. Most people want to watch their favorite shows legally and given a chance, most will.

Rather than spending time worrying about Google, Hollywood should focus on offering its content in as many places as possible. And monetize that content as much as possible. That puts money in the pockets of folks like Kurt Sutter right now. It also ensures a steady income stream in the future for the children and grandchildren of Hollywood.

In other words, Google isn't the problem. Human nature works with Hollywood content in the same way it works in nearly every other arena. Give people what they want and do it in an easy (and legal) way and everyone will get what they need.