People Are Telling Neil Gaiman They Intend to Pirate American Gods

By Travis Johnson

American Gods, the new modern fantasy TV series based on the novel by professional spooky person Neil Gaiman, is almost upon us. In Australia the series will be available on Amazon Prime Video a few hours after it airs in the US on Starz. Gaiman himself, mindful that he has a huge international following, took to Facebook to share an article outlining how people in different countries can access the show legally, which was rather nice of him.

Not nice enough for some, however. A number of Gaiman’s fans, no small number of them Australian, decided that the brooding British booksmith’s Facebook page was the perfect vehicle for them to express their intent to pirate the new series.

“And they wonder why Australians pirate shows – why do we have to wait and see all the spoilers over the net – we live in a digital world, so there is no reason why new shows can’t be seen in all countries at the same time….” one poster wrote.

“ugh 9 bucks a month to watch 8 episodes?” said another.

“This is fucking stupid,” wrote a Melburnian fan, apparently unaware of the intricacies of modern media distribution. “I desperately want to see the show. Just put it on a disc or two, I don’t want to stream it. I don’t want to watch it weekly. I’ll buy in bulk. Offer me a 2 or 3 disc ‘most awesome director’s bullshit’ pack. I’ll buy it, I’ll be like a republican at a rubbish tip. Choose your metaphor. I just want to buy it!”

“Wait till it’s released find a pirate bay proxy or see if 123 movies is streaming it!”

“I’ll just torrent the fuck out of it”

…and so on.

Putting aside yet another argument about piracy culture in Australia, can we not all simply agree that telling a creator that you intend to rip them off is just really rude? These people are supposed to be fans, for crying out loud. What’s weirder is the tenor of some of these comments – it’s as though they expect Gaiman to be sympathetic. He won’t be, folks, despite his previous statements on book piracy. Indeed, it turns out he views our tendency to torrent as a weakness of character:

Which is a pretty sick burn on the eve of Anzac Day.

American Gods will premiere on Amazon Prime Video on May 1, 2017. Customers who are not already Amazon Prime Video members can sign up for a free 7-day trial at PrimeVideo.com.

Read our review here.