Louis CK On Piracy In Australia: 'The Whole Country Pirates TV'

Imagine walking up to Louis CK and telling him you pirated his show. That's what the majority of Aussies did on his recent visit here, which made the comedian realise just how bad piracy is in Australia compared to the US.

Louis CK knows a few things about distributing content. He made a boatload from his $5 special experiment which saw him put up a copy of his comedy show for $5 from anywhere in the world.

After his initial $5 experiment, Louis CK released more shows at his "drastically low price", including Live at the Beacon, Live at Carnegie Hall and The Crowd Work Tour featuring several other comedians. Purchasers are free to share the DRM-less files.

It was a beautiful experiment in pricing and availability as the cure for piracy, and now he's finally figured out why the so-called worst nation for piracy in the world resorts to downloading content illegally.

Speaking on the Opie and Anthony Show on US satellite radio network Sirius XM a few months ago, Louis CK recalled spending some time in Australia. Despite the fact that hs hit show Louie doesn't air here, Aussies were still telling him how much they loved it.

They were admitting to the show's star and creator that they were pirating his material.

That led CK to the conclusion that everyone in Australia pirates content because there's no other way to get it here.

The whole country pirates there. [In the US] weirdos pirate things, but in Australia, moms and dads pirate video, because we're not letting them buy it. We're keeping it from them," he said.

"Everybody in the world is like 'take my fucking credit card' and just let me have the thing, and I'll pay. But if you're going to be a pain in the ass, fuck you! I can steal all of it!"

"So the whole country rips TV," he added.

He doesn't know how right he is.

Campbell Simpson also contributed to this report.

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