‘South Park’ Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone Believe That Digital Piracy Helped The Show Rather Than Hurting It
Unlike poor little Lars Ulrich, Trey Parker and Matt Stone can buy any gold-plated shark tank pool bar they want, even though they (used to) let everyone watch every episode of South Park for free.In the modern age of subscription streaming services, when an $11.99/month Spotify plan is enough to scratch the itch for the majority of music fans who follow big-name acts like Metallica, you don’t really hear about artists waging high-profile legal campaigns against illegal file-sharing anymore. Back in 2000, the court case of Metallica v. Napster, Inc. was front-page news throughout the country, and the fear that digital piracy would destroy the music industry and leave its biggest stars destitute was shockingly common.Then, in 2003, South Park skewered the most wealthy, celebrated and successful songwriters in the world with the classic episode “Christian Rock Hard,” in which Stan, Kyle and Kenny start a movement in the music industry to end piracy while Cartman gamed the Christian Rock racket for his own massive success.
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In the South Park Season 7 DVD commentary, Parker and Stone explained why they mocked Ulrich, the rest of Metallica, Britney Spears, Master P, Blink-182 and Skyler Morse for acting like Napster and Limewire were responsible for a civil rights crisis. Parker and Stone even expressed their opinion that digital piracy of South Park content during its early years helped to turn their show into an international phenomenon – a viewpoint that the lawyers of Skydance Media probably don't share.
“I remember, on the writers' retreat, we came up with the idea to do a show about downloading music,” Parker said of the “Christian Rock Hard” genesis, “Because all that stuff was going down on the internet and everyone was getting busted.”
Said Parker of the “Christian Rock Hard” B-story and the above clip, “I like the moment in this when they go – they get busted, and then they're like, ‘Well, we didn’t think downloading music was a big deal,' and then the guy, kind of in A Christmas Carol style and shows them the harm they're doing.'”“Obviously, artists need to get paid for what they do, and we get paid really well for what we do,” Parker explained of his personal thoughts on digital piracy, “But, then you find out that, like, South Park was one of the first shows to get downloaded on the internet and be all over the place, and everyone getting it for free over the internet, and it didn't hurt us at all. It actually helped the show."“It helped us so much,” Stone agreed. “Most of the time, people who are downloading music and shows, too, it's not like they're like, ‘I’m going to go buy that show! No, I'll download it instead.'”
Stone continued, “Although that does happen, they're mostly people who are just like, ‘Yeah, I dunno, I’ll just download it, I don't know if I like that.' … they probably wouldn't have bought it anyway.” Presumably, that's why, in 2008, Parker and Stone launched a website dedicated to allowing current or prospective South Park fans to stream their entire back-catalog for free. Of course, the legendary South Park Studios website, which, for many now-die-hard fans was their first experience with the franchise, has since discontinued its public library service, as the studio – which Parker and Stone co-own with Paramount Global – has since secured some pretty massive streaming deals.
The Parker and Stone of today probably aren't as pro-piracy as they were in 2003, but, then again, the entertainment business has caught on to the fact that most people don't actually want to pay to own every piece of music, film and television that they casually consume – although buying the South Park box sets are the only way to legally ensure that Paramount never meddles with our South Park streaming experience again.
