We've spent a lot of time writing about online TV because we believe it's a technology that will change landscapes and lifestyles profoundly and radically in the next few years.

When we went wandering the web for the best sites you can visit if you want to throw away your television and watch all your shows online, we found that there are already plenty of options, and it seems all but inevitable that someday all TV will be delivered over your internet connection. Sure, it might be delivered to your living room TV set instead of your laptop or iPod after all (actually, you'll be able to watch it on all three), but whatever form it takes, there's no denying that it's going to happen.

Or you'd think that, wouldn't you? The folks who make the shows we love aren't ready to admit that the world is changing. They just don't get it. Until they do, they'll make things more difficult than they need to be for both themselves and their viewers. We touched on this when the news came that Boxee would lose Hulu, but there's an even bigger issue these guys need to deal with: piracy.

This past weekend, the series finale of the popular TV series Battlestar Galactica aired on cable television in the United States. For cable TV that was a major event, but the show has a strong following of young people, geeks, and the other demographics known for watching their TV online. Unfortunately, the premiere online at Hulu is delayed until eight days after the air date. As a result, we're certain thousands of would-be viewers have turned to piracy to get their fix. As with the Hulu/Boxee breakdown, we don't believe for a minute that it's the team at Hulu who are messing this up; it's the studios that own the shows who are shooting themselves in the foot.

These restrictive strategies will all end in tears. The problem is that the producers of the content are not fully acknowledging that they're directly competing online with BitTorrent and other less-than-wholly-legal file sharing communities and services. There's an upcoming generation of college students and other folks out there who insist on getting their TV online when they want it, whether the source is legal or not. And all these shows they're delaying or restricting? They're available for free with no commercials in HD quality on BitTorrent three hours after they air on live TV every night. We're not condoning piracy by pointing this out. We don't need to condone it or condemn it; people will do it either way.

Most of them would prefer to get this stuff legally and easily. If they're told they can't for eight days, though, they'll get it by means that are a little less legal or easy. Yep, that sucks, but that's the way it is.

There are market forces at work here. It's like the war on drugs, prohibition, or building fences on the Mexico-United States border; they can shout that what's happening isn't legal — that the world shouldn't be this way – all they want, but wishing won't make it so. There's no way they can enforce these laws because the market forces are far more powerful than the principles.

Piracy may be illegal, but most users know they won't get caught. The industry giants can't win their hearts and minds this time. They must win the battle on market terms. If the show is available commercial-free three hours after air on BitTorrent, they have to get it up faster. If it's in a one gigabyte HD video file on BitTorrent, they have to serve it in better compression and better quality. If it takes ten minutes to find it and figure out how to download it on BitTorrent, they have to make it take three minutes.

The music industry has already gone through this. Its products have already become public goods. It's surviving and winning ground back by becoming a service instead of a commodity. There's no other way.

It shouldn't be difficult, actually. The geeks who capture and seed pirated TV episodes are decidedly out of touch with what most people want or are willing to deal with, putting the movies together in obscure codecs and wrapping them in file archives requiring unfamiliar software to unpack. Torrent sites are filled with arcane acronyms and tech slang. Torrent clients are hardly user-friendly. Most people don't want the hassle. Believe it or not, the pirates are only a tiny bit more in touch with reality than the industry is.

So consider this your second warning, TV industry. You can win this, but you'll have to change your strategy. Stop swimming against the current. It never worked for anybody.

[Header image courtesy of Flickr user Earl - What I Saw 2.0. Used via Creative Commons.]