I like crowd funding for art/music projects and perhaps even for small to mid budget films but if piracy was no longer taboo, regardless of the distribution system, big budget productions would no longer be feasible. Especially if copyright and TM were no longer honored. Game of Thrones t-shirts and lunch boxes could be made by anyone, eroding profit margins and making it next to impossible to get the sort of ROI that garners such a sizable up front investment. Would GoT still be made in to a TV show? Perhaps. Would it look the same? Probably not. I don't think that the producers, actors, writers and other creatives on the project made GoT for the promise of riches but in order to make it to the level they envisioned, it took riches. [edit] The First season cost between 50 and 60 million ] The kind of riches that a kickstarter program can't currently provide. Maybe crowd sourcing is the future, and I definitely find that appealing, but as it is we are in some strange middle ground. dude.