Wil Wheaton wants ratings, but won't complain if you pirate his new show

Last year we were somewhat amazed when HBO and the Game of Thrones producer went on record saying that piracy was not hurting the show, and they were just happy it was so popular. Now Wil Wheaton, who is famously a friend of geeks, is taking a similar stance.

Wheaton's new show, aptly named The Wil Wheaton Project, will require access to the SyFy network, which leaves out many potential viewers. Those who have cut the cord can still catch the debut episode via Hulu, but there is a catch to that as well -- it will not stream to the Hulu Plus service, blocking it from set-top boxes like Roku and Fire TV. You will have to watch it on your computer.

Or, if you are so minded, then you could utilize BitTorrent and, if you do, Wheaton will not stop you. In a post to his Google+ page, Wheaton stated "I really want everyone in the world to see my show, because I'm super proud of it and I think a lot of you will enjoy it. If you have to use alternative means to see it, I'm not going to try to stop you. BUT -- if you can watch it in some way that the network can score (on broadcast or via one of the legally-supported websites), please do that, because the more people who watch it in a way the network can count, the more likely it is they will order a full season of the show".

So there you go. Watch through your cable or satellite service if you can, but if you are forced to piracy, Wheaton still wants you to watch. If only more movie and TV show producers took this stance, and realized that piracy isn't killing them, it's helping to build hype.

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