I wish I had mod points for you, but I don't, so I'll comment instead and say that the fact that there are people willing (indeed, even eager) to compare an act as essentially harmless (as admitted by a major corporate head) as sharing some TV episodes, to the heinous and criminal act of rape, simply to try and strengthen their argument, is a good example of one of the issues facing our society: totally inappropriate hyperbole. Certainly this social issue is more important than online filesharing.
My next paragraph may make me a tad hypocritical, though perhaps illustrates my point.
The (thinly veiled) comparison to rape suggests that this person (if he/she/it is not a troll, which I guess is likely) thinks that rape is not much worse than, or even equivalent to copyright infringement. It's a logical hypothesis.
Slightly more seriously: If the poster was not a troll, then I'd guess that they're not consciously aware that they think that way, and the comparison bubbled up out of the unconscious, perhaps in reaction to seeing a somewhat charged and leading assertion, since I don't see that HBO is "inducing" anyone to infringe copyright any more than the US Mint induces people to counterfeit, though if I was going to make that point (I don't personally care to, since I would say it's irrelevant) I think I would let my argument stand on it's own without denigrating womankind or bringing up 9/11 or whatever other horror might be in fashion, since at least for a free-thinking audience, the hyperbole only serves to diminish the point.
That said I do think it's somewhat refreshing to hear a corporate spokesperson admit what most of us have known for years, that casual online (or offline) sharing of copyrighted content, on the whole, is at worst economically neutral, since much of it amounts to free advertising, as some of the people that obtain or and/or provide an infringing copy will also spend money on the same or similar content, or cause others to, since people will spend money on stuff they like.