Downloading TV Shows - good or bad?
By Valce1
@Valce1 (173)
Canada
September 9, 2007 2:02pm CST
Please note that this is about TV shows only, things get tricky when you're talking about more than one form of media. Please see my other discussions for movies and music :)
Downloading TV shows - people do it all the time. Some even download it legitimately from iTunes or somesuch. But is that okay?
TV shows do take a lot of time and money to produce, and don't even cost you anything to watch. But aside from downloading shows to catch up (a practice many new TV shows are even encouraging), what about downloading shows to avoid watching them on TV?
Is it okay to download something for free that is essentially provided to you for free (minus cable TV fees of course) anyway? Do you download TV shows? If so, for what reasons?
Lemme know :)
1 response
@goinliveinfive (561)
• United States
9 Sep 07
I'm not sure how much hot water you can get into for downloading network shows (that is to say, I'm not sure how much the networks monitor that since it's already available over public airwaves) but I can tell you from experience to stray a way from premium cable shows. I downloaded a few episodes of The Sopranos last year and even using a proxy server, even using an IP anonymizer, even using a commercial hardware firewall, HBO figured out who I was and reported my IP to COmcast who sent me a friendly letter telling me to cut it out.
@Valce1 (173)
• Canada
10 Sep 07
Really??
My friend got served an MPAA letter way back in the day... Back when the MPAA was just sending letters and not suing everybody and their grandma. Another friend got a letter from his provider asking him to stop downloading because he was pulling like 60gig a month...
It seems scary, I know! But in many places letters like that are a load of hocus, and you can just ignore them. The worst they can do is deny you service. In the United States though, there's this whole ugly legal mess...
Was it just the premium shows that caused you trouble? Isn't The Sopranos on like Fox? [I've never watched it... lol]
@goinliveinfive (561)
• United States
10 Sep 07
It's an HBO show. The trick is to find a private group that hosts them and NOT use BitTorrent. That's how I got in trouble. The major movie and production studios monitor BitTorrent, sometimes host files and go fishing for people to harass. Thankfully my ISP has a policy of not divulging the names of users who commit DMCA violations and the copyright holders usually don't sue over TV episodes. It's far more economical to try and scare you into compliance. It scared me out of using a huge public network, but compliance? Surely you jest. I pay for HBO and you're going to tell me I can't retain a copy of their shows? Tough noogies...
