Television Piracy Flourishes Online

Top 10 pirated TV shows according to BayTSP for December 2005.

• 'Top Gear'
• 'Desperate Housewives'
• 'South Park'
• 'The Simpsons'
• 'Lost'
• 'CSI: Miami'
• 'Nip/Tuck'
• 'American Dad'
• 'Alias'
• 'Prison Break'

Cheers!

Xcalibur

On Wed, 25 Jan 2006 07:09:42 GMT, Xcalibur wrote:

Not all will agree with my sentiments on this, but I have a hard time considering the download of a broadcast television show "piracy." It's really no different than setting a VCR or DVR to record it for later viewing. How many times have you set your recording device to capture a show, only to have it delayed by an NFL game or Presidential speech? Would you consider downloading the show only to watch it because you didn't record it as you planned?

I can see a point if it's from a network that's only available through a cable or satellite subscription that you don't already pay for, but in such a case as I mentioned above, I don't see anything unethical about downloading a show to watch solely for personal use.

John Yossarian wrote:

But the industry has to keep screaming "PIRACY" so they can continue the fantsay about how much money is being stolen from them, so they can get further subsidies from Congress.

3 letters:

DVD

If you download TV shows, you don't need to buy DVD's. And the sets for most of those shows are quite pricey, so look at all the money they can't make off of Lost and CSI Miami...

On Wed, 25 Jan 2006, Sean Walsh wrote:

I see a few holes in the DVD argument. Broadcast shows aren't traditionally paid for directly by the consumer. They're paid for by advertisers. In the case of DVD, all you're really paying for is the cost to author, package, and distribute the disks. The "show" has already been paid for. That's (part of the reason) why there are no commercials on the DVD.

So, although downloading may complicate the DVD model, I don't see how it interferes with broadcast TV. That is, assuming the DL retains all the original commercials. In fact, a smart exec on any of those listed shows (broadcast moreso than cable) could make the point that their audience is considerably larger than what Nielson suggests, nd advertisers should pay them /more/ to reach those people.

-Bill

Why don't they just release the dvds when the show's aired instead of waiting for months ?

On 25 Jan 2006 06:58:08 -0800, "Sean Walsh" wrote:

The flip side of that argument...the time to download and make DVDs vs the cost of buying the DVDs (and getting the extras). I fully realize that I could easily download every FG episode, convert to DVD compatible and burn my own. However, it's an easy decision when I think of the time spent creating a hypothetical "counterfeit" DVD set against spending the $30-40 on buying the real thing...my time is worth much more than that.

Of course, I'm not including those who might try to profit from the creation of bootleg DVDs, but I don't think it's right to lump everyone who downloads an occasional episode of a broadcast TV show in with these types of people.

Especially when those who make a profit out of counterfeit DVDs actually own the originals and rip them to sell copies of the real thing...

The same argument could be made for people who merely recorded the shows on their DVR. There is no fundamental difference between somebody recording a broadcast off free television and somebody downloading that same broadcast off the internet. Anybody who says otherwise is full of it.

On 25 Jan 2006 06:58:08 -0800, "Sean Walsh" wrote:

And how is that any different than capping the shows myself? No matter how good the quality of the cap is, it's still not going to be the DVD, either in quality or content.

"Xcalibur" wrote in message news:[email]...

"Piracy" is such a ridiculous misnomer. Piracy implies stealing (a criminal offence), and downloading shows is copyright infringment (a civil offence). The use of emotive language to demonise a practice is nothing new.

thanks for the list, though :)

Doesn't piracy involve violence as well ?

"Blastrou" wrote in message news:[email]...

Nope - it just means robbery, usually at sea.

On Wed, 25 Jan 2006 07:09:42 GMT, Xcalibur wrote:

uh tell us something we dont know!

On Wed, 25 Jan 2006 07:09:42 GMT, Xcalibur wrote:

The argument about DVR's and DVD's are valid to a point,,,,DVR's have the ability to sift through the commercials thereby negating the effectivness of the commercials. DVD's have extra quality and content that is not shown on TV thereby cancelling out what you may get from a capped episode online.

I've been capping South Park episodes since Season 3 of that show under the same nic I am using here and will probably start doing so for the FG episodes only because I just discovered what a jewel they are and would love to have the whole collection myself.

I don't see anything wrong with capping and letting other people download them,,,,,,mostly what they would get from a DVD but not quite and the only thing I do is cut out the commercials.

anyway, just my $.02

Id@

Really? Where can I get Top Gear? I've been jonesing since it went off Discovery in October and I lost my BBC World access.

Is there an alt.binaries group where it shows up regularly?

...Sean.