Slashdot Mirror
MPAA Cracking Down on TV Torrent Sites
sallgeud writes "It appears the other shoe has dropped and the MPAA is now going after sites which link to torrents of TV shows. The beef with redistributing copyrighted material seems to make sense... but I'm wondering if it makes a difference in the world of DVR. The vast majority of downloads appeared to be of content that is broadcast free over the airwaves. I'm wondering how much different this is than going after Tivo? Would these sites have been hit with lawsuits if they had stuck to purely over-the-air broadcasts?"
It's a dupe.
#1) The commercials are typically ripped out.
#2) Even if the commercials were kept in you could still fast forward through them.
#3) They don't control it. Nor would they probably want such a model because it wouldn't allow them the same amount of power as before (i.e. with these so called "television sets").
How many TV torrents still contain the original advertisements they aired with? I'm thinking in the region of.. hmm... zero? Now, how is all this "free to air" television subsidised? Oh? Advertisements?
... what exactly?
Actually, I'm downloading the episode of Dr Who that I missed last night. The original contained no advertisiments, and is subsidised by the tax that I pay in the UK. Now the reason why I shouldn't download it again is
ALso I'm really not sure what the difference is between downloading an American show that I missed a few weeks ago on the Sci-fi channel (yup, again I pay for that), and recording it with a VCR, DVR, TiVo or whatnot.
My Karma: ran over your Dogma
StrawberryFrog
From my own experience I can tell you one does not need to be an expat to have the same problem.
I have lived in quite many countries - Canada, USA, France, Sweden etc. While abroad, I learnt to love many programs we do not get in my native country, for example Leno, O'Brien and Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I have also adopted a lot of the other cultures along the way. For example, I find american political life hugely interesting (and slightly amusing).
Anyways, there is no way for me currently to obtain these shows other than using bittorrent.
What strikes me as odd is, why don't the TV channels just embrace us "global" people as a new market segment rather than just trying to act all hostile. Historically, customers were segmented and marketed by where they live as you also had to shop there. By this, you formed your 4P's of marketing. That is not true anymore. I, a person living in Finland, can have very similar needs and a mindset as a person living in California. Thanks to global trade and the promise of e-commerce, I can also be marketed very similar products. There are countless examples of products I have bought online that I have seen advertised elsewhere than my home country. Books, clothing etc.
I guess the main problem is, that with media, the products is differentiated to the max. There is only one company that can provide me with "the daily show" or the newest CD by Moby. With no substitutes available...
(And here is something for you that say "why don't you download music by bands that distribute it online". Different pieces of music are just NOT substitutes)
oblivionx (an op on #bt @ efnet): "The site was not shut down, we took it offline. The MPAA has NOT contacted us yet, so as of right now we are not in a lawsuit."
The channel was back to normal before (with the latest Dr. Who ep), but has since been set +m.
Real programmers don't comment their code. It was hard to write, it should be hard to understand.
The best part about the BBC is that there are no adverts to block anyway.
In the near future, the entire library of BBC programs as broadcast will be available online.
It is already happening with the radio shows and other material.
At that point, most of the torrents and other p2p links for bbc material should begin to dry up.
I pay for the BBC, and find their attitude to the web refreshing in todays over commerialised world.
Some links:
bbc home page
News about opening archive
liqbase
Let's see:
So let's see section 106:
So yeah -- unless there's some applicable exception here (I wouldn't bet on it) -- it's illegal.
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
I understand, and I don't care that you don't care. And so on. I think I understand why the editors dupe, it's because they're jaded and don't give a shit, not because they want to give you a second chance to read a story. (This isn't radio, you know. Stories don't need to be repeated on the hour, you can just page back and see every story ever posted if you feel like it.) I do care about the lack of professionalism. If you don't like that; put me on your foe/freak list, however that works (I've never bothered to find out), maybe it'll filter me out.