Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

MPAA Cracking Down on TV Torrent Sites

Posted by Zonk on from the late-lamented-btefnet dept.

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?"

4 of 436 comments (clear)

  1. Repost by Xeo+024 · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's a dupe.

  2. Here are three by mindaktiviti · · Score: 4, Informative

    #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").

  3. Re:Well yes, they would... by StrawberryFrog · · Score: 4, Informative

    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?

    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 ... what exactly?

    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

  4. Re:Is that a serious question? by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 4, Informative

    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 :: faster than paper