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TV Torrents — When Piracy Is Easier Than Purchase

An anonymous reader writes "NBC's recent withdrawal from the iTunes store leaves the millions of Apple's customers who have Macs or iPods without a legitimate way to purchase and watch NBC's content. Online media stores such as iTunes, Amazon and Walmart have never been able to compete with the pirates on price, or freedom and flexibility — as the content they sell is typically wrapped in restrictive DRM. The one advantage that legal purchase offered was ease of use. CNET looks into the issue, and discovers that with mature open-source media players such as Miro supporting BitTorrent RSS feeds, it is actually trivially easy for users to subscribe to their favorite shows. Want to wake up to the latest episode of The Colbert Report, Top Gear or any of hundreds of TV shows automatically downloaded and waiting for you? CNET offers an easy three step guide."

6 of 474 comments (clear)

  1. Re:No legitimate way to watch NBCs content? by Pope · · Score: 0, Troll

    Man you people are whiny.

    1. Get one cheap, or a tuner card.
    2. Most TV shows are usually lower res than computer screens, so no loss.
    3. TVs have had these wonderful things called built-in speakers for a very long time.
    4. You don't need cable to watch TV, there's these things called rabbit ears that have worked for years.
    5. It's one simple fucking cable from the tuner to the TV for HDMI, or a triple set for component. It's not exactly rocket science.
    6. VCRs are dead cheap, or you can install MythTV for your tuner card.

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    It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
  2. Re:No legitimate way to watch NBCs content? by Rakishi · · Score: 0, Troll

    >>1. Get one cheap, or a tuner card.

    Which would cost me space, time and so on.

    >>2. Most TV shows are usually lower res than computer screens, so no loss.

    I can get rather nice HD downloads.

    >>3. TVs have had these wonderful things called built-in speakers for a very long time.

    And are crap usually compared to the speakers my computer has.

    >>4. You don't need cable to watch TV, there's these things called rabbit ears that have worked for years.

    Worked being a relative term.

    >>6. VCRs are dead cheap, or you can install MythTV for your tuner card.

    Yet more time and annoyance wasted to get it working.

  3. Re:No legitimate way to watch NBCs content? by Rakishi · · Score: 0, Troll

    I never said that. I'm perfectly willing to pay for entertainment. I'm not however willing to pay for things which I have no need for to view that entertainment with simply because someone said I need them. It's quite wasteful to buy redundant things and I already have too much junk.

  4. Re:Fox has there shows online with less ad's then by Scrameustache · · Score: 1, Troll

    Fox has there shows online with less ad's then on tv and it download a lot faster then an torrent. That reads like Fox material :-|
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    You can't take the sky from me...

  5. Re:No legitimate way to watch NBCs content? by heinousjay · · Score: 1, Troll

    Right, that means you aren't willing to pay for the entertainment. Does this somehow justify piracy? I don't see how, but then again, I'm not an asshole.

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    Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
  6. Re:No legitimate way to watch NBCs content? by Scudsucker · · Score: 0, Troll

    doesn't mean you can steal their shit.

    Don't be a tool for the industry. It's not stealing, never has been and never will be. Else the RIAA would be pressing charges of theft against downloaders rather than suing them for copyright infringement. And it's also not about getting it for "free", as it's only free if your time is worthless. It's about the convieneince. And NBC is making it far less convenient to get their shows legally.