Downloading movies- Definately Illegal (At least until they air on TV).
TV Shows, however, are a completely different story. For one, the broadcast signals are availiable in HD to everybody, at any time. In fact, they're flowing right through you and me right now. So any show broadcast in your area can't be illegal to download since you already had access to it.
That being said, I also pay for cable (from the same company that provides my internet access and therefore, my ability to download shows to begin with;-)). Therefore any show that I download that played on any one of the many cable channels that I get can't be illegal for me to download since I already had access to it. That being said, I can understand downloading a show from, say, HBO if you're not paying for HBO being illegal.
People will argue that what makes it illegal is that the commercials are taken out of the shows. There are several problems with this argument- 1. I don't have to watch the commercials on TV anyway. I'm free to channel surf or whatever. If I were recording the shows on a VCR I could pause the recording during commercials so they weren't recorded anyway. So, for downloaded shows it's like someone on the internet offered to hold the remote and pause your VCR during the commercials for you, for free. Plus, TiVo and Windows MCE let you skip commercials anyway. 2. The TV companies don't get any more money if I watch the commercials or not. You are not paying for the TV shows by watching the commercials- companies are paying for the TV shows in return for the commercials being shown- not necessarily watched (thought that's their hope). Plus I'm not a neilson family so I don't determine the ratings for any show, and thus have no bearing on the amount paid per minute of commercial.
And the final reason why TV shows are legal to download (or should be) is that the people compressing them and removing the commercials are doing so for free. They are not profiting off of someone else's work, but doing it as a favor. The best analogy, as I see it, is if I were to buy a new HDTV and invite all of my friends over to my house to watch The West Wing, and I turned the TV off during the commercials. Is that illegal? No? Then neither should downloading TV shows be.
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Downloading movies- Definately Illegal (At least until they air on TV). TV Shows, however, are a completely different story. For one, the broadcast signals are availiable in HD to everybody, at any time. In fact, they're flowing right through you and me right now. So any show broadcast in your area can't be illegal to download since you already had access to it. That being said, I also pay for cable (from the same company that provides my internet access and therefore, my ability to download shows to begin with ;-)). Therefore any show that I download that played on any one of the many cable channels that I get can't be illegal for me to download since I already had access to it. That being said, I can understand downloading a show from, say, HBO if you're not paying for HBO being illegal.
People will argue that what makes it illegal is that the commercials are taken out of the shows. There are several problems with this argument- 1. I don't have to watch the commercials on TV anyway. I'm free to channel surf or whatever. If I were recording the shows on a VCR I could pause the recording during commercials so they weren't recorded anyway. So, for downloaded shows it's like someone on the internet offered to hold the remote and pause your VCR during the commercials for you, for free. Plus, TiVo and Windows MCE let you skip commercials anyway. 2. The TV companies don't get any more money if I watch the commercials or not. You are not paying for the TV shows by watching the commercials- companies are paying for the TV shows in return for the commercials being shown- not necessarily watched (thought that's their hope). Plus I'm not a neilson family so I don't determine the ratings for any show, and thus have no bearing on the amount paid per minute of commercial.
And the final reason why TV shows are legal to download (or should be) is that the people compressing them and removing the commercials are doing so for free. They are not profiting off of someone else's work, but doing it as a favor. The best analogy, as I see it, is if I were to buy a new HDTV and invite all of my friends over to my house to watch The West Wing, and I turned the TV off during the commercials. Is that illegal? No? Then neither should downloading TV shows be.