I thought this was intreasting was someone else said on another site,
Downloading/Watching TV shows the PC. Illegal or not?
Badly worded yes! Anywho....The newest topic got me to thinking. We all know about movies, music, software.....they are all things that people go back and forth about "Its illegal" "No its not!".
But what about TV shows? Now before people make a robotic "Its illegal" response. Think about it. We will use the show LOST for instance, who cares if you like it or not, its just an example. Its not something we pay for. So I someone puts it on the net and we watch it/download it how could it be illegal? Theres no way to buy it! Some comanies are putting their shows on their sites so you can "stream" them and watch them so you don't go download them.
I am sure this can get into a really deep debate about "Well what about when the series comes out on DVD?"....if it does....etc. But the question is simple. Is it REALLY illegal to download/watch TV shows.
Oh, and I thought I would throw this little wrench into it. If its illegal why are we allowed recording tv shows(VCR, Tivo, DVD Recorders) and keeping them? The only time your supposedly NOT allowed recording them is major sports events (it says so before they start!). Something to think about.
Then someone replied,
I believe i heard somewhere that its illegal to download some to protect the interests of an broadcaster. If everybody downloads from the Internet, the number of viewers declines. If the number of viewers drops, so does the value of the commercial time.
This also explains why recording the show is legal. Your still be watching it from their channel with the commercials.
However, several produces allow their fans to download them from the Internet, to gain more fans of the show faster. Until the DVD arrives that is, after that they shut down every torrent they can.
Personally i think it should be legal to do so if every other mean of watching them, like on television or DVD, is gone.