Music videos and TV shows should have been offered for online purchase a long time ago. The problem is that unless you have high quality encoding then it won't catch on.

I won't buy MP3's/AAC's online when you get better quality on P2P programs - an option for what quality you want to download from the iTunes store wouldn't go-a-miss.

Yes in this world of fast internet I wonder how far we are from an iTunes for tv shows. Steam is trying to do it for games.

______________________
We don't go to Ravenholm.

I use bit torrent a lot for tv shows. I use my tv out and play episodes I missed straight on my tv. I don't need a VCR. Oh, and if I really like a TV show I usually get it on DVD. I own a few seasons of Homicide, Futurama, Family Guy and Band of Brothers. I could have just downloaded them all.

I don't see any problem with this. Should I get started about movies? Fucking 14 dollar movie tickets and actors being paid millions and millions of dollars? DOWNLOAD.

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How many TV shows actually are sold per episode anyways? I'm sure you will be able to find the whole season on DVD next year sometime.

But as for downloading saved episodes that you could have saved yourself, I don't see any problem with that. It's not like you have to pay to watch it.

Er, so why didn't you just watch the damn thing?

i do, then i dl it the next day and re-watch it again.

But most importantly, since it's one of those shows where, 3 episodes later some mystery is expanded upon, i like to go back and watch the original plot 'thread' again. (Like, in episode #4 Locke SAW, up close and personal, whatever the monster thing is on the island, yet hasn't reveled that to anyone yet and the shows now up to episode #11)

VHS - player started eating tapes, no point buying another.
DVD recorder or DVR - yeah i'm gonna have to get one or both eventually, but ethically how is saving to a tivo drive any different than saving to a pc drive. only difference is technical, the file format. Also i don't have a HDTV, which is what the BT versions are.
This comment was edited on Dec 11, 20:06.

Er, so why didn't you just watch the damn thing?

I use BT to get episodes that air in the US before they get to the UK. Things like Friends, and (for the ladies in my house, honest) The OC, etc. I pay for my Sky TV, I know Ill get them eventually on tv, so I don't feel too bad. They can't claim they're losing money by me downloading it.

______________________
We don't go to Ravenholm.

When "Lost" first started airing i looked around on the ABC site to see if there was some way to get copies of the show, even on CD or DVD

Er, so why didn't you just watch the damn thing? Not on at a good time? That's what VHS is for (or, better yet, TiVo or equivalent DVR).

As for BT -- I've never used it for any illegal purpose, but I do use it. I've gotten several Fedora Core releases through it, as well as other open source software. And that's the purpose that makes it legal.

Nice little app. I install it, reboot like they ask, and when I go to run it, it locks up my entire system to the point that I have to hit the reset button.

Glad I didn't allow it to run at startup, like they wanted me to...

Uninstalled.



http://tds.nin.com/

nay, I'm not saying the -majority- of piracy occurs due to unavailability, i'm saying -a- large part, a Profitable part, of filesharing is occuring becasuse it's not being offered at all anywhere else.

When "Lost" first started airing i looked around on the ABC site to see if there was some way to get copies of the show, even on CD or DVD, cuz i really didn't want to install an undocumented, potential malware p2p app written by some guy who looks like "Booger" from Revenge of the Nerds, and then tie up my machine each week with hours of dl'ing at 75Kbs from some dubious-looking hobby site.

A significant Profitable percentage of mainstream non-hacker Consumers of multimedia like me, who would be willing to Pay for a product, maybe as part of some "On Demand!" premium package, is being ignored and Driven to a crappy-but-available service that IS offering it.
This comment was edited on Dec 11, 17:01.

While I understand the logic, I'm just not sure that the argument that piracy occurs largely because there is no legitimate alternative (such as buying recordings of TV episodes immediately after they air) really encapsulates the majority of piracy. Despite MP3 buying services and online game distribution, piracy in these areas continues unabated...

I think that it just boils down to this: Given the choice between paying for something and getting it free with (what is percieved as) very little risk, the average person will choose not to pay. This really helps explain many anti-piracy groups' actions... Random lawsuits, Kazaa viruses etc are all aimed at increasing the percieved risk.

Note I said "explain" not "excuse"... I won't state my opinion on whether these scare tactics are legitimate.

damnit leave BitTorrent alone.

a big part of the reason it's successful is because it provides a Service and a Product that people like me would be willing to PAY for but isn't being offered "legitimately".

i couldn't care less about dl'ing .mp3s or pre-release movies but i did start using BT just couple months ago to grab each episode of "Lost". I would =BUY= a copy of each episode but stupid ABC doesn't OFFER it!

it's like i'm furiously waving around a fistful of $$$ yelling - HEY! OVER HERE! PLEASE! TAKE MY MONEY! SELL ME THIS! - and them just ignoring me.