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A third of us are TV pirates: survey

apcstart.com — Over a third of broadband users are now regularly downloading pirated television episodes on their home internet connection, according to Whirlpool's latest survey of over 16,000 of its members.

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danwarne 2 years 132 days ago, made popular 2 years 131 days ago

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12Volts, on 10/12/2007, -74/+7What is TV?
- icefrakker, on 10/12/2007, -60/+13what is a stupid joke?
- iruel, on 10/12/2007, -11/+45all the tv i watch now is downloaded, i'm currently watching the x-files do you know how hard and expensive it would be to track down all 9 seasons of the x-files? the only thing i watch on actual tv is sports, mostly hockey.
  GO OILERS GO!
- PiGuy, on 10/12/2007, -53/+12http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/002-4807985-9352069?%5Fencoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=dvd&field-keywords=xfiles&page=1
  
  That was hard
- aroot, on 10/12/2007, -6/+56PiGuy: you really think $90 is a fair price for one season of a TV show?
  
  gouge, Function: noun
  [...]
  3 : an excessive or improper exaction : extortion
- Scruffydan, on 10/12/2007, -7/+33This 90 dollars go to support poor actors like David Ducovney and Gillian Anderson.
  
  Think of it like giving to charity...
- PiGuy, on 10/12/2007, -10/+13I don't believe I ever commented about my feelings on its price. However, do you feel $0 is a more appropriate figure? Apparently the user who wants to watch the show must feel its worth of some value to him, and if thats the case why shouldn't he pay for it? What's wrong with supporting a show you enjoy?
- aroot, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16No, I don't think that $0 is a more appropriate amount to pay. What I'm trying to point out is that if the product costs too much, people will look elsewhere. You seem to have missed the part of iruel's comment that stated "do you know how hard and _expensive_ it would be to track down all 9 seasons of the x-files?" (emphasis mine)
- DoubtfulSalmon, on 10/12/2007, -18/+4Wow! Check it out! An unreliable source reporting on an unreliable source!
  
  APC Magazine is a two-bit rag that 'reports' once a month on stuff they've been paid by advertisers to report on, sells "Editors Choice" awards to the highest bidder, and picks up a bit of 'news' here and there by browsing the net. They're certainly not in any way credible.
  
  Whirlpool.net. Well, think of it as Australia's own broadband kiddie haven. All Whirlpool members follow the same evolution: "What broadband should I get?, why is it taking so long for my broadband to be connected?, my broadband provider is teh suck!, how do I torrent?". Of *course* they all pirate TV - that's what they do!!!
  
  The Whirlpool members who don't pirate TV *wish* that they could, it's just that they can't figure out how - they're not at l33t as they wish they were.
  
  Nothing to see here. no digg, lame
- PiGuy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Fair enough, and yes, legal torrents/iTunes version would be the way to go if the studios could get their acts together.
- charbarred, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Just for the record, amazon uk is selling each x files season for £12.97...(too scared to paste a link here...)
- cheesechick, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I don't think $90 is a fair price for one season necessarily (though it does have GOBS of extras if you want them), but I think $50 is. So buy the new thin-pack $50 sets. That's what I've been doing. :P
- mrgreen4242, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9If iTune's TV shows were a buck an episode and HD resolutions (or at least anamorphic DVD quality) they would be raping my wallet right now. But, they're not, so until then...
- RadiatedAnt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Sooo, how much money are the public television networks losing out on by downloading these copies? Is it just me or is this whole thing rediculous.
- fredinator, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5I don't think $90 is a good price for a TV show. TV is free so the shows should be free and come with advertising.
- serpentor, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5X-Files was funded and paid for (and profited handsomely) from its advertisers when it originally aired. Syndication of the show is just more money down Ruport Murdoch's pockets (and the actors, producers, etc). DVD sales are now a tertiary "icing on the cake". How much "future creativity" is at risk by pirating this show (or any off-the-air show) vs pirating more current media?
vedichymn, on 10/12/2007, -5/+25This is a misleading article title. It's a survey done of Australians, by an Australian ISP. It lists a number of complaints about the TV networks that seem to be specific to Australia.
- Tyrekicker, on 10/12/2007, -3/+22WRONG! It is not a survey conducted by an Australian ISP. Whirlpool is an independant Australian broadband website. They conduct this 'state of Australian broadband' survey every year.
  
  See the full survey results here:
  
  http://whirlpool.net.au/survey/2005/
  
  Although I agree the title is misleading. It should be "A third of Australian broadband users are TV pirates"
- DoubtfulSalmon, on 10/12/2007, -5/+7@Tyrekicker: "A third of Australian broadband users are TV pirates"
  
  No, that's not right either. "A third of the kiddies who signed up for Whirlpool.net are TV pirates".
  
  (ie: an absolutely miniscule percentage of the general population. Whirlpool is a wannabe geek boy site for broadband fanboys (why the hell you'd want to go all fanboy over broadband I dunno, but they do!). It's got *nothing* to do with real life, and any survey of their members *cannot* be generalised to the general population)
- Agret, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"No, that's not right either. "A third of the kiddies who signed up for Whirlpool.net are TV pirates"."
  
  Obviously you don't live in Australia and use Whirlpool..... Whirlpool has tons of experienced ISP staff and people in the IT workforce. There are hardly any kiddies on there, it's an ISP discussion site after all. How many kids pay for their internet? It's pretty much all adults......
szelij, on 10/12/2007, -17/+5Well its in Australia, you know the networks there suck...and well it's Australia!
noisyb, on 10/12/2007, -4/+35This is FUD! TV was "pirated" all the time.... by VCR's!

Recording and sharing TV isn't even piracy when you have had the commercials removed, dammit!

Don't you people let you talk into such BS!
itsallgeektome, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10I don't think it's so much that they don't like you watching the episodes (As long as the commercials are intact). I think it's more of a matter of controlling the content and means of distribution.
- wthnow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Id digg this more if I could
- szembek, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1How many pirated television episodes do you find with the commercials intact?
Willis, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5As long as it's the only way I can get the up to date, unedited episodes of Top Gear I'll be downloading them weekly.
- howrare, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8the bbc now streams the whole of top gear at least within the uk
  
  http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctwo/
- NoQuarter, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10I live in the UK and have attempted to use the BBC streaming of Top Gear when I've missed an episode. I stopped 5 minutes into episode one while Hammond was in his pink car. The stream was of very low quality and it regularly paused to buffer.
  
  A torrent may take two or three hours, but it will be in TV quality with less fussing over streams. Neither version has advertising, and I own a TV license, so what's the actual problem? The BBC don't even sell proper DVDs of the show (only short clips-based ones afaik).
- sabbac, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I download Top Gear all the time, Can't watch it here in the States any other way. best show on TV!
- ahmerhussain, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2@ NoQuarter
  
  2 to 3 hours for a torrent?!
  
  maybe if you are downloading 6 episodes or so, or the torrent is poorly seeded, or you're going for that hi-res AC3 file.
  
  It took me 18 mins to get the 24 season finale off BT (hdtv-lol.avi on http://TVTorrents.com)
  3 mins for this anime show I watch. (http://yhbt.mine.nu)
felchdonkey, on 10/12/2007, -5/+18Oh - I thought the title meant transvestite pirates. That would have been cool to see.
- JohnboiWaltune, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Yarrr, swab me pegleg matey...
templest, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Question: I download TV Shows all the time. (that's not the question)
*Although*, I *do* pay for all the channels where these TV Shows are being broadcast,
I just don't happen to be home when they're being aired.

Does that make me a pirate? (this is the question)

If not, then how can you safely assume that a good portion of those people surveyed,
aren't in my same position? (another question thrown in there, just for good measure)
- MrC539, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Yes it does. Even though it may sound ridiculous, you cannot download copyrighted material without permission, even if you already paid for the channel. Of course, some cable channels like HBO offer "On Demand" programs for free since there are no commercial breaks during HBO programming.
- tutivlahos, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5What if you recorded on a dvd? Is it piracy? Its the same thing for me.
  
  Like with Pc games, you are allowed to backup your games, as long as you have the original.
- Xsecrets, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4yes and the studios are now starting to send out copywrite infringement letters now that they have online versions of the shows.
- aroot, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4It would probably be a lot easier if anything copyrighted just wasn't allowed to be shown on TV. No more lawsuits over DVRs, VCRs, etc.
  
  Down with idea-slavery!
Chompy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18Note to industry: this is what consumers want. Give it to us, and you can make money from it. Refuse (or waste millions trying to fight it), and we'll just take it anyway and you get bupkis.
- UnnDunn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6You'd think the TV and movie industries would get this, but no. The only things they are interested in selling are crap-quality 4:3 shows designed to be viewed on a 2.5" screen.
  
  If, tomorrow, someone came up with a subscription or pay-per-download TV store that delivered files comparable to what you get with a torrent, i think it would clean up. I'm hoping Urge provides that when they get into TV shows.
carguy84, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Are they including Tivos in this, because otherwise there's no way 1/3rd of broadband users also "pirate" shows...Maybe 1/3rd of all Azereus users...
- DoubtfulSalmon, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7We don't have Tivo in Australia.
- abccba57, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5we also do not have much of online tv options. and we get all shows about 6 months late. and often shows that can survive in the u.s. will get cancelled here.
- Bloodwah, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6"We don't have Tivo in Australia."
  
  Speak for yourself :)
  
  http://www.oztivo.net/
CSflim, on 10/12/2007, -5/+14The advertisements on TV pay for the programs. So if you change channels during the breaks, that makes you a thief.
subversive1, on 10/12/2007, -7/+216,000 does not constitute everyone...
ahatter, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12pirates watched tv?
flippedcracker, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2i download tv shows all the time. i don't see how it can be illegal.
simeonb, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9This is ridiculous. I don't download TV. I stream it from youtube through peekvid.com, and frankly, I'm insulted.
Daniel591992, on 10/12/2007, -8/+9Whirlpool

dont they make washers???
Paroparo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15What the companies should be thinking: "What is wrong with our business-model?"
What the companies are probably thinking: "How can we stop these damn dirty pirates?"
PacketScan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7if you pay for cable and download something that was on yesterday and you missed it.. well that should be allowed.

if you pay cable and satellite like me then there should be no question it should be available to us as consumers who have already paid to watch and well happen to miss it. Next I'll get the DVR Fan boys. * Not the point. Why am i paying twice? or three times in my case..

Corporate GREED will never catch up with the consumers wants.
Nerys, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8I do not recognize download TV shows as illegal wrong morally or any other way. its freely broadcast and should therfore be up for grabs anyway you like it.

PAID content is different (HBO Pay Per View etc..) but most of regular tv is "unrestricted" so it should not matter how you get it.

the only thing I can understand is if they wanted us to leave the commercials intact when we copied them. that I could understand and agree with.

Chris Taylor
http://www.nerys.com/
- excoriator, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1>I do not recognize download TV shows as illegal wrong morally or any other way. its freely broadcast and should >therfore be up for grabs anyway you like it.
  
  If you like a show enough to download it, why do you want to deprive the people who worked on it of the money they would make from you watching it legitimately on a broadcaster with commercials?
Sheaf, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9I really wish people would learn how to properly state statistics. Does this study represent a third of Digg users? Absolutely not. Does it represent a third of all of us who use broadband? No.

It was a voluntary response survey to Whirlpool customers in Australia. There is a massive difference between those people and the entire Digg community.
truthRises, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Someone said they hope it doesn't get out of hand like napster...

Hasn't it already?

I mean, I want to be able to download daily show and colbert report, along with adult swim, family guy, simpsons, king of the hill without commercials. I will gladly pay a FAIR price for this service.

Apple almost has the equation. I liked getting the downloads of the daily show and the colbert report., but I didn't have a great experience.

It was fast, but the episodes didn't hit iTunes for at least 12 hours if not 24. They only had comedy central teasers, no other commercials. The episodes all had DRM, which I won't buy (I just wanted to take a test drive). They were also very small in size, and looked grainy on my 19" monitor. The sound quality was poor. They cost $9.99 for 20 episodes.

Downloading the episodes on torrent was slower and took more physical effort on my part, but I usually had them on my hard drive a little sooner than iTunes. They were a nice size that looked good even on a projector. The sound was better... still not great. And they were free, no commercials and no DRM.

Give me new episodes streamed (and saved w/ no DRM) at the same time as the tv, with commercials for 25 cents an episode. No commercials for $1.

Give me old episodes downloaded with no DRM for FREE with commercials and for 10 cents without commercials. Use bittorrent, I'll gladly donate bandwidth for credit. Apple is building this into OS 10.5.

These dumb money grubbers are all scared about hurting their precious DVD sales. They need to forget DVDs, we don't want them! we want downloads!

Evolve or die Hollywood. We didn't really like you anyway.
- aroot, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2>Evolve or die Hollywood. We didn't really like you anyway.
  
  I think they should do both. But that's just my opinion.
- shinynew, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3those are to high requirements. ABC is the closest you get and it has already stopped me from pirateing new lost episodes.
- superkendall, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I think you are right that Apple almost, but not quite, has what it takes for a really successful video store. In my mind the thing that blocks them is portability of video - just as in the early days of ITMS it was (well, really, still is) important that you can/could burn music to CD's, Apple needs to allow burning of ITMS video to DVD. They are kind of working around that by treating iPods as the portable video device that lets you move video to other locations, but the world will not respond to taht as quickly as they would DVD burning.
  
  I even think the video quality is fine, certainly for TV downloads. The biggest push would be to allow DVD burns.
umberloid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8No surprise here. Our DVR cable box crapped out during the last episode of NCIS (which my wife loves). What are the options in this situation?

1. Check iTunes, can I buy it? Nope.
2. Check CBS's Innertube thing, can I watch it later? Nope.
3. Is it rerun on another day or in the middle of the night? Nope.

Strike 3, so I find the HDTV rip on BitTorrent less than an hour after the episode is over. 20 minutes later, download done. I don't feel bad at all.
- Xsecrets, on 10/12/2007, -5/+4Yes I used to do this too, until just the other day I got a copywrite infringement notice. The tv studios are starting to look at this, and will soon joint the RIAA in suing everyone I'm sure.
- aroot, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Xsecrets: That strategy has worked out really well for the RIAA... I will love it when nobody wants the tv studios' filth anymore!
deepsub, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10It's not the pirates they should worry about.

It's the Ninjas.

Not that I would know anything about any of that...
- silentdud, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1HAHAHA
- crawf061, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2with their trained Manbearpigs
theoallardyce, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Its not really pirating tho is it? People are downloading shows because the bloody TV stations arn't playing them. Why should I wait a year for the next South Park series to air here? I can't even buy it! I would happily sit down and watch it adverts and all but if the ***** TV station doesnt want to show it - their loss, its not like im not going to watch it again when it finally does come on and I have nothing better to do.
- cheesechick, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Seriously! That's the biggest reason I know of that people pirate shows. I'm not going to sit around and wait for the off chance that they'll decide to pick up Big Train. And seriously, they expect me to wait for more Doctor Who?
AlexApetrei, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4where I live , no one cares for Family Guy ...

Can i buy it from amazon ? Nope (they dont deliver here)
Can I buy it from a shop ? nope (they have stuff like MASH )
Can i download it form Itunes? I dont know dont have an ipod so what;s the use in itunes

So what do i do ? wait until fox runs it in the states. then some guy posts it as a torrent , 10 minutes later there are 4000 leechers on the damn thing, most of which finish rather quickly and become seeders and I get it in a matter of hours. Ahhh, howrs spent to download 20 miutes of pretious fun .

which reminds me any new episodes out there ?
RADicalSatDude, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2I can neither confirm nor deny that information
shinynew, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2im watching futurama right now
ChuckRoastHere, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1I guess the other two thirds are using something better like absORB
http://briandailey.googlepages.com/absorb/ cut and paste
- ChuckRoastHere, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1http://briandailey.googlepages.com/absorb is the actual link
JFetch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Arrr, a pirate's life for me.

At least until all networks get their head out of their ass's and make all shows available online for free in quality equal to what I see on my TV.
- kdehead, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6i concur.
  
  and make the last 50 years worth of TV available.
  
  imagine, for example, being able to "google" for news reports on say, the moon landing or the assasination of John Lennon, or the Challenger disaster - and to have those available via a high quality version of You Tube. it would be an awesome tool for historical research.
mbthompson, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1marked as inaccurate
Mr.Germain, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1i dont believe this at all
bshock, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3First, I consider it impossible to "pirate" anything that is transmitted via RF through my ***** body.

Second, if we're going to distort the concept of "pirate" such that it encompasses anyone who obtains any type of content in ways the content creators don't foresee or approve (as opposed to something more along the lines of someone who makes a profit from unlicensed use of copyrighted materials), then get me my eyepatch and cutlass today! Arr, I've got a list of scurvy bastards who need to walk the plank.

Third, though I'm a U.S. citizen, I don't watch U.S. tv any more. Sorry, folks -- I just don't get into things like "Lost" or "24" or "American Idol." I'd rather watch the worst Japanese tv shows (and that is certainly saying something) all day long than give the U.S. five minutes of my time. I guess I'm just not a complacent little patriot.
AlexApetrei, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0there we go, 1 hour (ish ) later and I have the latest American Dad -

i know, i know ... NOT Family Guy

But as it turnes out no new episodes have come out since my last download
On the other hand American Dad has made a new one :) yay -

Man I hope I can wake up early tomorow.
LNahid2000, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I "pirate" all my TV and will continue to do so until the cable companies come up with something equivilant to what I get on bitmetv right now. What I want from the cable companies is to be able to download any network TV I want for a flat monthly fee like I pay for cable right now. I don't want any kind of DRM on it. I refuse to purchase any media with DRM on it. I don't want to pay $1.99 per episode for 320X240 video when I can get 960X528 video on bitmetv with 5.1 ac3 audio with no DRM whatsoever.
XSforMe, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2"pirated television"
I wish the submitter would stop classifying all p2p dowloads as pirated content. I pay my cable bills, I simply choose to have time shifted the content which I HAVE LEGALLY aquired to view in my own schedule.
LoopyChew, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Seeing as this is about Australian piracy, may I just offer a hearty "G'darr, mate!" to the subjects of this article.

(More seriously: I live abroad. My little brother can record and send episodes of 24 for to me--he's got his system primed to do the former already. What's the difference between him recording and sending them to me, and my getting them online? And is there such a difference between that and the days of old, when parents might have taped episodes of a show and sent it to their kids, or the other way around?)
- DoubtfulSalmon, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1> may I just offer a hearty "G'darr, mate!" to the subjects of this article.
  
  You may, but no-one will understand what you're on about. It's "G'Day Mate!" as in "good day, mate"
  
  For a further introduction to Australian culture, I reccomend that you reveiw the unofficial version of our "Where the bloody Hell Are You?" advertising, titled "Where The *****' Hell Are Youse?"...
  
  http://www.downwindmedia.com/wtfru.html
  
  "We've packed you a cone...
  We got the ethnics off the beach..."
- LoopyChew, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2>You may, but no-one will understand what you're on about. It's "G'Day Mate!" as in "good day, mate"
  
  Maybe the joke would've been clearer had I said, "G'Darr, mateys!"
- bsoric, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4G'darrrr to you to. As an Australian, I'd like to say we're not *all* oblivious to jokes...
selphishnerd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I don't believe it. No way 1/3...I don't think 1/3 of the people who have broadband have any idea what a bittorrent even is.
Acill, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I fail to see how getting a TV show on line is being a pirate. I can go get a $10 used TV set here in the US. Plug it in and use a series of connected coat hangers to make a free antenna. Then get TV shows free over the air. So whats the difference to getting them on the Internet and wanting to watch them? I'll tell you what it is, its the busy lifestyle of all of us and the networks knowing that and putting a price on what the advertisers paid for when they were fresh new shows. I understand making a buck, but this is getting out of hand. No ads? So leave then in then. I dont care. I can fast forward them.
spjmm0, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2this just reminded me to get the sopranos Thanks!
Peterix, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I think it really doesn't matter how information is transmitted - be it EM waves, laser light in fiber-optic cables, or vibrations of electron gas in metallic wires.
In the end, i'm going to watch every new episode of South Park the day it airs. Or the day after... if the torrent is slow.
cliffzdude, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Hogwash, pure hogwash. A third? No freaking way one third of households with broadband even know you can find ripped TV out there, say nothing for a third actually downloading it and watching said content.

My proof? Common sense...
- grizzlyb3ar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Whirlpool membership tends to be rather biased towards technically savvy australian users, with a fair sprinkling of techs, and so naturally results will skew towards what you would see with digg membership...
teamgreen02, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The only thing that makes downloading tv shows illegal is that they are being rebroadcasted.
phreakout, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Soon they will be suing little kids moms because a 3 year old downloaded sesame street half an hour after it was aired.
Remember to tell your children they must watch the adverts for sugar or they are stealing the cartoons.
IMHO copyright is theft from the public domain - as if artists pluck ideas from thin air, pah.
All copyrighted works are derivative of the public domain that preceded them.
How can cultural memes evolve when ring fenced by protectionism.
How can I deal with and digest art, culture and TV if I can't chew it over & mash it up? Oh yeah by being a passive consumer rather than a Human Being.
Those labelled as pirates are the true freedom fighters of the infosphere.
If we ever throw off the shackles of cultural control it will be DrinkOrDie, Razorlight and EZTV in the canon of saints and martyrs (after Saint IGNUscious).
Access to all Published Information should be a fundamental human right.
The internet treats copyright like a malfuntion and routes around it.(1)
This is why all copy protection and DRM schemes will fail they are completely fundamentally incompatible with digital networks and general purpose computing machines.
All prohibition does is drive wealth into the black economy and incarcerate regular people.
To disallow people from culture is to bar them from full membership of society. To artificially create drought when minds are thirsty is to profit from the withering of souls. How can I not be allowed to respond to and reproduce what I see and hear?
As one convict said to another: "I'm doing life for Spongebob."
Wake up! Wake up! Your Leaders are just bad dreams. Creativity is Capital (2) - without it we are less than Human.

When it comes down to it, a digital representations of something is just very big binary number coupled with another very big binary number(3), the bitmask for the von neuman machine that makes the first number into lights on your screen or waves at your ear.

(1) - after J.Gilmour
(2) - after J.Beuys's critique of Groucho Marx.
(3) - after some blogger but I forgot who.
phreakout, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0just joking of course
RobotCitizen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1We should all do our part to stop global warming by becoming pirates.
luservegas, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1This is an email I got a while back for downloading a program that was originally broadcast over open airwaves. Took about 15 minutes to download, I let it seed for a little while but nowhere close to 1:1. Moral of this story is to steer away from some of the non-private super-popular torrent sites. The whole thing is a lot of ***** to me, but Comcast will terminate service and ask questions later, if they ask them at all. This is an example of the spray and pray tactic used by networks to curtail the whole torrent thing. All they have is an IP that traceroutes back to Comcast - they send a letter to them and Comcast passes it along. If you've gotten one of these or ever get one of these, I read somewhere that the best thing to do is to not reply. If you do reply to Comcast, they've got an out to give the person claiming infringement your contact info. They just pass along the claim that you make to these guys. I did nothing, and haven't heard anything else.:

Dear Comcast High-Speed Internet Subscriber:

Comcast has received a notification of claimed infringement made under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the 'DMCA'). This notification, made by a copyright owner or its authorized agent, reports an alleged infringement of one or more copyrighted works made on or over Comcast's High-Speed Internet service (the 'Service'). The works identified in the notification of claimed infringement are listed below. In accordance with the DMCA and Comcast's Acceptable Use Policy, Comcast request that you immediately remove the allegedly infringing works from the Service or Comcast will be forced to remove or block access to the works.

If you believe in good faith that the allegedly infringing works have been removed or blocked by mistake or misidentification, then you may send a counter notification to Comcast. Upon Comcast's receipt of a counter notification that satisfies the requirements of the DMCA, Comcast will provide a copy of the counter notification to the party who sent the original notification of claimed infringement. We will then follow the DMCA's procedures with respect to a received counter notification.

For more information regarding Comcast's copyright infringement policy, procedures, and contact information, please read our Acceptable Use Policy by clicking on the Terms of Service link at http://www.comcast.net.

Sincerely,
Comcast Network Abuse and Observance Team

Copyright work(s) identified in the notification of claimed infringement:

Title: The Office: AAW S02E14 - The Carpet (TV)

Infringement Source: BitTorrent
Initial Infringement Timestamp: 16 Apr 2006 05:03:18 GMT
Recent Infringment Timestamp: 16 Apr 2006 05:03:18 GMT
Infringer Username:
Infringing Filename: The.Office.US.S02E14.HDTV.XviD-LOL.avi
Infringing Filesize: 183552000
Infringers IP Address: XX.XX.XX.XX
Infringers DNS Name: XXXXXXXXX.comcast.net
Infringing URL: http://tracker.XXXXXXXXXXXX:5373/announce
- RobotCitizen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3That was a good episode, luservegas.
- szembek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Mod this post up! It's very informative, I wasn't aware that NBC was going ater people for using bit torrent. You always hear about the RIAA and MPAA doing it, but not tv networks. And yeah, it was a good episode!
Daem0nX, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I download all of my fav tv shows, however I don't see it as pirating. Why? Because I pay a tv cable bill, and I have all the channels my shows are on, but I choose to only watch Discovery and History. Everything else I enjoy watching I download so I can watch it anytime I want, along with the fact that my schedule conflicts with when they air on tv.
diffusio, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Wait, getting FREE tv show for FREE?

I don't see crime in this.
- excoriator, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1>Wait, getting FREE tv show for FREE?
  
  Free TV, as you put it, is not free. You pay for it with your time ostensibly by watching the commercial advertising that runs with it on the network. The networks in turn, pay the studios for the program, using a portion of the revenue from the advertisers who paid for that commercial you watched. The studios then paid the actors and other creative people who worked on the show, some of the money they were paid by the networks. With all of that money changing hands, broadcast TV is anything but "free."
  
  Downloading shows, however eliminates ALL of those revenue streams. The people who depend on that revenue for their livelihood have a right to be angry at people who download programs and watch them with no advertisements. That's why they sic their legal eagles on you. If enough people do this, there won't be any more free TV. So, cut it out!
treelovinhippie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Well I would be downloading TV shows and streaming them like crazy if the bandwidth and broadband prices in Australia were any decent. And especially when I'm being charge absolutely ridiculous prices by this ISP that I have to use living on Campus at this piece of ***** uni: http://www.uow.edu.au

My story is here if anyone wants to read about what farked-up prices I'm being charged for massively slow 256kbps net access: http://www.nathanwaters.com/archives/the-saga-of-battling-a-monopoly

cheers
nathan
luservegas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0'Free TV, as you put it, is not free. You pay for it with your time ostensibly by watching the commercial advertising that runs with it on the network. The networks in turn, pay the studios for the program, using a portion of the revenue from the advertisers who paid for that commercial you watched. The studios then paid the actors and other creative people who worked on the show, some of the money they were paid by the networks. With all of that money changing hands, broadcast TV is anything but "free."'

Interesting argument, but the revenue stream involved here does not change, whether I watch the show when it is broadcast or if I watch the show by downloading it. It's not quite the case where the folks buying time for the commercial say "oh, we only had 22,500,631 viewers for this show instead of the 25,000,000 we expected. As a result, we're going to pay you less for these time slots."

On the macro scale over a long period of time, the sales of time for commercials may decline or become less of a revenue stream, but the businesses will adapt to make money where they can make money. It's ludicrous for these companies to stifle innovation by forcing us to conform to an antiquated business model by manipulating the legal system.

How about this: offer the shows for download with commercials and then charge people more for advertising time because it is now reaching an additional market. The reason that I go and download a show off bittorrent is that it is not available anywhere else. It's just absolute ***** that some suit in the corporate offices of these companies can't wrap his pea-brain around innovation and the speed at which content delivery is changing - which ultimately makes his product available to less people.

More people as customers = more sales = more profit.
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