posted
So I have taken to downloading television shows on the internet. I find it to be extremely convenient.
I'm a fairly busy person as I run my own business and am involved in community theatre which keeps me from any regular shcedule. As a result I miss many of the programs I like to watch.
As I don't have the money/desire to buy a TiVO, which is legal, I want to pose the question. Is downloading television programs from the internet illegal?
I usually endup downloading alot of the HBO series (Carnivale, Deadwood), but I am a paying subscriber to that network. So I think that gives me the "right" to download the programs so I can watch them at my leisure. AND with the new Dr Who series coming out, I will be able to watch that program without living in the UK.
BUT along with the HBO programs, I download broadcast television shows also. Shows such as 24 and Dr House among others, which are completely supported by the advertisers, and the people watching them. Which the episodes offered on these torrent websites always edit the commercials out. I'm not complaining, as I'm not consciously motivated by advertising. By that I mean I typically don't go and buy XYZ product because it is sponsors the XYZ TV show.
I want to know what the implications are of doing this, both legally and ethically. I used to download alot of illegal MP3s before iTunes, and I am a patron of the legal movie site Cinemanow.com.
posted
It is pretty much certainly illegal. Ethical is up to you.
Now, there are no court cases that definitively decide it, as far as I know, but this isn't something on that fuzzy a legal ground. When you record something off your TV you're timeshifting it, which is covered by various court decision. When you download something off the internet you're making a copy of a copy of a copyrighted work you have no legal license to (copyright exists on the instances -- the instance on your TV is the one you get to timeshift, not the one on someone else's computer).
However, what is somewhat up in the air is how illegal is it. I think some more recent laws may have clarified this (to the negative) somewhat, but I'm not sure.
Also, until recently you should have moved to Canada (to some extent even now). When something was broadcast over the air, it was legal to generally distribute it, so long as it was in the form it was broadcast. Basically, the use of the public airwaves granted the public a limited copyright license, which is a very interesting, and in my opinion good, concept. This has been changed somewhat, though, and I'm not sure to what degree.
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