MPAA Goes After TV Show Traders

[James Fee]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.betanews.com/article/MPAA_Goes_After_TV_Show_Traders/1116001944' target='_blank'>http://www.betanews.com/article/MPAA_Goes_After_TV_Show_Traders/1116001944</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Calling television programming as important as movies, the Motion Picture Association of America has filed lawsuits against six Web sites devoted to swapping TV shows using BitTorrent. The suits are focused on the enablers that offer torrent files, rather than individual users downloading copyrighted content. The six defendants include ShunTV, Zonatracker, Btefnet, Scifi-Classics, CDDVDHeaven and Bragginrights. "Every television series depends on other markets to earn back the enormous investment required to produce the comedies and dramas we all enjoy and those markets are substantially hurt when that content is stolen. On these sites, anyone in the world can download entire television seasons in a single click," MPAA CEO Dan Glickman said in a statement."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/mpaa.jpg" /><br /><br />I guess I don't really have a problem with this. Rather than going after the BitTorrent clients, they are going after the sites that offer BitTorrent "links" to TV shows. The way the MPAA could really fight back is in addition to going after these sites is to actually offer content up of their own. What a novel concept! :P

[Mr. MacinTiger]

While I am glad they are not suing individual downloaders, I am sickened by the MPAA's actions because the new Dr. Who episodes had been consistantly posted from Btefnet. Great BBC show that is NOT being shown in America and Americans had no other outlet to see it other than the internet. Guess the masses of U.S. Dr. groupies will have to turn to the Usenet groups now and try to get it from the binary groups on there?
:?

Are they going to go after TV tape traders next? I used to do quite a bit of that a couple of years ago.

[Jeremy Charette]

I can see going after music downloaders, as CDs (though IMHO too expensive) are widely available for purchase. These shows, however, are not. They're just not available. If you miss this weeks episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, YOU MISSED IT. End of story. Never to be seen again. Until the movie and TV studios offer content to end users (either for a fee or free), they have nothing to complain about.

And don't start with DVD sets. They don't come out until LONG after the original shows have aired.

[ctmagnus]

While I am glad they are not suing individual downloaders, I am sickened by the MPAA's actions because the new Dr. Who episodes had been consistantly posted from Btefnet. Great BBC show that is NOT being shown in America and Americans had no other outlet to see it other than the internet. Guess the masses of U.S. Dr. groupies will have to turn to the Usenet groups now and try to get it from the binary groups on there?

It's great to be Canadian! :mrgreen:

[mcsouth]

MPAA and RIAA go hand in hand down the garden path, ignoring the real message of all this - give the consumers some degree of fair use, and the majority of the abuses will stop!

Granted, piracy will always exist - there are always those for whom the "thrill of the steal" outweighs whatever value the item holds. but I have to believe that for the vast majority of users, some reasonable degree of access is all they want. "Gee, I forgot to set my VCR/PVR and record the latest episode of 'XXXXXXXXX' - I wonder if my neighbour happened to record it?" Today, the "neighbours" just happen to reside on the glorious internet.

As much as I love the (departed!) ST Enterprise series, I couldn't always watch the latest episode, and wasn't in a position to tape it (travelling, late at work, etc). Thanks goodness for the internet, where I could download and watch the show a day or so later in order to keep up with the ongoing story lines - the last two seasons really have required constant viewing in order to keep up with what was going on - just like some of the "night-time soaps".

Do I still have those Enterprise shows on my hard drive? Yep, just like I still have video tape copies of shows/series from the past as well. Maybe some day the studios will figure out that diehard fans will pay to download that show (complete with commercials) just in order to keep up with a beloved series, and the economics will click into place. However, these organizations seem set on trying to turn back time and undo that which technology has brought us. Someday they'll realize that you can't 'unspill' milk......

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Exactly. All we want is to watch our favourite shows. That's all! Give us a good and affordable (free is even better, hehe) way of getting our shows and there will be a big drop in such trading. Sigh. They really don't get it.