Downloading tv shows legal???

[Enablingwolf]

The thing is. It is very hard to find tv shows that are not protected by law. If it was on TV it was done for profit, or broadcast with a license to do so. They had the law on thier side, the abilty to give you one copy. You cannot share it. Now for PBS they got the rights to distibute one copy to the consumer, most of the usage fees are paid for by philanthopy and donations by viewers.

If you use Bit torrent you are not just downloading you are sharing it also(you recieve as well as broadcast the file). That is were it becomes illegal. If it is not copy written it is the same as the Linux or very similar. Good luck finding something on TV that is not protected under law.

 

[Mr.Guvernment]

This is a weird one

1. you pay your monthly TV bill
2. you miss a show on
3. you go download

What difference is there if you sat - watched it - instead you downloaded it - watched it

Or - whay is it legal to have TiVo ir the systems some TV provider have for recording your shows on a set-top recorder - "tv-on-demand" - simply you are just getting the same show via your own methods


This i think falls under one of those legal catergories that was not well thought so to follow the laws are not defined enough to explain such a situation as i myself just pointed out to flaws about it.

 

[David]

I'm not sure of the exact legal position here, so I'm going to check. However my thoughts:

If you download directly from someone, he or she is offering copyrighted material for download, which I beleieve is illegal.

If you download via bittorrent you are doing the above *and* comitting a crime yourself by uploading while you download (as bittorrent does).

Feel free to correct me on this if you know this is not true, however I don't see the distinction between movies and TV programs. Both are copyrighted audio and video files.

 

[Kendan]

It is illegal but they do not aggresively fight it yet.

They rip out the comercials before they up it to P2P networks which is why it is not a grey area.

 

[Enablingwolf]

On a humorous note. I wonder if advertisements(funny Tv Ads) are freely distributable. They pay to broadcast the ad, and they have a way to get the product name around for free.

They don not however have control how it is used. I think that is the major crux in my theory.

 

[klingens]

It is illegal but they do not aggresively fight it yet.

They rip out the comercials before they up it to P2P networks which is why it is not a grey area.

It doesn't matter if downloads have commercials or not. It's always illegal. In case it contains commercials, doubly so: the commercials are copyrighted too. The only grey area is when you only download it, like from a website via http. Since it's only the distribution to other people that's illegal, downloading is hard to call that. The website you download it from is 100%, no grey area, illegal.

However, since P2P always assumes you upload whatever you have too, it's totally and utterly illegal for any copyrighted content.

Due to this grey areay if one downloads exclusively only, RIAA and MPAA right now only sue people for the uploading part of P2P.

 

[jcw122]

Think about it, you PAY for your cable TV, so there for it makes it legally free to record what u watch, but it's not legal to get stuff you didn't pay for( tv shows)

 

[matttaylor]

mdameron please clarify what your asking before this goes on too long. If you mean recording a tv show for personal use, then that is legal. If you mean recording and sharing then thats illegal. If the show will never leave the computer it was recorded on then no worries, if there was a problem or violation, then everyone who owns a pvr or tv tuner card would be in violation.

 

[deathman20]

Its illegal period.....

Most TV Seires now come out on DVD, and they repeat often enough if you don't want a DVD you can still watch it on TV.

If your downloading your cutting into the studio's profit/budget to make that show. Example say Stargate: SG1. If I downloaded all the seasons I'd save alot of money, or if I viewed it on TV during one of the many days they do repeats of past episodes. But by downloading it I'm cutting out there viewer tab, it makes inaccurate results of whos viewing the shows, and also cutting into the profit margin by not watching commericals and such too.

So truely you got a few choices if you want to stay on the legal side...

1) Watch a re-run of the show, some don't happen right a way but it does happen eventually
2) Go rent the DVD when it comes out on it
3) Go buy the DVD set when it comes out
4) If they support net-viewing of the show they will have links on there website. Something about a Eurpeon station doing this coming year I think, showing it over the internet and on TV at the same time, locking it to strictly Eurpeon countries though to make sure its within the target audience that they want it to view with.
5) Get a DVR/PVR unit. VCR, DVD Recorder, Harddrive Recorder, there are many options in this, but its how much you want to spend or if you want to pay monthly fee's for such a unit.

I got a DVR (Digital Video Recorder), its a capture card with some 3rd party software I got, then a MVP (Media Video Player) to view on the TV for a total of $150 and I can add up to 2 other capture cards in my system if I want to start recording multiple shows at the same time. I'd highly recommend it if your intrested in such a thing, it cheap, might take a little work to setup but no subscription fee's and cheap to replace components if they break (about $75 for each part) compared to a whole system.

 

[Calidan]

Technicly it is legal to make a copy of a television series as long as you dont let someone outside your household view it.
My wife runs a small charter school, she has to get written permission to lend out recorded television shows to her students (which they rarely grant).

 

[Mr.Guvernment]

it makes inaccurate results of whos viewing the shows, and also cutting into the profit margin by not watching commericals and such too.

Excellent point!!! forgot all about that - ratings!!!!! = $$$$ to the studios - and if you download that - their number wont count you sitting on your PC watching the show Where as recoding it via PVR / TiVo will show a person as connected and watching the show since the system must be on to record it.

Okay, it is illegal :d

 

[Mr.Guvernment]

Think about it, you PAY for your cable TV, so there for it makes it legally free to record what u watch, but it's not legal to get stuff you didn't pay for( tv shows)

But you paid for it - your Tv cable monthly fee - instead of watching it when they want - you watched it when you want but is not that easy unfortuantly.

 

[Dell_Axim]

Excellent point!!! forgot all about that - ratings!!!!! = $$$$ to the studios - and if you download that - their number wont count you sitting on your PC watching the show

How do they do that for public wireless HDTV? It's possible for cable, but it's illegal to share cable content because it's a paid service. Public wireless HDTV is just that; it's public and it's free.
But what's the difference between downloading it from P2P as opposed to downloading it with a HDTV card? Commercials can be removed with other means. Not everyone would want to buy a HDTV card for their PC.
I think that broadband ISPs should offer a download service for free HDTV. HDTV right now just doesn't integrate with PCs as well as it should.

 

[Boomstick]

Some cable companies do let you watch streams of the channels they offer, so long as you use their broadband service.
IPTV is coming, and then most the world will DL shows. Its doubtful this will really catch on in the US at this time.

 

[Janus67]

AFAIK it isn't legal unless all of the commercials are included with the download etc and it would have to be on national-broadcast television (4/6/10/28 etc). All of which is doubtful (the commercials part).

 

[Crana]

Yeh, my ISP offers Internet TV

http://www.blueyonder.co.uk/blueyonder/getContent.do?page=937442&group=bbs_watch

 

[achesonbarber]

Yes it is loegal these days. You can use pikashow apk to download any tv show or live streaming videos.

 

[Kenrou]

Should be down to each country's own laws, but around here as far as I remember it follows the old CD rules, you can make a copy as long as it's only for you, no sharing (that includes other people in the same house). So, barring very few exceptions, you can record whatever you want.