Fr0dus Maximus said:
Not all of it is illegal. Copyright and Patented material is of coarse illegal but, under the approval of the owner and creator it's perfectly legal.
Exactly.
Torrents just make file sharing more efficient because you can pull different parts from different places instead of downloading the whole file from one source. Many-to-one vs. one-to-one. If there's any computer scientists out there saying "kind of, but not really" feel free to post the real deal.
The danger comes in when, as Frodus pointed out, you start downloading illegal torrents, which of course nobody here would recommend you do (or they will be banned).
In reference to streaming TV shows, I will say this much. When Radio Broadcasting came about the music industry didn't think it would survive, and believed that by playing music for free over the airwaves radio broadcasters were infringing on copyrighted material. Copyright laws changed because new technologies made the old laws obsolete. Digital distribution is, in many ways, very similar, and I would expect that the coming years will show many changes in how people experience things like movies, music, TV, and video games. Sites like TV-links are thought of as illegal, right
now, but several years down the road that may change. If TV networks can't find a way to deliver a similar service for free, or a superior service in some way, then they will not last.
Slight rant.
I borrowed the first four seasons of Lost from a friend (which, technically, could be considered illegal in itself) and watched them over the past few months. I managed to finish on time for the Season 5 premiere, which I watched. Now, after having experienced the show via complete season DVD's and watching it when it came out on TV, I have to say that TV is ****. Its impossible for me to get into the story and characters when every 5 minutes I'm completely pulled out of the experience by commercials. Its like going to a movie and having to wait 5 minutes every 5 minutes for someone to put up the next reel. I won't recommend illegally watching or obtaining copyrighted content of any kind, but I will say that watching a show on TV as its being broadcasted without TiVo or any time skipping ability is not worth it. There are better ways to experience TV shows out there, and ironically the biggest "problem" right now with them is that they're free (because it makes them illegal). I dunno, to me it seems that making people pay to be brainwashed ought to be just as illegal as what online TV streaming sites are doing.
But that's just me. And remember, I still think piracy = bad, someone has to pay for TV shows to be made. Its just that the model currently being used to legally distribute these shows is archaic, unethical, and becoming increasingly unpopular.
