NBC wants government crackdown on piracy

yeah..
actually the biggest consumer of internet bandwith are "internet2" video sites
like youtube. p2p traffic comes second with about 20% of all traffic

hi
i live in oz, and free to air tv down here leaves a lot to be desired.
a lot of the programs i download to view are not even available tv australian
tv and if i find i like a perticular show i then try to find it on dvd so as
to own a copy, so if i, and many others around the world, couldn't download
shows these "pen pushing idiots" would actually loose business!!!!

i'm also from australia, and even shows available here are so far behind it
makes participating in discussion about it (eg. newsgroups/chats etc) near
impossible and the networks air them very haphazard esp. during sporting seasons.

i certainly download tv shows but in a large number of cases only keep them till
i buy the dvds... some take longer than others to afford. in fact i just
pre-ordered heroes dvd set the day before yesterday - which probably wouldn't
have happened if i hadn't downloaded it because i so rarely watch australian tv
any more.

there's also a lot of older shows that never aired in australia, probably never
will and aren't available on dvd - those i archive. and shows that air in the us
but are cancelled before airing a complete season, will never air in australia,
will never be released on dvd but you can often get the unaired episodes from
sweden or france (or wherever).

nbc and the other networks have to realise that it's the networks and stations
that are ultimately responsible for people downloading tv shows... if the fans
got what they wanted from the networks/tv they wouldn't need to download.

i have no problem with a crackdown on piracy of movies though (admittedly i've
downloaded a handful over the years). imo movies and tv shows are apples and
oranges though and shouldn't be considered together when discussing piracy of
"copyrighted material" which some networks/studios tend to do.

i wonder where people get their numbers from when they 'claim' such things,
although i suppose 'out my ass' wouldn't go down so well in a press conference.
i also hate the whole association fallacy that the nbc spokesperson invokes when
comparing (in the 'snipped' part of the article) the downloading of things such
as movies and television with the downloading of kiddy porn. it's disingenuous,
completely weakens the argument that they are trying to make and makes them
sound like dickheads.

here in nz the tv (and internet! ha) options are pretty limited, and i agree
with everything dungeonraider says, although to their credit the local
broadcasters do their best to stay on top of popular shows from around the
world, within the bounds of servicing a pretty small population.

nonetheless, via torrenting new, interesting-looking or just completely random
shows, i have been introduced to all manner of wonderful delights from all over
the place that i normally wouldn't have had the opportunity to watch, as i'm
sure have millions of others. in the long term has this has more positive than
negative financial and cultural effects - more people are introduced to a
greater variety of shows, are more likely to watch if they are screened, are
more likely to purchase dvds (should they be available in their zone) and
merchandise and are more likely to recommend them to their friends, and so it
continues.

in my opinion these people dont have point when they say "piracy is killing the
music and movie business" they said this first when vhs came out and tapes now
its the net, granted its on a much higher scale but most tv stations ratings are
unnafected, there are many shows that will not be shown where i live (spain) and
especially not in english (i am english btw) so what are consumers like me meant
to do?

england is headed in the right direction itv and c4 now let users watch their
channels online for free this caters for the average internet mogul yet, are we
really to blame for the lack of user appeal.

if you could watch tv online for free (like all the main worldwide stations)
then ratings would be unnafected as advertising would still be in the online
shows. this means that piracy would be a much lesse threat as people could watch
shows when they want rather than have to be at the tv at a certain time which
may be inconvinient.

the only reason why they are targeting the "pirates" rather than themselves is
because it would cost money to adapt and they are not sure about the "long term"

if i told you that from tommorrow you could watch any show you liked, 20 mins
after it was shown on tv for free but you would have to sit through 5 minets of
adverts im guessing that eztv's hits would go down hugely and that at least half
of the people (me included) would rather have tv quality streamed and sit
through the adverts.

to conclude, piracy is theft, it is illegal and it is robbing the people who
make the tv that is stolen however by not adapting and "getting with the times"
these large corporations are robbing themselves of money that they could have
with a few million invested and taking a risk.

nielsen ratings aren't affected by downloading at all (unless you are part of a
nielsen family). only the fact that we don't see the ads and then as a result
might not buy that piece of crap we didn't need anyway remains.

i bet there are nielsen families who download, and they probably put the shows
they like on regardless of whether they sit there and actually watch them.

the nielsen ratings have always been woefully inaccurate imo, though before
downloading and the ability for large fan groups to become organised it wasn't
always possible to determine just how bad they are in some cases.

tv needs to grow up, it's distribution is appalling and was only ever forgivable
when that was the limit of the rather jurassic technology.

i got into it because a show was canceled locally but not in the us for several
seasons, it was the only way i could see it.

now i do it in large part because the quality is so much higher than standard
def on my hdtv. (and is well ahead of locally broadcast shows if they come at
all - best of all i can have a life and watch shows without screwing up the vcr
programming)

instead of attacking it's eager audience (we are huge tv fans) perhaps you guys
should simply do a better job of delivery, either charge (the amount you'd get
from the ads, say 30c) or run ads, hell it's better as you can target ads-which
people can react to immediately! (have both options)

i would chose to watch a high quality streaming (that had full framerate and
quality, better not worse than scene quality) or a download (best of both worlds
something like nzbplayer)

you can easily out deliver eztv, you can get every release right rather than
have proppers and repacks, you can release sooner, be actually legal, higher
quality.

with the myriad problems with tv in it's current form why don't you embrase the
technology because it's certain with the problems normal tv poses your viewer
certainly will.

i also get it because the good shows are always shown late and irregular in
holland. but if the producers released their shows, at the moment of airing,
downloadable and not in small clips, i would probably buy them. they'd just need
a site where all shows are put together (like here) and make it easy to do.

i-tunes is actually far in its way towards this goal but it's still not
easy/fast enough for my likings. that and i hate i tunes standarization of
software and the fact that it tries to take over my computer, blackmail me and
turn me into a aplle minded drone.

let me tell you nbc is the worst when it comes to this. i have downloaded many a tv show, mostly stuff
that i can't get here in the states. i have been downloading for several years. for the first time i
downloaded an nbc show and i actually received a nasty gram from my isp stating that i had downloaded
copyrighted material blah blah blah. a general threatning letter that nbc made them send to me. after all
these years of downloading nbc is the only one that has ever made an isp persue it. the tv show i was
after was over 10 years old and no longer airing, and you couldn't get it on dvd. nbc will be one of
those studios that will be the first to block your ability to skip through commercials, you can bet on it.
they are complete tools.