MPAA Targets TV Download Sites

13 May, 2005 at 7:57am ET Article published in Tech

Continuing its war on Internet file-swapping sites, the Motion Picture Association of America said Thursday that it has filed lawsuits against a half-dozen hubs for TV show trading. The six sites reportedly sued on Thursday include ShunTV, Zonatracker, Btefnet, Scifi-Classics, CDDVDHeaven and Bragginrights.

“Every television series depends on other markets (such as) syndication and international sales to earn back the enormous investment required to produce the comedies and dramas we all enjoy,” MPAA Chief Executive Officer Dan Glickman said in a statement. “Those markets are substantially hurt when that content is stolen.”

Source: Zdnet

Comments

13 May 2005 ~ 11:26am Gobbles ok this is getting gay... They are not busting down my door when I video tape or record a tv show with a pvr... for god sake its a tv show its free if its from NBC CBS or ABC, If you got cable you have just about every other show then as well. Dish network and adelphia cable both offer pvrs now with your cable service...

sad...
13 May 2005 ~ 12:23pm Private_Snoball I agree, I download Fox shows from the Internet (Family Guy Season 4, American Dad Season 1). They are not available to buy, and they are free to watch, wtf. When they are released on DVD I will get them until then, whats the problem. MPAA need to get a grip.
13 May 2005 ~ 1:31pm QCH Oh great... I never downloaded music or movies... I miss one episode of a show an pick it up on one of the torrents.... BOOM. I'm in trouble? That's crap. No different that having someone tape a show for me and handing me a tape. I'm not selling or buying it, just watching it as I would at home LIVE....

:shakehead
13 May 2005 ~ 6:44pm mmonnin If you dont alter the show I dont see anything wrong with it.
13 May 2005 ~ 6:51pm BlackHawk ****ers
13 May 2005 ~ 7:04pm yagga I agree with all of you, downloading a tv show is NOT illegal!
13 May 2005 ~ 7:13pm Thrax

mmonnin wrote:

If you dont alter the show I dont see anything wrong with it.

Everyone does, though. No adverts.
13 May 2005 ~ 8:08pm yagga and what can you do with a tape??? pause it on commercials, some vcrs even are supposed to do it automatically, though I can't confirm it always works.
13 May 2005 ~ 11:04pm Jimborae What you have to remember is that us European's can be up to 12 months behind in a popular show. Therefore, peeps like me, who download shows before they have aired over here are really causing a problem for the networks.

Eg.
24 is 5 weeks behind
ER 6 weeks
CSI is 12 or more weeks behind
NYPD Blue i don't even think the last series has even aired yet.
14 May 2005 ~ 3:45am TheBaron its the ****ing age of the internet, they aren't getting around this no matter how hard they try
14 May 2005 ~ 11:38am yagga MPAA stands for Motion Picture Association of AMERICA!!! They have no excuse to do this base on the fact that Europe is behind! Ha, I showed them!
14 May 2005 ~ 12:39pm Thrax Yeah. That's great reasoning.
14 May 2005 ~ 8:27pm RWB

Jimborae wrote:

What you have to remember is that us European's can be up to 12 months behind in a popular show. Therefore, peeps like me, who download shows before they have aired over here are really causing a problem for the networks.

Eg.
24 is 5 weeks behind
ER 6 weeks
CSI is 12 or more weeks behind
NYPD Blue i don't even think the last series has even aired yet.

Besides all of those I believe all the shows on the SciFi channel are about 5 weeks ahead of us.
15 May 2005 ~ 7:14pm Komete The only way I could see them having any right to target these downloads is if shows where being leaked from the studios before they aired.