Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Time Shifting Shows via P2P Networks - Legal or Not?
Posted by Jason Dunn in "THOUGHT" @ 09:00 AM
"Let's say I have a meeting on Monday nights during the time that Fox's awesome guilty pleasure, "North Shore," is on. I don't have a VCR anymore, so I can't tape it. And I don't have a Tivo either. What am I to do? Well, I can download the show. There are any number of P2P clients out there with which you can get a perfect, full-screen, letterboxed, high-definition, stereo-sound copy of any TV show. An hour-long show will download in anywhere from one to a few hours, depending on the time of day. It's very practical to download a show you missed.
So, let's say I download and watch "North Shore." Have I broken any laws? It's not like I stole anything — I'm a paying cable TV subscriber and I have the cancelled checks to prove it. I could have watched the show for free if I was home during the time it aired. Additionally, if I had a VCR, I could have taped it and gotten the same effect — watching the same show at a different time..."
My, what an interesting dilemma! This is definitely one of those grey areas that no doubt some of you will fall on either side of. I've actually done this myself - I'm a big fan of Smallville (I'm a comic geek, what can I say?), and before getting a PVR it was always a bit hit or miss as to whether or not the VCR had a tape in it, the show was on at the right time, etc. So, a few times, I jumped on Kazaa to download the show I missed. Would I have paid a couple of bucks to do so directly from the network? Absolutely! Could I do that? No. Does that make it "right"? I'm not sure.
On one hand, I understand the argument that as consumers we're paying for what the cable company is offering us, with the limitations under which it's offered. After all, this is why they sell DVD boxed sets of TV shows. On the other hand, if time-shifting with a VCR is legal, is this any different? If I download a radio single from Kazaa, and I doing anything more than time shift? It's something that's out in the public - we're not talking about downloading the whole album (which I very much oppose). I had to laugh when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that file swapping is legal - there are certainly instances where it should not be, but they didn't seem to see it that way.
But I'm rambling. Where do you stand on the issue of using a file sharing network to grab a TV show that you missed?
So, let's say I download and watch "North Shore." Have I broken any laws? It's not like I stole anything — I'm a paying cable TV subscriber and I have the cancelled checks to prove it. I could have watched the show for free if I was home during the time it aired. Additionally, if I had a VCR, I could have taped it and gotten the same effect — watching the same show at a different time..."
My, what an interesting dilemma! This is definitely one of those grey areas that no doubt some of you will fall on either side of. I've actually done this myself - I'm a big fan of Smallville (I'm a comic geek, what can I say?), and before getting a PVR it was always a bit hit or miss as to whether or not the VCR had a tape in it, the show was on at the right time, etc. So, a few times, I jumped on Kazaa to download the show I missed. Would I have paid a couple of bucks to do so directly from the network? Absolutely! Could I do that? No. Does that make it "right"? I'm not sure.
On one hand, I understand the argument that as consumers we're paying for what the cable company is offering us, with the limitations under which it's offered. After all, this is why they sell DVD boxed sets of TV shows. On the other hand, if time-shifting with a VCR is legal, is this any different? If I download a radio single from Kazaa, and I doing anything more than time shift? It's something that's out in the public - we're not talking about downloading the whole album (which I very much oppose). I had to laugh when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that file swapping is legal - there are certainly instances where it should not be, but they didn't seem to see it that way.
But I'm rambling. Where do you stand on the issue of using a file sharing network to grab a TV show that you missed?
