Is downloading really piracy?
I understand that people view the downloading of movies and TV episodes as piracy.. but is it really so black and white? I decided to give my views on this and would like to hear what the rest of are thinking
Is South Africa where I live we have 2 systems of television we can access. Firstly is the national broadcaster (SABC) and the second one is DSTV Digital Satellite TV.
SABC offers us 3 channels (SABC 1-3) as well as a public channel (e-TV). Since we have 9 official languages (of which I speak English & Afrikaans and have no desire to learn the rest) I can only watch 1 channel (SABC 3) as the rest is either broadcasting soccer or local programming of weak quality and mostly in gibberish. When they do show international programming its years behind for instance:
We can now enjoy (read suffer through) the first season of Ugly Betty
Big Bang Theory Season 1,
How I met Your Mother season 3,
The first celeb apprentice just finished (the one with Pierce Morgan & Trace Adkins)
Smallville Season 5
Lost season 2 and Heroes season 3 just finished a few months ago.
And then my soapie WWE wrestling is about 3 weeks behind the rest of the world, when you try to go to their site you get pictures and stories on the front page where you cant miss it that gives the results away.. and if you watch RAW or SmackDown over here you get a watered-down 35min episode out of the 1.5 hours you get elsewhere!
On the satellite broadcaster it is slightly better as they are only about 6-9 months behind on most stuff but there is some real disappointing time delays as well. Ie:
Stargate SG1 Season 9
Stargate Atlantis Season 2
They are showing SGU as well now it has to be said. and American Idol is on the same week as in the US.. but who in their right mind will willingly watch such crap?
They have never even heard of Justified, Human Target, Ricky Gervais show, V, Spartacus Blood and Sand and The Tudors to name a few and for this we dont only pay a required TV licence fee as well as the R500+ per month!
The way I see it, I am paying to watch what I want and therefore if I want to download it (and especially at the redicilous prices Telkom set for bandwidth) and watch it with the rest of the world, why should it be illegal?
As for movies a ticket these days costs more than R50 so can sit sit in a stuffy room with noisy kids being pelted with popcorn and other sweets and stuff. often having to sit on a wet seat from the previous shows viewers spilling drinks etc all in all resulting in a terrible experience you would not like to repeat. It is much better to wait for the DVD to be released, rent that (about R25) or buy it (from about R150 upwards) and enjoy it in the comfort of your own home and pause for smoke breaks or whatever and you can watch it as often as you like problem once again is this.. when the movie is released on DVD in the US (in most cases) it still havent even appeared on the radar of the local movie theatres and since we live in a virtual world interacting with people for all over the world, we get spoilers and plots everywhere.. facebook, movie sites etc. etc. etc.. so I will download the movie, watch it, and then rent or buy the DVD when it comes out so no-one loses money like it is said they do when movies gets downloaded.
So I believe I do pay for what I download (more than the original price if you include the fortune spent on bandwidth) so is it really piracy?
I understand that people view the downloading of movies and TV episodes as piracy.. but is it really so black and white? I decided to give my views on this and would like to hear what the rest of are thinking
Is South Africa where I live we have 2 systems of television we can access. Firstly is the national broadcaster (SABC) and the second one is DSTV Digital Satellite TV.
SABC offers us 3 channels (SABC 1-3) as well as a public channel (e-TV). Since we have 9 official languages (of which I speak English & Afrikaans and have no desire to learn the rest) I can only watch 1 channel (SABC 3) as the rest is either broadcasting soccer or local programming of weak quality and mostly in gibberish. When they do show international programming its years behind for instance:
We can now enjoy (read suffer through) the first season of Ugly Betty
Big Bang Theory Season 1,
How I met Your Mother season 3,
The first celeb apprentice just finished (the one with Pierce Morgan & Trace Adkins)
Smallville Season 5
Lost season 2 and Heroes season 3 just finished a few months ago.
And then my soapie WWE wrestling is about 3 weeks behind the rest of the world, when you try to go to their site you get pictures and stories on the front page where you cant miss it that gives the results away.. and if you watch RAW or SmackDown over here you get a watered-down 35min episode out of the 1.5 hours you get elsewhere!
On the satellite broadcaster it is slightly better as they are only about 6-9 months behind on most stuff but there is some real disappointing time delays as well. Ie:
Stargate SG1 Season 9
Stargate Atlantis Season 2
They are showing SGU as well now it has to be said. and American Idol is on the same week as in the US.. but who in their right mind will willingly watch such crap?
They have never even heard of Justified, Human Target, Ricky Gervais show, V, Spartacus Blood and Sand and The Tudors to name a few and for this we dont only pay a required TV licence fee as well as the R500+ per month!
The way I see it, I am paying to watch what I want and therefore if I want to download it (and especially at the redicilous prices Telkom set for bandwidth) and watch it with the rest of the world, why should it be illegal?
As for movies a ticket these days costs more than R50 so can sit sit in a stuffy room with noisy kids being pelted with popcorn and other sweets and stuff. often having to sit on a wet seat from the previous shows viewers spilling drinks etc all in all resulting in a terrible experience you would not like to repeat. It is much better to wait for the DVD to be released, rent that (about R25) or buy it (from about R150 upwards) and enjoy it in the comfort of your own home and pause for smoke breaks or whatever and you can watch it as often as you like problem once again is this.. when the movie is released on DVD in the US (in most cases) it still havent even appeared on the radar of the local movie theatres and since we live in a virtual world interacting with people for all over the world, we get spoilers and plots everywhere.. facebook, movie sites etc. etc. etc.. so I will download the movie, watch it, and then rent or buy the DVD when it comes out so no-one loses money like it is said they do when movies gets downloaded.
So I believe I do pay for what I download (more than the original price if you include the fortune spent on bandwidth) so is it really piracy?
VIEW 15 of 15 COMMENTS
joliette:
This season of 24 does NOT disappoint. Easily their best ever. Let me know what you think when you see it. 24 Marathon - I <3 it. Brilliant idea.
hastey:
I think the super hero thing is awesome. 