BitTorrent search site hits back

[bsodmike]

More power to torrents I don't own a TV in UK and even if I did there is no way I could get the US channels such as Fox etc...

I download the torrents and once they episodes are out on DVD I grab the box sets...just recently got my self a huge 24 box set

Viva la Torrentspy, Isohunt, Piratebay et al

[cougarslam]

my uni blocks the dload of .torrent files

[Spud1]

More power to torrents I don't own a TV in UK and even if I did there is no way I could get the US channels such as Fox etc...

I download the torrents and once they episodes are out on DVD I grab the box sets...just recently got my self a huge 24 box set

Viva la Torrentspy, Isohunt, Piratebay et al

Sorry to pick on you now mike but following that logic.

Say a company releases a car in JUST the UK, and would not export it anywhere else for say, 5 years. If you lived in say the US, where you can't buy it, would it be ok for you to nip over to the UK, steal one, and ship it back to the states?

No of course it wouldn't

It's no different in this situation, just because you are going to buy one eventually doesnt mean you can steal it first..

I sympathise honestly, I miss UK and USA tv now im in switzerland - 64 channels with 3 in english (CNN, BBC prime and BBC world) - so no sitcoms, soaps etc etc until they appear on DVD. This doesn't give me the right to just steal it though..

[poindextermatic]

It's like those ppl u see in WHSmith standing there reading magazines... do they actually buy them or what? Maybe somtimes, maybe somtimes they don't think its worth the money.
Don't really think its like stealing a car, its totally different...

[Rythmic]

I'm just glad that torrentspy hasn't been hit with the same nonsense a lot of other p2p index sites have been hit by.

That is - make an "accusation" - servers get confisicated - but no charges are ever actually brought. A number of the big sites have been hit by this sort of nonsense - and have never seen their kit again

[blun]

Hasn't there been talk recently of making tv shows available for free legal download? After all.. they're free to watch on tv (unlike box office movies).

[EvilWeevil]

More power to torrents I don't own a TV in UK and even if I did there is no way I could get the US channels such as Fox etc...

I download the torrents and once they episodes are out on DVD I grab the box sets...just recently got my self a huge 24 box set

Viva la Torrentspy, Isohunt, Piratebay et al

Ditto for me with Scrubs...great show, takes ages to get it over here, so dl it the day after it's aired across the pond. And then go out and buy the box sets - Scrubs S1,2 and 3 sitting on my shelf.

Here, the important thing is that I would never have got into Scrubs and therefore never bought these box sets, without downloading the eps via BT.

[Rythmic]

At least the TV companies are starting to see that the first showing figures are not the only thing to judge the success of a series by.

Admittedly only one series so far (Family Guy) has been treated in this way, but fingers crossed, they may actually see the bottom line for once instead of just the American viewing numbers.

[Spud1]

It's like those ppl u see in WHSmith standing there reading magazines... do they actually buy them or what? Maybe somtimes, maybe somtimes they don't think its worth the money.
Don't really think its like stealing a car, its totally different...

Downloading illegal stuff is - its exactly the same in the eyes of the law, whatever you (or I for that matter) may think.

Theft is theft, whether it is a car, watch, 10p, a film, a tv episode, a game...

[bsodmike]

Ditto for me with Scrubs...great show, takes ages to get it over here, so dl it the day after it's aired across the pond. And then go out and buy the box sets - Scrubs S1,2 and 3 sitting on my shelf.

Here, the important thing is that I would never have got into Scrubs and therefore never bought these box sets, without downloading the eps via BT.

Amen, got my self the scrubs box set too. Tbh I think I've spent MORE on DVDs since I started downloading torrents that I did before. Why? Cause I didn't watch anything...i.e. no TV, no torrents = I wouldn't watch anything, and wouldn't buy anthing either....

It's sort of like "demoing' a TV series. I can watch a few eps of scrubs and go 'OOOOh I like this!" or watch 24 and go "I so want that box set"...

And sadly, thanks to torrents, I've easily spent over £500 in the past couple months on DVDs...

So meh

[badass]

Downloading illegal stuff is - its exactly the same in the eyes of the law, whatever you (or I for that matter) may think.

Theft is theft, whether it is a car, watch, 10p, a film, a tv episode, a game...

And that is where you are totally WRONG.
The law differentiates completely between copyright infringement and theft.
The legal definition of theft:
"To dishonestly appropriate an item with the intention to permanantly deprive"
Theft is a criminal matter, copyright infringement is purely a civil matter.
The law does differentiate between them a lot. To steal something you have to take it away from them. By copying something you are not taking it away from them.

If you want to call piracy theft, then using the same logic, price fixing is theft. That simply means the corporate thiefs are getting burgled. Poetic justice.

[Mike Fishcake]

Ditto for me with Scrubs...great show, takes ages to get it over here, so dl it the day after it's aired across the pond.

Me too. I could go on and on about it but I don't want to cause a threadjack!

[Spud1]

And that is where you are totally WRONG.
The law differentiates completely between copyright infringement and theft.
The legal definition of theft:
"To dishonestly appropriate an item with the intention to permanantly deprive"
Theft is a criminal matter, copyright infringement is purely a civil matter.
The law does differentiate between them a lot. To steal something you have to take it away from them. By copying something you are not taking it away from them.

If you want to call piracy theft, then using the same logic, price fixing is theft. That simply means the corporate thiefs are getting burgled. Poetic justice.

err no it's not purely a civil matter.

You can find the original acts that apply at: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/

with the most useful one (Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988) at this link:

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1988..._en_1.htm#tcon

It's a pain in the ass the read (being a legal doc an all) but it's worth doing. A (very) brief overview can be found here: http://www.fast.org.uk/thelaw.asp

At the end of the day, copyright infringement is illegal, and depending on what you have done, you can get up to 10years inprisonment and a hefty fine.

Normally it is just a fine that is given out, and that is all you would expect, but you DO get a criminal record if caught, you CAN go to prison and it IS illegal.


edit: even better source of info: http://www.fact-uk.org.uk/site/crimi...tice/index.htm

[badass]

err no it's not purely a civil matter.

You can find the original acts that apply at: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/

with the most useful one (Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988) at this link:

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1988..._en_1.htm#tcon

It's a pain in the ass the read (being a legal doc an all) but it's worth doing. A (very) brief overview can be found here: http://www.fast.org.uk/thelaw.asp

At the end of the day, copyright infringement is illegal, and depending on what you have done, you can get up to 10years inprisonment and a hefty fine.

Normally it is just a fine that is given out, and that is all you would expect, but you DO get a criminal record if caught, you CAN go to prison and it IS illegal.


edit: even better source of info: http://www.fact-uk.org.uk/site/crimi...tice/index.htm

I may have been wrong about copyright law being completely civil, but the law does differentiate between theft and copyright infringement. If it didn't, you'd get done for theft instead of any of the other offences mentioned under the acts you quoted there.
Also, I haven't read the links in detail there, but the impression I get is that none of these copyright related offences are "arrestable offences" while theft most certainly is.
When I say "arrestable offence" I do not mean that you cant be arrested anything that is not an arrestable offence. I know the police can arrest for non arrestable offences in certain circumstances.