Online trading of TV episodes grows
From USA Today:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2004-05-20-tv_x.htm
Online trading of TV episodes grows
By Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY
LOS ANGELES — Missed the final episode of Frasier or Friends? Many college kids aren't waiting for the reruns. They're downloading the shows instead.
With millions of unauthorized media files being traded on the Internet, it's impossible to put an exact number on how many TV episodes are out there.
But Jorge Gonzalez, who runs Zeropaid.com, a file-sharing guide, says he's seen "a big increase in the last six months for new sites that specialize in trading TV shows."
The Simpsons, Friends, The Sopranos and other shows are readily available at both Kazaa, the world's most-used file-sharing program, and new sites like eDonkey, TVTorrents.com and Bucktv.net.
BayTSP, a Silicon Valley company that tracks unauthorized Internet file trading, found nearly 20,000 files of popular TV shows like The Simpsons and Alias being offered for free on Wednesday.
The TV industry fears being Napsterized. Record labels blame a three-year 25% decline in sales on Internet music swapping. Movie studios are fighting online film traders. Now, TV downloading has become "a very serious and growing problem," says Ron Wheeler, senior vice president of Fox Entertainment Group, producer of The Simpsons. The situation is of greater concern, he says, because TV files are smaller than movie files — so easier to download.
Still, unlike music MP3 files, which take minutes to acquire, TV shows can take more than an hour to get.
The TV- and movie-trading programs work with free BitTorrent software. To speed downloading, BitTorrent connects users to many different fragments of the show. They are then pieced together seamlessly on arrival.
The process is more cumbersome than music downloads. But students don't mind. "It's not that much of a bother," says Boston University student Ethan Clay. "You type The Simpsons on your PC, choose an episode, go out to dinner, and come back and watch it."
Some TV shows hit the Internet days before they actually air, says BayTSP CEO Mark Ishikawa. They are coming from people with access at post-production houses or TV affiliates, he says.
But it's not just those with connections. Hewlett-Packard, Gateway and Dell make Media Center PCs with built-in TV tuners to record shows onto hard drives for personal use. Also, $50 TV "capture cards" can be inserted into any desktop for similar results. Once the shows are digitized, they can easily be transferred to the Internet.
As with sharing songs or movies, it is illegal to swap TV shows online. But unlike the music industry, which has sued more than 2,500 people for trading songs, no one's been sued for putting TV shows online. Industry executives say that's under consideration. The industry also is pushing legislation that would scramble TV content, making swapping impossible.
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Morjana
http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2004-05-20-tv_x.htm
Online trading of TV episodes grows
By Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY
LOS ANGELES — Missed the final episode of Frasier or Friends? Many college kids aren't waiting for the reruns. They're downloading the shows instead.
With millions of unauthorized media files being traded on the Internet, it's impossible to put an exact number on how many TV episodes are out there.
But Jorge Gonzalez, who runs Zeropaid.com, a file-sharing guide, says he's seen "a big increase in the last six months for new sites that specialize in trading TV shows."
The Simpsons, Friends, The Sopranos and other shows are readily available at both Kazaa, the world's most-used file-sharing program, and new sites like eDonkey, TVTorrents.com and Bucktv.net.
BayTSP, a Silicon Valley company that tracks unauthorized Internet file trading, found nearly 20,000 files of popular TV shows like The Simpsons and Alias being offered for free on Wednesday.
The TV industry fears being Napsterized. Record labels blame a three-year 25% decline in sales on Internet music swapping. Movie studios are fighting online film traders. Now, TV downloading has become "a very serious and growing problem," says Ron Wheeler, senior vice president of Fox Entertainment Group, producer of The Simpsons. The situation is of greater concern, he says, because TV files are smaller than movie files — so easier to download.
Still, unlike music MP3 files, which take minutes to acquire, TV shows can take more than an hour to get.
The TV- and movie-trading programs work with free BitTorrent software. To speed downloading, BitTorrent connects users to many different fragments of the show. They are then pieced together seamlessly on arrival.
The process is more cumbersome than music downloads. But students don't mind. "It's not that much of a bother," says Boston University student Ethan Clay. "You type The Simpsons on your PC, choose an episode, go out to dinner, and come back and watch it."
Some TV shows hit the Internet days before they actually air, says BayTSP CEO Mark Ishikawa. They are coming from people with access at post-production houses or TV affiliates, he says.
But it's not just those with connections. Hewlett-Packard, Gateway and Dell make Media Center PCs with built-in TV tuners to record shows onto hard drives for personal use. Also, $50 TV "capture cards" can be inserted into any desktop for similar results. Once the shows are digitized, they can easily be transferred to the Internet.
As with sharing songs or movies, it is illegal to swap TV shows online. But unlike the music industry, which has sued more than 2,500 people for trading songs, no one's been sued for putting TV shows online. Industry executives say that's under consideration. The industry also is pushing legislation that would scramble TV content, making swapping impossible.
********
Morjana
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