The previous post got me thinking of a conversation I was a part of last night online. We were talking about piracy and places people draw their own lines for what is 'okay' to download. One interesting area was downloading TV episodes. Is it okay to do? Is it any different than recording it to VCR. Nobody is charging to make episodes available. They are almost always at a poorer quality than TV. And in many cases there is no other way for a person to even see them (unless a friend taped it and lent them a tape). You might even make the argument that commercials should be left in so that there is some possibility of advertising revenue for the show. Though, once a show is out on DVD I definitely think it is wrong to download rips of that show, since it is now more of a product.
How about anime fansubs. Is it piracy to watch something that was only shown once in another country on TV that isn't available on video yet? Including the commercials doesn't really help, since people in other countries probably wouldn't understand them (or even be a target audience). There's a definite market for US and Japanese companies to co-produce shows and release them simultaneously (and it looks like this is close to happening). I know that my personal line is that I won't download anything that's out on DVD in the US. Given that sometimes it can take over a year between a show being licensed and actually being available on DVD in the US I don't see there as being as much of a problem. And once again, video quality suffers with downloads. Recent viewings of some shows I originally saw as downloads is major proof of this.
