Television Must Change

The MPAA is now going after sites that make BitTorrent files of TV shows available. If you don't know, BitTorrent is an efficient protocol for letting people share large files. What files you share are up to you, some companies release software this way and yes some people share things that they shouldn't. It turns out a lot of television shows are posted and you can download them. I've downloaded a couple of things via BitTorrent using the Azureus client.

The first was a 40 minute Star Wars fan film called Revelations and the second was an episode of Star Trek The New Voyages which is by a group of fans of the original series who are making new episode in years four and five of the original "five year mission". They have different actors playing Kirk, Spock, etc. These films are astounding in that the effects, sets, plots, etc. are like the originals they are portraying. The weakest part is the acting but you could argue that's faithful to their originals as well. Anyway, downloading these is clearly legal.

I've downloaded two other things. I missed an episode of Enterprise so I downloaded it and watched it. I also recently became a big fan of the cooking show Good Eats with Alton Brown. I downloaded the first of eight seasons which was 13 episodes at a total of 1.75GB which took about 6 hours. I've since watched 6 of these, but I've also watched 15 episodes from the Food Network via my Tivo and I've visited their web site. As a result of downloading these shows, I've watched more TV.

It's pretty clear that sharing movies in this way is illegal, it's a little less clear about TV shows, since they are sent to your home over the airways and the Supreme Court has upheld our right to record them (at the time with VCRs) for time shifting purposes. The MPAA is going after this services on a technical issue of how they work. When you download, you also upload so others can copy from you, it makes using the bandwidth far more efficient and is robust in the cases of machines going up and down. I'm not trying to distribute things illegally, I'm trying to watch stuff I had the right too but missed for whatever reason.

But even assuming it's illegal, the industry has to figure out how to use these technologies to their advantages. VCRs were a boon in spite of the fact the industry fought them to the Supreme Court. DVDs were feared as well, now they are saving hollywood's boat since people aren't going to theaters as much anymore and are buying DVDs left and right or renting from Netflix like services. iTunes has shown that people will be willing to pay for services like this if given the opportunity. I pay $150 a month for my cable TV bill (I get all the pay-movie channels and have a second box with HDTV service). I'd pay a $1 an episode to be able to watch something in high definition without commercials, at my leisure. The industry needs to stop suing their customers and start listening to them to make new revenue streams available. It's clear what people want, fill the void and make a fortune. It's obvious to me that in 10 years there will be a new revenue model for television, I wish it were here already.