that’s because they don’t want you to just pay the BBC, you’re supposed to also pay Apple, Microsoft (for using the Xbox that you already own), whoever made your TV, whoever made the cables that connect your mac to your xbox and your xbox to your tv, and whoever made the chair that you’re sitting on. And if you’re wearing glasses, you have to pay them for letting the images through.

watch it on iview :
http://www.abc.net.au/iview/#/index

Which raises the question. If as an Aussie I can watch this for free on the ABC, why can’t I watch the same same content from a different source for free. I am a simple person, thus confused.

As for Doctor Who, they do run the current season on the Syfy channel, 2 weeks behind the British broadcast, or you can watch them at the BBC website if you change your web proxy so it thinks you are in the UK (if you’re not). You can also watch them online at various sites thru streaming video, usually within a few hrs of broadcast. Now downloading required. Just ask Mr Google to show you where

Back in my day (70′s and 80′s), record companies would pick a single or 2 off an album for radio play. If you liked the song(s) you would go to a “store” and buy the entire “album”. All the while you had fingers crossed that the rest of the album didn’t suck.
The only way you heard any of the other songs on the album was either hearing them from someone who bought the album or attending a concert.
90% of the time the other songs sucked. You paid $8 – $10 for 1 or 2 decent tracks.

Yes, albums were around 10 bucks so if you figure in inflation, music is stupid cheap now and you don’t have to get the B sides.
Now, get off the lawn you meddling youngsters!

To anyone who’s asking that question seriously, please read some science fiction novels (Heinlein and Varley come to mind) about people living on the Moon, where air isn’t free — because it’s a scarce resource, hard to make, and REALLY hard to keep clean — and see how well your analogy holds up.

Illegal downloaders do not ‘steal your life and your money’. They do steal content (sorry Magicpeacelove) but the main loser there is the studio NOT the creator – that is what the writers guild strikes were ALL ABOUT, the fact that studios refuse to give creators a fair share of online revenue.

Some illegal downloaders feel that if the creator of the content is not going to get their fair share of the revenue, then they shouldn’t have to pay for it (not saying it’s right, just saying that’s how some people feel). While the studios do provide a big service to creators (in terms of equipment/space/expertise/marketing etc) it has been proven over and over again that quality content can be achieved without the studios: Dr Horrible, The Guild, Kickass (comic and movie), to name my favourites.

The model of production is changing and the TV networks are just doing whatever they can to inhibit that change because they can’t figure out how to effectively monetise it. Remember, network TV isn’t about quality programming, it’s about a vehicle to ensure people watch commercials. Until they can figure out a way to force people to watch commercials (thanks for trying to create a way to do that Steve Jobs! NOT) they won’t backing online content and will miss out on the market. Hence, they try to demonise illegal downloaders who only want access to their content.

EG: I occasionally torrent shows that are on in the US but not in the UK. Partly because many of the sites I visit are US based and I will hear spoilers, and partly because I don’t want to have to watch 15 minutes of commercials for every hour of TV I watch. When the show is available to buy on DVD boxset, I buy it. The creator gets their few cents, the production studio gets their money and I get a few cool extras. I used to also have the shows on when they aired in the UK in the mistaken belief that this would have some effect on the renewal of the show, but then I realised that US studios and networks only care about US audiences.

Please outgrow the false notion that sharing digital files = stealing. Digital information is non-rivalrous and non-excludable. Everything else non-rivalrous and non-excludable — air, the color blue, over-the-air television — is considered a public good. The only reason digital information is falsely equated with property is that its free exchange *breaks the existing business model.*

The only way to control the free flow of information is to create a police state that monitors all electronic communication seeking ostensibly “owned” content. This is what your beloved content industry is trying to do through their manipulation of the secret trade agreement called ACTA. How can you lament DRM without realizing it is inseparable from the phony claim that sharing digital bits = stealing?

The fact that all digital media is freely shareable worldwide for no cost is not a bug, it’s a glorious feature. It is the greatest public good humanity has ever seen. The solution isn’t to criminalize those who share culture. The correct solution — if the dying content industry didn’t have its head too far up its own assets — is to celebrate joyously and (all together now) FIND A NEW BUSINESS MODEL.

Young people share culture freely and don’t feel the slightest bit guilty about it because they know they’re not thieves. Please, please stop perpetuating the lie that people who share culture freely are criminals. They’ve only been criminalized by our corrupt system that empowers content owners (not creators, btw) to make the laws.

You can’t even really break the law in protest. All you’re left with is to follow the law (buy the cables, because frankly, they’ll be useful later anyway), but lodge a formal complaint to the evil government that be.

Or if it’s a longer campaign, use your high Cha to generate a grass-roots movement against this morally reprehensible law, and get it changed that way.

To sum up: yes to cables and effort to change law legally; no to anything else that makes your God look at you askew.

Faithfully Yours,

I AM NOT A GEEK!
I’m a level 8 Paladin!

I absolutely love series 3! But you’ll be fine starting in on series 5. I’d definitely wait to start series 4, though, until you’ve finished 3.