Re: Illegal downloaders face internet ban
Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 1:45 pm
I just thought...........banning the illegal downloaders means less people care about their internet speeds!
2mbps here we come baby! !laugh!
Seriously though, TV companies like Ch4 and now the BBC are at least giving the opportunity for people like me to watch missed programmes. The technology we have at our disposal today should mean that something you missed on Wednesday, should be available for you to watch at another time - if you've already paid for it.
I know a lot of illegal downloading isn't just people wanting to get stuff for free.
Lots of Americans I know download British TV programmes because they see clips on youtube and cannot get access via their own TV stations. For instance, BBC America refused to show the gameshow QI. They watch it via download, or youtube instead. We paid for that gameshow via our licence fee, and they're watching it for free. It's not that they wanted to get something for nothing -though some obviously may do- but it was just something unavailable to them. They couldn't even purchase the series on DVD until a petition was set-up on the QI website to get the first series onto dvd and make it available in America.
Yes, it's only entertainment, but it's partly information; and with information comes knowledge.....which should be as openly available to all, as possible.
I think it's great that the internet allowed me to read Orwell's essays. I went out and purchased 3 of his books because those essays got me interested. I may not have done otherwise. I recently read up a little on Che Guevara -quite by accident actually, while searching for Trotsky- which got me to spend an extra ?11.21, from Amazon, on 'A Revolutionary Life'.
A more knowledgeable world is a more understanding, less ignorant world. Surely this is good?
2mbps here we come baby! !laugh!
Seriously though, TV companies like Ch4 and now the BBC are at least giving the opportunity for people like me to watch missed programmes. The technology we have at our disposal today should mean that something you missed on Wednesday, should be available for you to watch at another time - if you've already paid for it.
I know a lot of illegal downloading isn't just people wanting to get stuff for free.
Lots of Americans I know download British TV programmes because they see clips on youtube and cannot get access via their own TV stations. For instance, BBC America refused to show the gameshow QI. They watch it via download, or youtube instead. We paid for that gameshow via our licence fee, and they're watching it for free. It's not that they wanted to get something for nothing -though some obviously may do- but it was just something unavailable to them. They couldn't even purchase the series on DVD until a petition was set-up on the QI website to get the first series onto dvd and make it available in America.
Yes, it's only entertainment, but it's partly information; and with information comes knowledge.....which should be as openly available to all, as possible.
I think it's great that the internet allowed me to read Orwell's essays. I went out and purchased 3 of his books because those essays got me interested. I may not have done otherwise. I recently read up a little on Che Guevara -quite by accident actually, while searching for Trotsky- which got me to spend an extra ?11.21, from Amazon, on 'A Revolutionary Life'.
A more knowledgeable world is a more understanding, less ignorant world. Surely this is good?