Quote Originally Posted by Sigurd Fafnesbane
As a Scandinavian I downloaded an episode that I missed when it was aired here in Norway (we were only a couple of episodes behind the US in season 1). Was that illegal? If not, at which point does it become illegal? Which law is broken? Distributing material that has been broadcasted, is that really illegal?
It's a grey area.
Currently we've a war going on between the record and film industry on the one hand
and the programmers of p2p software and their users on the other hand. The media industry argues that
since the content of p2p networks can hardly be surveilled and is used to distribute copyrighted material.
The p2p lobby argues that providing the technology is not a crime, filesharing helps to distribute open
source material and, contrary to the industry's claims, p2p networks actually increase the amount of
legally bought material and its market value by increasing its popularity.
The main focus of the media industry was initially on Music (Napster, Kazaa). When technology
improved and transmission of larger files became feasible, the crusade against p2p started to include
Movies.
The sharing of TV-series was overlooked for a long time. It seems the industry jsut only realized
how much series are shared a few months ago. When they did they forced a few sites off the net.
The fair use argument in one of my above posts is dismissed by the industry because it's impossible to
reduce sharing to a certain group of "authorized" people.
In your case it means that yes, it was illegal to download that file. That is from a perspective of a lawyer
of the film/ movie industry. They would argue that their copyright was infringed.
You could argue that the episode had been aired anyway and that you easily could have made a digital copy
if you hadn't missed it. In both cases you would own a digital copy.
See the proplem here? (Btw, I've no idea how Norway handles it. In Russia you've allofmp3.com where
you can get almost any music for very little money. Copyright doesn't really exist in Russia and
other states are quite pissed that there's no possiblity to stop the Russians)

It's my personal opinion that we, as consumers, finance the broadcasted series. As soon as it's aired
it becomes public property of the consumers. For me there's no point in waiting for the free-tv-premiere
which is badly syncronized, when I can get the original format, enjoy it and improve my english.

So, the industry generally sees p2p sharing as illegal, different nations have different copyright regulations, or
none at all. Concerning the fair use argument, downloading is illegal when the respective program has not
been broadcasted in your country. In case of other files you need an original in your possession before
you're allowed to download a digital copy of it. And even then......