As college students we are often worried about legal ramifications as we violate copyright laws through the wonderful world of illegal downloads.
I, for one, hate the RIAA, with their slew of over-zealous litigation and inability to compromise. In fact, the music industry is utterly manipulative-focused on making executives (read: not artists) loads of money. But I would never "steal" music from a band that I really liked. Nor would I take away from the meager earnings of an independent label-that just makes me a sad panda.
But for some reason, my ethics seem to change when it comes to television. One reason may be the fact that there are no indie-television networks (or at least none with any shows I actually want to watch). As long as you're not downloading the show to your hard drive, a little streaming from a host site should set you in the moral clear.
As much as I like Weeds, I would never actively search out Showtime (that's what the neighbor's antenna is for) or spend $50 for the nicely-packaged boxed DVD set. If anything, a free preview of the show may convince me to buy the DVD or soundtrack in question.
Unfortunately, I will never get to spread my wings beyond the small-screen world of the commons room cable as I've just discovered some devastating news: T.V. Links is dead.
The beauteous weblinks site (tv-links.co.uk), which enlightened me with the best of stream-able T.V., was brought down in a cruel British sting over the weekend. I'm not sure if I can emotionally recover from this trauma. Maybe it's time to quit T.V. and read a book...does any one know any good book downloading websites?
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