Hey, I might be able to catch up here...

[amethyst73]

Reposted from kayray: 

I haven't actually tried anything on the site, but it seems that watchsitcoms has full episodes (and seasons?  somebody check me on this) of several TV shows - including Lost!  Whee, I can has polar bear now.  :)  And movies and stuff too.  Looking forward to checking it out.

(Yes, it's likely easier and nicer watching DVDs, but hey.  Free is free, especially if you don't feel like going to the library.)

Comments

[meepodeekin.livejournal.com]

OOC, is that legal? It's hard to see how it would be. It would be a fun site to use if it was, though.

[ladybird97.livejournal.com]

I was about to ask the same question. Because if it is....Season 2 Heroes, here I come!!

[amethyst73.livejournal.com]

See my response to Meepo -

[amethyst73.livejournal.com]

It's a good question - especially since I saw some movie titles in their database that I think are still in theaters here...

I did some poking (googled 'watchtvsitcoms legal,' and looked at their Terms of Use). If the user on some unrelated forum is right, their servers are in Russia, where there's not exactly a lot in terms of copyright law. This is similar to Librivox's argument for being able to provide free audiorecordings of what they consider to be public domain stuff: because the server is in the US, they use the US's definition of what's copyright and what's not. There are, mind you, notices up on some of the threads of active projects noting that the author death-date doesn't satisfy European copyright law, and that therefore people might want to think twice about recording or downloading, and a notification on every catalog page asking people to be sure that the work is in the PD in their country before downloading. That said, we don't do any sort of check as to where people are coming from.

If another user is right, then they are probably illegal: they stream video from other (questionably legal) sites through their servers. That sounds a little like money laundering to me.

Their legalese doesn't really make any statement about whether *they* think they're legal or otherwise. They say you can use the stuff for private home viewing. Some of their services are pay ones; they'll cut you off if you cut them off. They don't make any guarantee that anything on the website is what it says it is.

OTOH, they're not dissimilar to YouTube, which has *tons* of copyright stuff on it. (All that Sesame Street material, for example. Sorry ladybird!) Do I watch copyright stuff on YouTube? Indeedy I do, technically illegal though it be. This probably says something about what a terrible person I am, and is material for thought.

Later.

[cerebralpaladin.livejournal.com]

My standard caveats apply (this is not legal advice, I am not your lawyer, etc.) plus the additional "I don't do intellectual property law" caveat. But all that said...

At least some of the YouTube stuff is arguably fair use-- short excerpts and the like. Full episodes wouldn't be covered, of course, unless they've been authorized by the copyright holder (which I think sometimes happens).

The argument that their servers are in Russia, therefor they only need to comply with Russian copyright law may or may not be true for them. But there's no reason to think that it makes it legal for you to use the service. If they don't have the permission of the copyright owners, and it sounds like they almost certainly don't, it seems likely that it is illegal for you to use the service.

That said, there is a difference between illegal and unethical. People can reasonably disagree about what sorts of conduct with regard to downloading copyrighted TV shows (etc.) they consider to be unethical-- I personally have a fairly high standard, but you may disagree. One thing to think about is whether this really gets you that much. For the most part, I can netflix (or watch on the networks' websites for current season shows) most shows I want to see with a fair degree of ease. Sometimes I have to wait a couple months, but . So it may be worth considering whether you get enough value out of it for it to be worth even a minor ethical dilemma.

[meepodeekin.livejournal.com]

Oh, I didn't mean to say that you were a terrible person. Of course you aren't! I certainly don't judge other people for their decisions, either way, about the many different downloading options available these days.

That said, I only watch video off of the network's own webpages or paid for on Itunes. I don't watch Youtube, except the occasional video that I am sure is a private citizen's upload. I tend to agree with CP on the reasons why.

Lawful is a different alignment from good, and sometimes being too lawful can be annoying, but here I am.

[amethyst73.livejournal.com]

Didn't mean to sound at all harsh there - sorry! I was mostly being tongue in cheek when I said that. :)

I'm actually mostly lawful most of the time, and probably won't use this service. Extending the 'the servers are in a country so the copyright isn't at issue' argument from what Librivox does, LV's stuff is only really legal if *the user* is also in America, or in a country in which the material is clearly PD.

Which this stuff definitely isn't, in the US.

Having done some more poking, there actually are some legal download/stream services (which you're probably aware of), e.g. Hulu.com, Comedy Central, and (I think?) NBC (which has the original Star Trek series for streaming, which is pretty amusing). Are there other good lawful spots you can point me to?

[meepodeekin.livejournal.com]

All of the broadcast networks have free streaming of current shows and I regularly use them all--ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, CW. I haven't watched new shows live in a while. (This habit was developed from 3 months without a tv and then 3 months of strike.) Their usefulness varies. ABC will usually let you watch the last few eps, but has one or two older things, like My So Called Life. NBC is the nicest. They'll let you watch the entire history of at least some of their shows. FOX, CW, and CBS will only let you watch the last 3 eps.

Netflix also has a download service that is free (and commercial free) for all members. Dunno if you have Netflix, though. But if you do it's a good one--they have some tv, both new and old, and lots of movies. Not the hippest, most popular , newest ones, and not a broad spectrum, but a lot of movies.

I haven't found a way to watch cable for free. If I really want to watch it promptly (we don't get cable), I download it by the ep from Itunes. Otherwise I wait for Netflix to get the dvd. Itunes actually has a lot of free stuff. Usually only one or two eps per show, but if you are just looking for something to kill a little time it's worth checking. They also have a bunch of free "video podcasts"--things like old, out of copyright cartoons.

That was probably TMI. Or really tl;dr. Oh well.

[meepodeekin.livejournal.com]

Oh also, I think Librivox is different. A service in the US that is available worldwide but plausibly intended mainly for US users, and openly tells people to check their own laws before proceeding is very different for a service that is clearly in Russia only as a copyright dodge and is intended to be used by Americans and Europeans for whom the stuff isn't legal.

I didn't think you sounded too harsh. I just know I tend to get a bit righteous about copyright issues and downloading and I didn't want to have sounded too judgmental.