news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4545519.stm
Printable version TV download sites hit by lawsuits Dr Who Dr Who appeared on the net even before it was broadcast The movie industry has turned its legal campaign against net piracy to TV file-sharing sites. Six BitTorrent sites hosting links to others with illegal copies of TV sh ows have been targeted in lawsuits by the Motion Picture Association of America. Since it started legal action agains t file-sharers in December, its targets have been film indexing sites. A recent survey said TV programme downloads had risen by 150% in a year. About 70% were using BitTorrent sites, according to the Envisional resear ch. Of the total downloaders, 18% were within the UK, it said. In March, TV downloading made headlines with the appearance of the long-a waited new series of Doctor Who on the net before it was even broadcast. "There are thousands of people in the entertainment industry who are work ing to develop, produce, and promote television shows. Those shows and t hose jobs are worth protecting," said Dan Glickman, MPAA chief. "Every television series depends on other markets-syndication - internati onal sales - to earn back the enormous investment required to produce th e comedies and dramas we all enjoy and those markets are substantially h urt when that content is stolen." It has filed 100 lawsu its against operators of BitTorrent server sites since December.
How Doctor Who spread on the net Copies of popular US shows, such as Desperate Housewives and 24, regularl y appear hours after they are first aired on networks in the US, and dow nloaded by fans around the world eager to see the latest episodes. Because TV programmes are usually shorter than films, they are processed - or digitised - quickly. Those people with increasingly faster broadband connections can download episodes in very little time. But the MPAA says its action to hit those running servers which link to copyrighted material has slowed this. The percent of working servers has dropped by more than 40% since it star ted action, said the MPAA. "Since we began shutting these sites down, the time that it takes to down load a file on BitTorrent has increased exponentially which means the ex perience of downloading copyrighted films and TV shows is not what it us ed to be," said Mr Glickman. With BitTorrent software, server sites do not host the files being shared . Instead, they host links, called "trackers" which tell people where to go to get the files. More than 90% of the sites that the MPAA has sued so far have been shut d own entirely. The sites which have been closed, such as LokiTorrent, UK Torrent and s0n icfreak, now carry warning messages from the MPAA that read: "You Can Cl ick But You Cannot Hide." The MPAA says it wants to encourage legitimate download sites instead. Se veral TV companies are experimenting with legal peer-to-peer based downl oads, including the BBC.
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