Are you a chronic downloader, or do you wait until your favourite series comes out on DVD?

Battlestar Galactica is half-way through its second season here... am I supposed to wait?

I don't think so... If I had a friend who lived in a place with no TV reception, I would be allowed to record a show from TV to a DVD and post it to him...

Eh. I always buy it when it comes out or tape it off the TV. There's so much great free stuff out there, I don't know why it should be any different...

But isn't it illegal to download it for free? If you mean to Buy online to download, then I'd say, no. Since I could rip it to my PC, and I wouldn't need to burn it again to show it to somebody. And not all people have a fast internet connection.


Extreme Coder

Yes but things don't get released at the same time throughout the world.

Also currency & geographical differences can cause the price of some products to become disproportionately large.

Like DVD box sets: they cost far too much for me to buy them when they are current, I am forced to buy them from America.

Also Im not sure it IS illegal to download things like shows/music for personal use here in New Zealand.

Also, VOTE?

I download movies if I like it I will go to the shop and pay for it.

As for TV shows they are going to be on in a month or two so I see no issue there at all.

Well, since everything here is overpriced like hell, I'd go with the downloading route, even though I have a SLOW connection.


Extreme Coder

Oh I'm definitely the "Download now - buy later if it's good" type.

SELF JUSTIFICATION: There's so much stuff out there I could never actually afford to buy it all, so me downloading items I cannot pay for is not causing them any loss of revenue. Plus there's so much crap out there that I'd feel compelled to hurt someone if I'd had to pay for it.

I do still purchase the quality items when I can as I do believe in supporting the makers of what ever it I'm grabbing (more so talking about games than movies in that respect but yeah...)

In our country, dowloading something for personal use is not illegal(when, the uploading is another issue..see torrent). And I can't watch sci-fi channel or other american channels in my tv, so how would I watch the series from the tv, other then downloading them?

I chose the bottom choice because all the other options seem to imply I download everything.

I never download Movies/DVDs. If its a movie, I'll either pay to see it in the theatre or wait for the DVD. No way in hell I'm going to watch a good movie that was video taped by some pimple who snuck a camcorder in the theatre. That's just a quality concern.

Same with TV series and films that have been out a while. I'm not poor. I can easily afford my Blockbuster Pass so there is no shortage of things to watch. I will not try to follow a series while it is playing out during the season as I need to be able to watch the next episode when I damn well please in order to get enjoyment out of it. I'm too old for suspense.

Music is another story. I like trying new stuff. I am no angel here - I do download music files, and admit I'm wrong to do so, but I also buy CDs when I see them at a fair price. I think $10US borders on a fair price. If the music company dolts would simply drop their price, they'd sell a ton more CDs - especially if they sold them in convenience stores, gas stations, etc. They need to tap the impulse buy market.

Not exactly sure where I fall in the vote. I have little issue with illicit downloads. I do often purchase legitimate copies because I loved the pirated item. I use my illicit copies more as a trial. Granted, with dial up access, I don't end up with massive downloads or anything. But, the advantage is, I can fly under most radars: low bandwidth lines aren't watched as closely.

I would say I've purchased about 80% of what I have downed. The other 20% was deleted because it sucked. Downloads are my library.

I used to download TV series but I stopped about 4 months ago. I don't download copyrighted music or film either. Downloaded copyrighted material is illegal no matter what excuses you make. I don't agree with the implementation of copyright laws. I think it lasts too long about 50 - 80 years and I think the price of DVDs and CDs are over the top. The technology is there to change the way music and film is distributed and sold. But the business wouldn't change because there's too much money to be made from selling a circular piece of plastic and metal.