In an interesting article by Richard Menta at http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/5002/suetv.html
we read this :
"I already know the answer, many of the movie companies that make up its membership also produce television shows. It still doesn't sound right that the MPAA should be the representative of the TV networks even if Disney owns the ABC network now. But there is Dan Glickman, swathed in indignant self-righteousness, with a cause and a megaphone.

Dan's latest cause is what he calls TV piracy. You know, when people make copies of television programs. The thing is millions of people do it every day with their VCRs, an act that according to the Supreme Court is not piracy, but fair and legal use. Glickman, of course, sees file sharing as a different animal, but as I detailed in my article last February "Can Free Broadcast TV Really Be Napsterized?" in the TV world the two are not all that different.

Between the taping of a TV show and downloading the same show from the Net, far, far more people tape than download. In the end it is all the same, the user ends up with a copy that they can keep or erase once they catch up with the episode. As video files take up a lot of space on the hard drive I suspect people discard these files as frequently as they they record over older shows on tape. Even if someone copies these programs to DVD this act is no different than keeping that episode of the Gilmore Girls on tape in a nice safe place for repeated viewing.

"Every television series depends on other markets (such as) syndication and international sales to earn back the enormous investment required to produce the comedies and dramas we all enjoy," said Glickman in a statement posted on CNET. "Those markets are substantially hurt when that content is stolen."

Glickman - an alarmist and an opportunist - likes to use words like stolen, because the papers will print it. But there is no evidence that file sharing has affected syndication and DVD sales, both which are dramatically up. In fact, as I pointed out in my "Napsterized" article, file sharing of one cancelled show may be the root of its recent return to prime time TV. That show is the Family Guy.

But then this is as much about turf as it is about copyright. Dan wants to claim TV as his turf, something the Comcasts, Foxs, and NBCs of the world feel they control. Maybe they are already working with him, I don't know.

What I do know is that the MPAA's latest crusade is a fallacy. Maybe Dan hasn't caught Kingdom of Heaven yet?"
====SNIP========
I find Mr. Menta's comments particularly prescient. I agree with him. This is NOT really about some copyright nonsense, but is the digital equivalent of Columbus burying his flag deeply into the sands of the New World and claimed it for Spain, when it was already owned by people already living there. It is not by accident these copyright cartel con artists are using the flag analogy so much (a in "broadcast flag"). Like the early "explorers" such as Columbus, Cortez,et al, they are merely ripping off and claiming turf that really does not belong to them. As Menta points out, it is the appropriation of television by the movie monsters that is the real goal of this expansionist movement into the medium.

The MPAA wants to try to establish a control stance with regard to television.
~Code

If you have an antenna.. TV is free.

How is this any different?

Not if you live in the UK - the TV license is why we have so many good TV programs, and the US has nothing but sitcoms and a selection of 'documentories' with the words 'extreme', 'mega' or 'monster' in the title. With lots more advertising.

you for "reality" programs..

personally I haven't found much on tv worth watching since they cancelled H.R. Puffnstuff

I thought that the airwaves were "owned" by the public in the USA.. and the content was licensed so that the corporations could broadcast.. how does that figure into this? These are interesting times, indeed, Code!

These days there's nothing on television. Who would want to copy anything?

A lot of people from other countries like to download our new simpsons episodes or family guy...because itll be years before their tv stations will be able to license those episodes.

When i went to Denmark, it was like stepping in a TV timewarp when watching US shows. Alf, Cosby Show, 3rd season simpsons, married with children... all on during prime time as if these were brand new.

Jazz - the radio space is administered by the FCC. Usually, this means it auctions space to the highest bidder. This is both why there is so little unlicenced spectrum and why the FCC is so eager to dump analog TV broadcasts - to re-sell the spectrum.

The spectrum is sold to broadcasters. Some of these make their own shows, but most content is licensed from production companies. The tangle of ownership and production gets complicated here, with networks, broadcastors, production companies, content licenced of syndicated, and the advertising companies always in the background.

huh what the fuck
tv is already free
why the hella re they suing...
oh please if a judge makes you liable for sharing tv eps...
theyre in the mpaa pocket.. this isnt protecting copyright.. thisis an attempt at a monopoly...
they claim oh we cant tell people how much they can make off tv.. well they told bill gates he couldnt monopolize the internet.. so the mpaa cannopt onopolize tv entertainment...
this is a act of teason towards the american people...
i hope in a few years a massive riot in ths country happens.. hell when teh gas runs out it will anyway...
fuck.. we need to re awaken the true democracy in the usa.. once again we need to flush out the communists and the real terorists...
id rather get help from the mafia than ever get help from the government....
this is the first betrayal.. soon there will be censorship, then tehre will be rationing and then we all will egt the boot or we fight back.. its that simple.. our gov sold us out to special interests.. its tme we take back what is right fully ours.. our fucking freedom..

TIVO, DVRS, VCRS, all record tv shows. HOW THE F*%) Is using the internet to catch a show you missed any different. AND when the hell did the MPAA get a say about television??? Isnt this the networks area(fox, abc and so on). I say fight that all the way.