My favorite new tv show for this season’s got to be Heroes. It’s a story about certain individuals who, during the course of the series, discovers that they possess special abilities. It’s an eclectic mix of characters: the naïve Japanese drone who can teleport, the addict who can paint the future, the invincible cheerleader, the Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde “like” mom, the dedicated cop who can hear thoughts, and the idealistic kid brother who, like his ‘kuya’, could fly. On the surface, IMO, it’s a revival of the X-Men plot. But who doesn’t like X-Men? (Personally, I know no one who fits this category.) I think for the most part, our fascination with this type of story is the seemingly remote possibility that anyone of us, mere mortals, can possess such awesome abilities and be able to save the world. (Not too shabby, huh?)
Not too long ago, cable tv was the only medium that allowed us to watch American, British and other imported tv shows. And usually, they’re shown a season later or, if you’re lucky, just several episodes later. DVD copies of tv shows were just too darn expensive and hard to find. But that was before the dawn of Bit torrents.
Bit Torrent is the name of a peer-to-peer (P2P) file distribution protocol, and is the name of a free software implementation of that protocol. Users only need to download their desired torrent and open it with a Bit Torrent client, e.g., BitComet, Azureus, uTorrent, etc.. As an innovation, Bit Torrent is an excellent distribution network for digital materials. Many users declare that only by using BitTorrent technology, with its dramatically reduced demands on networking hardware and bandwidth, could they afford to distribute and share their files.
However, the current stigma around Bit Torrent is that bit torrent is all about piracy. There are innumerable torrent sites in the Internet today which provide torrents for copyrighted and licensed materials. Torrents for music, software, film and videos, games and any other media type are aplenty online. Not to mention that it doesn’t take a genius to use bit torrents.
And while Section 33(b) of the E-Commerce Act provides that piracy or the unauthorized copying, reproduction, dissemination, distribution, storage, uploading, downloading, communication, making available to the public, electronic signature or copyrighted works including legally protected recordings and phonograms or information material on protected works, through the use of telecommunication networks, such as, but not limited to, the internet, in a manner that infringes intellectual property rights, shall be penalized by fine and/or imprisonment, I wonder if the Philippines is fully equipped to implement this particular provision. Undoubtedly, downloading an episode of Heroes through bit torrent is a violation of the aforementioned section. But does the NBI or the agency tasked to monitor such violations possess the sophisticated equipment and enough manpower to completely put the fear of god to all amateur pirates out there?
That remains to be seen.
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2 comments:
I love heroes!! and yeah i got it using bitLord, (where I also get my daily fix of anime and other shows).
Despite the provision in ours laws, enforcement will always be a problem. Who is guilty? Who does the copyright owner come after? The broadcasting network? Each and every downloader? (think litigation cost) Like with many new developments in technology, the copyright owners should think about using it to its advantage instead. The torrent phenomenon is too big to stop now. And since its system is to transfer files from person to person, then there is no guarantee one can apprehend every single offender and stop them from passing it on.
yay! heroes.
i do agree that going after individual downloaders is a nightmare for law enforcers. what they can do is close down the torrent sites - go to the source, so to speak.
although there is a movement in the US right now - tv networks offering free downloads of their shows (with ads) on the internet.
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