What are your thoughts on watching (on the internet)/downloading tv series?

If it has been posted on a legit site that is licensed by the station, I have no problem with it of course. If it is a bootleg, then I consider it unethical.

I watch TV and movies daily on hulu.com, netflix.com and youtube.com, I love it! If I fall asleep during a show then I can rewind it later, I can pause to check on meals or whatever.

@janbb So, it’s okay if the station itself is the one distributing it online? Yes, I agree.
However, unethical… why do you say that? And do you feel the same way about music?

I don’t know enough about all of it to know exactly which situations are legit and which not, but if something is bootlegged, then people involved in the making of the art are not getting their fair share of the profit. I just discovered lala.com and shared some songs, it seemd to me that the songs were acquired there legitimately. Got an e-mail today that the site was shutting down, so I may be the kiss of death for music sharing sites!

I watch streaming tv on my computer all the time. I have a 24 inch iMac that I use as a television set, my cable is hooked up to an eyetv tuner, and I watch streaming tv and movies on it from Netflix, Hulu, the network and channel websites, Comcast, etc. So for me, visually, the experience of watching “live” tv and movies and streaming tv and movies is exactly the same. But like others have mentioned, I don’t watch or download media illegally.

If I was a millionaire, I’d pay for every single piece of art that I consume.

Instead, I watch what I can on Hulu and AOL TV, and the other great legal websites.

And then when I wanna watch something not available there, I move on to the Chinese websites where I can watch things that they don’t let Hulu have, and things like that.

I love Hulu though. And I hate television, but I really love Hulu. I mostly watch old stuff like Sea Hunt and Lost in Space, but I also watch two current shows there: Lost and The Office.

I don’t have cable. At some point I plan to go back and watch every episode of NCIS and Boston Legal that I’ve missed. Thank you Hulu.
Also, i pay every month for Netflix. I love it, and watch movies on my rig all the time.

Movies and music must be paid for if they are to be obtained legally, so downloading deprives the producer of money. However TV shows are shown for free all the time, and it is simple to record them and edit them to delete the ads. Watching TV shows online is no different, except that someone else has done the editing for you. Of course the show still gets royalties from advertisers, but if I miss an episode I have no problem with trying to find it on YouTube. Thankfully this is rare though, since I have a DVD recorder with a large hard drive.