Caught in the Web
how the television industry is turning students into internet pirates
PrintAlthough I’m heading to England for the next academic year, I’m not worried about the culture shock, the infamously awful English cuisine, or even, really, leaving my family behind. No, what most concerns me is the possibility of missing the final season of Lost. At least I know that I have several means at my disposal for catching up: iTunes, American pubs, and, most importantly, illegal streaming.
To be tech-savvy is to know that there are dozens of ways to watch and interact with your favorite television shows on everything from MP3 players to high-tech cell phones. But the most widespread and, arguably, most influential TV
innovation is streaming media.
According to PCMag.com, streaming media is a “one-way video transmission over a data network ... played shortly after only a small amount [of data] is received.” The user doesn’t have to download the video to his or her computer—the data flows from the web site to the computer as the program is being watched. And, depending on the web site, streaming video is much faster than downloading. Combine this with the typical college student’s lack of time, money, or even a television, and this technology creates a tempting monster—illegal online TV viewing.
Although several network sites offer legal methods of streaming, online TV watching crosses the legal boundary when the viewer visits a Web site that streams a show for free but doesn’t own the show or have an agreement with its original distributers. Platforms like YouTube and Megavideo have made illegal TV streaming so ubiquitous that network vigilantes can hardly dish out legal threats to all the users who upload their favorite shows.
This isn’t the first time digital media has escaped the grasp of the law: remember the legal blizzard that emerged out of the Napster music piracy fiasco? If illegal TV watching continues down a similar path, infringers will be at high risk as the targets of high-profile lawsuits. But much like former Napster users, students seem indifferent to the prospect of reproach. A nonchalant, anonymous Barnard sophomore explains, “I guess there could be consequences, but none have affected me yet. Knock on wood.”
In fact, some students are taking a more defensive stance, arguing that networks are leaving them with no other options. Elizabeth LaBerge, a Barnard sophomore, comments, “If the networks would put the shows I watch online, then I wouldn’t have to watch them illegally. I’m willing to sit through commercials or product placement, but if they don’t even show repeats later in the week, then it’s their own fault I don’t watch.”
An anonymous CC senior admits that peer pressure influenced her to start watching TV illegally. “I started using it during high school when all my friends were talking about Freaks and Geeks and I had no idea what it was,” she says. Hannah Bachman, a Barnard sophomore, has a more utilitarian explanation: “I started when I got to college last year and all of a sudden had no TV.” Even though they knowingly stream, most students I interview acknowledge that they would use legal sites if those sites promptly posted the shows they watch. As Kara Freewind, a Barnard sophomore, says, “If there were more legal streaming sites I would definitely use them. Image quality is usually better, though the advertisements are annoying.”
So why are networks so unwilling fulfill these poor college students’ wishes?
From a business standpoint, streaming video is a big problem. Networks still haven’t learned how to make money from it. In theory, when people watch television shows live on their TV sets, they have to watch commercials—which, along with product placement, are the most fundamental ways networks make money. Earlier this year, Reuters online predicted that a 30-second spot during the 2009 Super Bowl would make a network $3 million. But earnings go down the figurative drain when viewers start streaming video and using digital recording devices like TiVo—by speeding through the commercials, viewers are discouraging companies from buying commercial time. Only recently have networks begun to use streaming video to their advantage by placing short commercials during each episode. Illegal shows, of course, have no commercials at all.
Even the most sympathetic students don’t worry about the fate of some faceless company’s finances when they can’t watch the latest episode of Gossip Girl whenever they want. Perhaps illegal streaming is just a logical extension of television’s universally accessible nature—if students can watch Blair and Chuck squabble anywhere from JJ’s Place to their floor lounge, why shouldn’t they also be able to watch from the comfort of their own desk chairs? “I think that we pay a set amount of money each month for cable, and that enables us to watch TV. We also pay a set bill each month for internet, which should therefore allow us to do the same thing,” reasons Nancy Monaco, a Barnard first year.
In the end, most students agree that there isn’t a stigma attached to the illegal act because it seems to be a necessary evil. Our busy lives and the unsympathetic networks thwart our attempts to watch television shows in the often-limited formats in which they are offered legally online.
Of course, maybe we should all stop worrying about when and how to watch TV, and instead adopt the perspective of Benjamin Weiner, a CC sophomore. “I don’t feel like I have a right to watch TV period, illegal or otherwise,” he says, “because it probably means I’m neglecting a whole lot of work.”
9 April 2009
vol. 6, issue 9
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