Well… this is just my

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March 22, 2012 at 5:21 pm #7001
farscapesg1

    Well… this is just my opinion.  In the first example (paying cable/satellite and recording and watching whenever you want) I see it as you are paying the provider, who in turn pays licensing to the content creators to transmit the content.  By doing this, you are paying for the right to watch the content that they provide, whenever you want, whether on their equipment or your own.  Of course, this is a grey area for the providers who would prefer that you only use their equipment (DVR, cablecard, etc.) and want to control the consumption (DRM restrictions to only play on the recorded device).

    In the second example (just download everything via SickBeard, Torrents, etc.) you are basically getting the content for free as you aren’t paying a subscription fee (monthly cable/satellite bill), which is the scenerio that the OP put up (cutting the cord).  The fact is, by paying a cable/DSL/etc. company a monthly fee for Internet access, this does not grant rights to cable/tv/etc. that might be carried by the same provider under a different service plan.

    Now, if you do subscribe to TV services with the ISP provider, that is where it gets really muddy for me as far as being able to download regular (and even cable) TV shows that you subscribe to.  Personally, I have no issues downloading a copy of The River, Castle, or Eureka since I pay a monthly fee to have those channels and could record them via DVR if I chose.  However, I don’t download Spartacus, Game of Thrones, etc. as I don’t pay for the premium cable channels.

    After saying that… I’m really wondering why I still use a PVR (SageTV) for TV recording and not just SickBeard for all of the shows I watch.  I guess it is because I still like to have the option of watching shows as they air (rarely happens) or catching shows that aren’t as readily available (Tosh.0, Daily Show, random History Channel shows).

    The one other area that muddies the water is OTA transmissions.  CBS, ABC, NBC, etc. provide these completely free of charge… if you can get a signal.  For me, I would have to put a large directional antenna on the roof (DB4 in the attic doesn’t work) to recieve these in my area… which isn’t going to happen.  So, in some ways I could see cutting the cord if these were the only channels I wanted to watch, but they aren’t so I don’t feel that it would be within my consumer rigts to download them without paying for them (in the form of a monthly fee)…