Andre Yoskowitz
23 Jun 2007 8:15
On the homepage of their new reality show "Pirate Master", CBS has been linking to .torrent files from several public and private torrent tracker sites. This may be useful if you have missed the latest broadcast, but it is also illegal, as in many countries it is copyright infringement to download TV shows.
The article image is directly taken from the Pirate Master homepage (courtesy of TF). The homepage is supposed to list news items about the show from blogs but it is instead showing torrent links from sites such as Mininova, bitDig and even private trackers such as Torrentleech.
Although it is unlikely that CBS is purposely linking to the files, they are most likely using an RSS feed aggregator that includes torrent trackers.
There is the chance however, that CBS has decided on purposely linking to the trackers. In April, CBS’s chief research officer David Poltrac spoke out about how YouTube and BitTorrent should be considered friends and not foes. He based his sentiments on a CBS poll that showed that people who download TV shows actually watch more TV.
Poltrack is also a believer in free TV over the internet, supported by ads. In his own words, “if [consumers] are going to steal it, give it to them anyway. But also make it easier to access and present it better than YouTube or BitTorrent or anywhere else.”
Source:
TorrentFreak