Good for you, you have a decent enough connection to warrant Netflix and the know how that the average Joe doesn't to setup a proxy for US content, etc (which tbh probably violates some law/agreement somewhere anyway). I can't even stream iplayer reliably on my PS3, so if I choose to download something that I've just missed on TV in higher quality because it's easier then using iplayer then no one loses out as knighty said. I'm reminded of this too.

Films and music are a different kettle of fish, but frankly I'm not bothered if the high and mighty want to label me a 'shoplifter' when overall I've probably spent a lot more on film and music over the years than most, I still buy vinyl too when its available. It's not justified, but I don't feel I'm getting something for nothing when they are getting my money elsewhere later. I'll continue to try before I buy in the manner most convenient and make a stand against purchasing what I feel is a rip-off, or crippled with DRM sh*te. If more people did this and actively complained about being fleeced on releases we would soon see the trends change - the gulf between artistry and greed in these industries is getting narrower and not wider as it should, except for those taking initiative against it. I'd be the first in the queue if I could by my favourite music in 24-bit 192khz FLAC downloads, or even just lossless CD quality, but there's only a handful of artists that do this. iTunes lol, GTFO. Or the latest films in Full HD without any of this regional release crap, unskippable anti-piracy messages and DRM.

The truth is that it's far more convenient and easy to download and enjoy in whatever quality you wish to have than to use the paid services right now. Maybe things will improve when we finally get fibre across the nation but I think we're a long way off yet. It's working well for games after all, look how well Steam is doing for a brilliant example of how it should be done, I pretty much only buy games on there now.

Chasing piracy is achieving nothing, NZBMatrix going down is probably for the best for usenet as they were the index getting hammered by DMCA complaints resulting in takedowns, so things will probably improve. Or it will drive more people to torrents or private FTPs, IRC, etc. Either way the labels and studios need to change as the rampant piracy won't.

That is good of Netflix I've already said I cannot stream from iplayer as my connection is woeful, but why download their additional software to watch something when i can just grab an MKV online of the same thing? The only other TV shows I download tend to be American premiers anyway. As iplayer is a BBC thing its not really fair to draw comparisons on it as I'm already a license payer and effectively covered, but for everything else it's pretty much the same and is just much easier and less hassle to not bother with the hoop jumping. There's also no time limits on how long I can keep something on my HDD then if I don't get round to watching it straight away. I see it as no different to using a PVR (except I can grab stuff sooner rather than later).

You can get quite clear logs of FLACs and their origin whether it be CD or or a direct off the mix console like NIN are fond of doing. Most CD rips will come with some sort of accuracy report too. No one transcodes MP3s any more, this isn't the year 2000 You probably won't fall foul of DRM if you are happy using iTunes, lots of people aren't though, I wouldn't really know what its like these days with music as I only use FLAC, Ogg and MP3 but I'd imagine its still a pain in the arse to take anything outside of iTunes. The reason FLAC and MP3 are so successful is because they are open formats, FLAC especially deserves to be the format of choice for anyone, space is so little of a premium now there is simply no reason to accept anything other than lossless.

to reiterate

I download stuff because it's cheap, easy, fast and convenient

legit downloads are slow, overpriced and out of date


there's no competition there

There is new support for silver light as Netflix uses the same, might want to have a google out there maybe it's possible to get xbmc working. Strangely enough I was on blinkbox today, grabbed mi4, cowboys and aliens, haywire and man on a ledge for about £20 watching them on my iPad.

Are you trying to suggest you suffer from contention on a 30mbit cable package, or you're sharing your Internet in the house? As contention isn't an issue with cable as far as i understood it. I have 10mbit and have no probs at all maxing it out at 1.1mbit at anytime of day (at least until cap gets hit), might be worth you giving virgin a shout,

Isn't silverlight dead, I though it was no longer developed?