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TV Station Hosts Pirated Copy Of Fringe

The Czech private television station TV Prima has been caught hosting pirated episodes of the TV-series Fringe on their web server. If that wasn’t awkward enough, Fringe does air in the Czech Republic, but on a competing TV station.

The American science fiction TV-series didn’t make it into our list of the most pirated TV-shows of 2009, but nevertheless each episode is downloaded nearly a million times from all over the world.

The main reasons people have for downloading TV is to catch up with missed episodes, or to watch episodes that are not yet available in their country. While this used to be a relatively geeky habit half a decade ago, today even computer illiterates know how to download a TV-show.

People who make their living in the TV business are not excluded from this group either. Earlier this week, on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann, the Canadian comedy group ‘The Kids In The Hall’ admitted to pirating their own shows via BitTorrent on multiple occasions.

Their reason? They had trouble getting their own episodes over the border legally.

In the Czech Republic a slightly more embarrassing example of BitTorrent use among TV-insiders was uncovered recently. TV Prima, one of the local television stations, was discovered to be hosting two episodes of Fringe on their servers, accessible via a public FTP.

Apparently one of the employees missed two episodes that aired on competing station Nova Cinema. Since TV Nova will only start offering shows via the web starting this fall, there was no other option than to turn to BitTorrent.

Unfortunately the on-demand offering from TV Prima didn’t last long. Shortly after the ‘mistake’ was revealed by a local website the open FTP was closed.

TV Prima hosting warez

iprima

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  • ytb

    if a tv station hosted as much pirated stuff as possible via FTP that’d rule…

  • Greg

    Was probably intended as a internal FTP. So employees could share material.

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  • Anonymous

    TV Station AIRS Pirated Copy Of Fringe…. Now that would be lolz

    Heck not even the 720p rips either, shame on you ha

  • b0rg

    It gets better! America Plus, a channel of the Orbit Showtime Network regularly airs XviD releases. At one time someone forgot to press play on a Chinese divx player and only the logo was on…

  • duane

    If only they had looked in thumbs.db, they’d have discovered what other TV shows have been shared using that folder!

  • RAPE RAPE RAPE

    Fringe is available for sale on iTunes and the Blu-ray release for season 2 is due out in a month. So no, BitTorrent was not the only option. Once again TorrentFreak shows its poor researching skills.

    Also, this employee is a scrub. Who the hell settles for some shitty scene standard def XviD, especially when they’re a “professional” in the industry? There’s better quality pirated copies out there.

  • Anonymous

    #6: Because it’s small, and maybe they want to watch these shows on their tv, but only have a DVD player that supports divx/xvid (like me)

  • Anonymous

    #6: Is it currently for sale on iTunes in the Czech Republic? Will the Blu-ray be released there next month as well?

  • SirReal

    Dang it #8 beat me to it.

    @6 The only thing for sale in the Czech iTunes store is Apps, Podcasts and iTunes U. Once again trolls show their poor researching skills.

  • Apple

    @6 I am from the Czech Republic, you cannot download TV series from iTunes legally and Blu-rays have different release dates than in USA. So, yes, it was only option…

  • mremixer

    @6 & once again some of the readers of torrentfreak show themselves up to be complete dumb asses!

    The article EVEN says that people use bittorrent to catch up on MISSED episodes or episodes NOT available in there country yet!

    I often download many, many TV torrents not because I missed them or even because they’ve not been shown here yet!

    I download them coz I want to watch when I want to watch & preferably without adverts etc.. I use the On Demand services for TV as well but even they restrict me with most things only available for 30 days.

    I travel extensively & tried all the legitimate ways of keeping up with my favourite series etc but until I started downloading it was a nightmare.

    I will never purchase anything thats been shown “for free” because unlike a lot of people I suspect all I want to do is watch it the once if I wanted to watch repeats I’d get satellite!

  • ++

    Agreed. I tried to watch Rush on channel 10′s website but the quality was appalling! I couldn’t find it on itunes or google and seeing i don’t own a TV, the only option I had was to download it. I would pay paid for a good copy too. I guess you lose Channel 10.

  • ++

    Agreed. I tried to watch Rush on channel 10′s website but the quality was appalling! I couldn’t find it on itunes or google and seeing i don’t own a TV, the only option I had was to download it. I would have paid for a good copy too. I guess you lose Channel 10.

  • JD

    It still boggles me today why ‘on-demand’ catch-up services like BitTorrent ever where, or shockingly still are, illegal.

    Why has this great invention not received the praise it should be getting?

    I pay for my satellite TV, as such I pay for my TV shows, why is it wrong in any sense that I can’t, by law, have a little freedom to watch my purchases where and when and where I want by downloading a copy?

    To do so I have to pay again and obtain it from a separate legal service, or be refined to watching it when I have an internet connection available.

    Where is the logic in that?

    I am a criminal, a thief and a pirate if I choose to watch a program on a train journey when I don’t have a HSPDA connection?

    I am prod there are still some countries in the world like Spain, and Canada that see don’t see sense with this, unless they’ve already buckled under the pressures of a foreign government.

    Bring on an ACS:LAW letter I say, this is a case I would fight, unlike many who are forced out of such a chance to defend themselves in court, otherwise be smacked with an outrageous fine.

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  • TerribleTony

    Everyone is at it. Even those who are opposed to it do it.

  • joe

    Fist of all ……

    @TF Ernesto

    Please stop calling a COPY , “” Pirated “”

    It is a shared copy.
    UNLESS , of course , it was SOLD/BOUGHT for $$££.

    It gives fileshares a bad name and is incorrect.
    (composed by copyright protectionists)

    .

    @6..

    You ovbously own ( RENT ) apple hardware.
    (fool. blinded by marketing with too much money)

    Yea… itunes. Pay apple for what ?

    itunes should be banned.

    ff$.. imagine if windows automaticaly tried to take you to thier store every time you plugged in a mp3/video player. ?

    ..
    itunes is legal

    itunes is immoral
    ..

    filesharing is illegal

    filesharing is moral

    ..
    Copyright is a monopoly

  • http://torrentfreak.com Ernesto

    @Joe

    We have a very loose definition of pirating. I often use it ti refer to copies that are shared without authorization of the copyright owner.

    That’s also how the dictionary defines it.

  • joe

    @ Ernesto…

    Nice of you to reply. Thanks.
    Don’t usually see you too much , down this end of the page.
    .

    “”pirate”" IS widely used / mis-used…. granted.

    But it is a derogatory term , that benifits the copyright protectionists.

    It paint’s an image of fileshares..
    The image , being that of criminal’s , selling bootlegs , Sometimes to fund other criminal acts (drug-dealing ,terror1sm ect..)

    .

    I don’t like the term “”Pirate”".
    WHEN used to describe sharing.
    +
    It’ the only reason I requsted that maybe….
    you would stop using the protectionists prefered word …
    to describe , sharing of material.
    ++
    I believe using it …. brings a grin to the faces , of PR people from the copyright organisations.
    +++

    (let’s step it up)

    EVERY time you use the word ” pirate ” to describe filesharing.

    A young filesharer in Somali , actually turns into a real pirate.
    (thats why all those ships have been robbed)

  • Mined.se

    Big woop, wanna fight ’bout it?

  • Ming Deeson

    LOL, no way dude, thats just too funny when you think about it.

    anonymous.shop.tc

  • Anonymous

    What makes you think it was an employee providing these files? They could have been hacked or the directory was public accessible and someone else had placed the files there. It is in a temp directory after all.

  • Ninja

    Makes sense if you air a determined content to have it available via bittorrent. I wouldn’t even mind downloading a few advertisement with it.

    *HINT*

  • crack addict

    @ Ernesto:

    Joe’s point is quite valid.. the whole purpose of this site, seemingly, is to spread awareness and knowledge about file SHARING, not PIRATING. they are two very distinctly different things, as you most assuredly know.. so a little discretion perhaps? it would be much appreciated by all of us SHARERS.

    i ve never even met a pirate. what are they all abouts i wonder?

  • crack addict

    another post awaiting moderation…sigh.

    and i come here daily why? i thought there was a reason…

  • Kaptain Krunch

    God bless them for their acts of kindness!

  • Dibola

    We need a pirating TV station!!!! HELL YEAH!!! share the love!!!

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  • rotflmao

    Ha, those are both LOL releases, the greatest scene TV-XviD group ever. Where are your p2p groups now?

  • Anonymous

    To be honest, has anyone actually looked around that FTP server?

    ftp://ftp.iprima.cz/02_foto_info_filmy_serialy/FILMY/Co%20ta%20holka%20chce/

    I’m pretty sure they don’t own the rights to host all these images (screengrabs).

  • Doh

    To be honest, has anyone actually looked around that FTP server?

    ftp://ftp.iprima.cz/02_foto_info_filmy_serialy/FILMY/Co%20ta%20holka%20chce/

    I’m pretty sure they don’t own the rights to host all these images (screengrabs).

  • lol man this is not the usa

    >they don’t own the rights to host all these images

    So what?

  • BTGuard - BitTorrent Anonymously

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