Television illegally makes its debut on the small screen

With the newfound freedom of watching shows online at any time without commercials, students are turning away from traditional television to the computer screen.

A major reason why students watch television shows online is because they have no time during the week to enjoy their shows.

The transition to Internet viewing, however, has also spurred the use of illegal websites, like Project Free TV or Putlocker, which do not own the copyright for a show, but have a giant online archive of commercial-free TV shows and movies open to the public. At Peninsula, 11 percent of 500 students surveyed stated they watch their preferred shows on illegal websites.

The illegal videos available online tend to have worse quality, but are high speed and convenient. However, downloading movies and television shows from these websites is a copyright infringement.

Downloading and sharing files from illegal sites is a violation of the copyright of the creators and could possibly result in jail time for up to five years and fines of up to $150,000 per file, as well as a possible lawsuit from the owner.

“I think students ignore the fact that they can get possibly get charged because it’s so rare; it seems as if downloading a few songs is risk free,” senior Shogo Komiyama said.

Besides being a criminal offense, these free movies and television shows could often cause viruses. Excessive pop ups, computer crashes, and hackers who steal private information have all been linked to pirated media.