Neighbours-Source.co.uk - News - June 2006 - Neighbours Downloading Continues

Neighbours Downloading Continues

15th June 2006

Despite appearing to embrace technology on the show, with laptops and computer peripherals like webcams making more frequent appearances on Neighbours, Neighbours and the companies behind the show continue to face the problem of increasing amounts of episode trading on the internet.

Grundy have already attempted to clamp down on the increasing trend of users who record the show onto their computers and then upload it to servers for distribution by approaching big sites where episode downloading was being discussed and seeking cooperation from their staff to stop such discussion and links from appearing.

This proactive action doesn't seem to have helped their cause much though with a handful of sites remaining online and continuing to grow in popularity, with links being exchanged at a similar rate but more privately than before.

An extra factor into the equation comes with the fact that many of the more prolific downloader’s seem to have sources that reach beyond these download sites. Thanks to recent down time by some of the biggest sites it became clear that some Neighbour fans continued to have access to episode clips which suggest a secondary method of transfer such as via a internet chat client like MSN Messenger which allows people to transfer files on a one to one basis.

Grundy's argument against Neighbours episode trading follows that of many big companies that have found themselves threatened by internet downloading. Downloads are stripped of adverts and drag people away from television screens, both of which hurt Grundy financially. Grundy faces stiff opposition from fans though especially thanks to the staggered nature of the show's airing which sees episode being shown in Australia a month or so before they appear in the U.K.

It remains in Grundy's power to curtail the explosion in episode downloading. Despite the professional nature of many of the site offering downloads most are built a very shaky foundation in that many are hosted in countries such as America, United Kingdom or even Australia itself. These countries all have strict copyright laws and a strong email to any host within these countries would see the end of a site (most hosts will have terms and conditions which disallow the hosting of any copyrighted material, and even if they don't the fines that can be levied for breech of copyright are large enough for them to take any site down). A well placed advertising campaign, perhaps a trailer at the end of Neighbours featuring cast members, explaining why such trading hurts the show and further interaction with some of the big Neighbours fan sites may also help get the message across and turn off the more casual downloader’s from continuing to access Neighbours episodes online.