Living outside the US has me waiting for good shows up to 2 years if they ever get here. And if they do I have to deal with horrible dubbing and wait another 6-9 months for the DVD. Can you imagine how much fun, characterisation and witty lines gets lost with dubbing? Not to mention accents (for example Sawyers in Lost).
So, call me a nerd or whatever but I rather use Torrents and wait for the DVDs than watching shows years later with horrible dubbing and buy the DVD (if I haven't given up on them).

I downloaded Heroes just so I could see it in the proper aspect ratio. My cable company displays the local NBC stations in a full screen format instead of widescreen. Just try watching Heroes, or the Office, with the sides of the picture chopped off. I complained, but got nowhere. Then I started buying the episodes on iTunes, until NBC decided they didn't want my money anymore and pulled all their shows, so it was off to BitTorrent for me.

I love nerds. First they complain that networks don't air shows they like and bitch and moan about shows like B5 and farscape not getting the push they need.

Then they finally get a hit show aimed at them and what do these ass wipes do? They steal it. Good thinking guys, because that will prove to the networks that the 18-35 virgin market is a viable one.

Top Gear is only in Second Place! It is the best show on television. I just wish BBC America would show its full form and not a year behind!

This just goes to show how popular Heroes is for all of you nay sayers!

One hulu is up and running (if you haven't checked it out yet you should) I doubt NBC and Fox will sit around and let this happen since they are both represented here.

Well Bash i think the 2.5 mil. is an understatement! you cant really count this as there are many ways of downloading shows, and there are a lot of Torrent-trackers (a kinda server for BitTorrent)
And the numbers keep climbing all the time as more people want to get into shows and start downloading old episodes

Spoken like someone who's never seen HD programming before. Or not wanted to wait until the next season to enjoy current programming.

Nerdy? We don't all live in the grand old USA, so Netflix isn't really available to us. This is an easy way for alot of people to get their shows from other countries without waiting 6 months, if they get it at all.

Join Netflix, you can watch all the episodes from 2 seasons for free at any time on your computer.

What kind of goons are pirating a TV show? That's a little nerdy.

Depends... but currently you see about 50 to 70k users on every torrent right after the episodes go online and since you're done in an hour to three there are of course people who hop on later. So I guess the Number 2.5 Million is somewhat inaccurate. I guess it could be for the whole season with every episode clocking in on 100k downloads.

That's a measly amount considering that even the 5th grade TV station which broadcasts Heroes here in Germany reaches about 4 Million viewers with their airings of season 1 - and that's jus germany. Factoring in all other countries in the world, this can't be a big deal. It must be around .0001% of all potential viewers with NO alternative to watch the material elsewhere.

It comparable with MP3. When Apple opened the iTunes Store, I started buying music online.

But since Heroes season 2 totally sucks and I would have bought it on itunes and since season 6 of 24 sucked molto and I was considering to buy it you might have a lot of unhappy buyers of season passes on your hand if they keep the prices at the price of the DVD sets. All you would get is people waiting half a year and then importing DVD sets from the US. Which would still not get rid of people who want to watch it ASAP.

So get the shows online for the whole world with ads of international companies embedded. I won't care.

As long as....

You know there will always be a reason to pirate... ARRRRR ^^;