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This paper explores the Brazilian cultural practices of illegal downloading of American television programs. Through research on television show forums, fandom websites, fan communities in the social networking website Orkut, the networks' homepages and literature review, piracy is shown to be related to cultural practices and an inadequate broadcasting system. It seems Brazilian fans persist in breaking the law when downloading television shows from unauthorized sources, regardless of the severe legal penalties to transgressors. They use a popular 'problem-solving strategy' (Duarte, 2006) called jeitinho brasileiro to respond to the delay or unavailability of U.S. programming on Brazilian cable and free to air television. The jeitinho brasileiro is exemplified by the fans having organized systems for file sharing of the episodes in Orkut fan communities. The study looks at a group of fans named legenders, who produce subtitles for the downloaded shows as a hobby, also despite of the Brazilian legislation on intellectual property protection. Furthermore, the paper explains why Brazilians who download television shows do not respect the law in reference to cultural, economic and political contexts. It concludes with the idea that the broadcasting industry must update and adapt its television programming distribution system, taking into account the particular context of each country, such as in Brazil.

Opponents have argued that blocking sites in this way was ineffective.

Data seen by the BBC suggested that the blocking of The Pirate Bay had only had a short-term effect on the level of pirate activity online

there had been a large reduction in the number of users illegally downloading music

TWO measures affecting the privacy internet users can expect in years ahead are currently under discussion on opposite sides of the globe. The first hails from a Senate committee’s determination to make America’s online privacy laws even more robust. The second concerns efforts by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), an intergovernmental body under the auspices of the United Nations, to rewrite its treaty for regulating telecommunications around the world, which dates from 1988, so as to bring the internet into its fief.

The congressional measure, approved overwhelmingly by the Senate Judiciary Committee on November 29th, would require criminal investigators to obtain a search warrant from a judge before being able to coerce internet service providers (ISPs) to hand over a person’s e-mail. The measure would also extend this protection to the rest of a person’s online content, including videos, photographs and documents stored in the "cloud"—ie, on servers operated by ISPs, social-network sites and other online provider

a warrant is needed only for unread e-mail less than six months old. If it has already been opened, or is more than six months old, all that law-enforcement officials need is a subpoena. In America, a subpoena does not need court approval and can be issued by a prosecutor. Similarly, a subpoena is sufficient to force ISPs to hand over their routing data, which can then be used to identify a sender’s various e-mails and to whom they were sent. That is how the FBI stumbled on a sex scandal involving David Petraeus, the now-ex director of the CIA, and his biographer.