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.
