[longer answer to the previous posters post
]
yup it's illegal, because in any aspect of you downloading an episode, or whatever, you are taking money from companies.
No matter what format you what it from, TV, DVD, etc, it contains advertisements, be it obvious commercials, to leaflets inside the DVD case, to the miniture logo (of say The WB for example) on the DVD spine. If you download an episode, all that is removed, and the people who disribute the episodes via download are removing that money from all companies involved, and usually have their own adverts on websites to make money for themselves, even if it all supports hosting fees. They get closed down and sued because advertising is BIG money to companies, and for every person that downloads, they lose that little bit more money.
If you record from TV yourself, it is different, since you are not selectively watching the show. If you record from TV you are still recognising the channel you recorded it from and you are recording all advertisements that go with it, if you download instead of record, then you are bypassing the advertisements and the TV station, and don't forget that the TV station wants it's important ratings etc, in order to tempt other programs and advertisers to the channel/network. Even recording from TV involves you purchasing something to record, and then media to record i on, and again, download removes that cash from companies.
They (the companies) can't do much to downloaders thou. The viewer isn't responsible, all the viewer wants is to watch the show in the best way possible, and downloading is sometimes that way. The distributers are the ones to blame in this case. Think of it like how drugs are treated (i'm not suggesting that you should take drugs here, it's only a comparison
), if caught in the act, a user won't really get much punishment by the law, but a dealer will get the full force of the law, depending on their traffic, which applies in the same way to illegal downloads.
Personally, i'm going to keep downloading. I am of the belief that there should be a world wide release, maybe even spread out over a couple of weeks. i live in the UK, and i like some american shows, and i don't see why we should have to wait like 3-5 months for shows of the same language to be released here... and regional coding on DVD's is also a load of bull... it's the same content, just show it all at the same time, the TV releases will be faster, and the downloading community will be drastically cut.