I am from Australia (apparently the worst offenders) and I can tell you that no one I know knew that there would be a global release. More importantly, there is now a culture of downloading in Australia. This was forced on us because of the way that shows were fed to the public here. Perhaps it is a financial thing, I don't know, but TV is shown at some random, usually long, delay (months or even years) from the time it is shown overseas. This means that there is a hype that is lost. Everyone wants to see the show and, if you dont get it at approximately the same time as comments come out in other media, you feel cheated. Many a time I tried to watch a program only to find that it had been shifted or canceled because of some sports event (going right back as far as ST-DS9). As a consequence, when downloading became an option, many people went that way. The situation has mostly changed here now. For instance Dr Who, Breaking Bad, etc are shown pretty much within the same few days here as OS. Now the issue is that once you have opened the door, it is difficult to close it. Downloading is not difficult and, if you told someone that for a small effort they could watch the show (adv free) an hour after it was shown OS, why would they not take that option. If the content broadcasters want to stop pirating, they have to bribe the consumer back. Dropping the price is irrelevant because downloading is essentially free. There has to be a reason why people go back and there has to be a consistency of scheduling. Perhaps you could go on some mailing list where the times for chosen programs are sent to you. Of course that will lead to advertising and spam, so I dont really know how they will get around it. Apparently, in England all BBC shows are available at any time, on any format. Some ABC shows are available that way in Australia. Also, so other free-to-air providers allow streamed vies of their shows, once they have been aired. Perhaps if everything was available that way, it would not be worth the effort to download.

You should be aware that there are episodes that were lost in fires etc. So if you start from the beginning, you might be disappointed. Starting from the new series (2005) is probably OK for the uninitiated. If you watch the old series, you have to be prepared to watch some cheap sets and bad writing. Most of the sets were done with cellophane and papier mache. It is fun to watch, but if you watch the "confidential" series, the commentary refers back to the old series, where necessary.

Some 7 months ago, I got the corner of an Audi Q7 in the the wall of my rear tire (in a car park). Made a mess of the rear quarter of the car I was selling 5 days later. I have pictures, but they do not show me or what I thought of the other driver. No amount of hi-tech cameras, beepers or even my horn blasting, helped. He just came on and said he didn't see me. If someone is distracted nothing helps.

So what would *you* call a person who works to dismantle a computer problem, bit by bit, until it is solved?

This is one of the reasons that Cobol refuses to die. It is all done in integer maths, ie no round-off unless you specifically ask for it.

Perhaps you should do some investigation as to what is actually at Wommera. Then you might realize why that site was chosen.