El Beeb has been fussing over the topic of piracy of TV shows over the internet. "Ohh woe is me," says the TV industry, "for how can I make money with ad-free pirated versions of shows going online mere minutes after broadcast?"

How indeed. It seems that everyone and their cat is loading up torrents of their favourite shows, from geek fests like Battlestar Galactica to general audience pleasers like Desperate Housewives. Lost gets hit up an estimated one million times an episode, which is plenty of eyeballs not glued to their TV's.

The sad fact is that the TV industry can do pretty much nothing to stop this, given their current thinking. Increasingly networks are offering up their shows for download shortly after release, but most, if not all, of those who would previously have said they only download to allow for more convenient scheduling will not be buying these episodes through legitimate channels. The sad fact is that people are stingy, and if you're offered something for nothing without having to physically walk out of a shop with it under your jacket then you'll take it.

Foreign audiences are also accounting for a big proportion of downloads. The UK alone counts for 10 - 15% of the illegal downloads of TV shows. Why? Because these shows won't be broadcast to UK homes for months, and who wants to wait? I recall, many years ago, renting episodes of my favourite TV shows on VHS before they were broadcast, some of the scheduling is that lopsided.

So, what's the solution to this illegal download problem if you can't even sell episodes online? Well, give them away for nothing, duh. Obviously the TV market will always suffer from piracy, because who wants to watch officially sanctioned shows with ads stuck in, but the TV industry can dent the illegal one in a real way.

The industry can throw in shows with ads, perhaps inescapable ones to keep them happy (hey, they need their revenue, which is a paradox some downloader's don't get), and so long as the service is prompt, efficient and simple - just like BitTorrent, say - then the masses will come to ABC.com before TorrentSpy.