Downton Abbey

Tonight, I'm going to be watching PBS.  For an educated, white, middle-class Midwesterner, this should hardly be surprising.  But, this is Downton Abbey on Masterpiece, so I'm recording it too.

I didn't think I would be sucked into an Edwardian soap opera, but here I am.  Truthfully, I'm not as enraptured by Lady Mary as many commentators are.  I'm a Lady Edith fan.  While Edith's ruining of Mary's happiness was a result of something Mary did, Mary's turn on Edith was a fabrication.  It sucks being the middle child.  I relate.  Stupid Lady Mary.

The issue I have with Masterpiece showing Downton Abbey is the timing.  In the UK, this played months ago.  When I engage with a show on this level, I want to research it, look up facts I may have forgotten on Wikipedia, or just talk about it on message boards.  I can't do this without coming up against spoilers.  I did what any reasonable person would do.  I found the remaining episodes streaming online and watched the whole series in two nights.  In light of the SOPA/PIPA/SIPAPOPA controversy, was this illegal?  If I lived in the UK, I could have watched these for free online.  If I could have bought these off Amazon or iTunes, I would have purchased them in order to watch them in better quality.  If I would wait, then I could have watched them for free.  I still will.  So, why does PBS want to turn me into a potential criminal?