Well, at first it was only movies and they were ignoring TV shows. Then when Battlestar Galactica came out and it was aired in Britain months before it aired here, they started getting annoyed that they were scooped and many US residents had already seen it when it premiered here. Now from what I've heard, this seems to have actually increased the ratings from the start since the good buzz about the series from downloaders created a greater audience for the permiere, but still, they don't like losing control. So at first they were just nailing people who were downloading BG (I indirectly know of someone who was threatened over BG), and now it has expanded to TV shows in general (in addition to movies).
I decided I can wait until the DVDs show up in my local video store. After being burned once, I decided to just give it up.