Now, bear in mind I'm in Canada.

Recording television shows, downloading TV shows, recording anything off the radio or anything else protected by "intellectual property" is basically, illegal. Course no one really cares unless you try to distribute or resell it, people HAVE been charged/sued/whatever.

In canada, with MP3's, I believe the law is that it is not criminal unless you redistribute it. problem with most peer to peer applications (such as limewire) anything you download is automatically shared with the rest of the network.

Basically speaking, any mainstream media is "intellectual property" and is illegal to pirate/record. so if you want to stay within the law, you have to buy everything.

The main exception, is "public domain" media, or "creative commons" etc etc. Public domain basically is a subset that includes mostly very old broadcasts, tv shows, songs, and movies. For example, it is not illegal to download Beethoven's 5th symphony, or an old 1950's horror flick, because they are public domain. creative commons and other such licensing is also ok (this would include stuff like rantmedia)

But if you wanted to record an episode of 'friends' or some such, it's a no-go.