First, commercials, or pay vs. OTA, has nothing to do with it. For example, I'm sure you can agree that if I took recordings of, say, NCIS (a popular show on CBS) off the local affiliate OTA, burned DVDs of it, and sold them in a storefront without any agreement with the affiliate or CBS, that my defense against a copyright violation lawsuit of "But I included the commercials!" would not be accepted. Including the commercials is not a defense against copyright violation.
So the question really is, is what Aereo is doing violating the copyrights of the content owners and/or broadcasters? That is what the lawsuit is about.
The hook that Aereo is hanging their hat on is that they are taking OTA signals via antennas and making them available to their subscribers. Now, the fact that it's an OTA signal, and available for anyone to receive with an antenna and a TV set, does NOT mean that the content being broadcast is not copyright protected. The example I gave above demonstrates that. Even though the signal is OTA, making a copy of it on a DVD and physically selling that DVD is protected by copyright.
So the question really is: is what Aereo is doing more like receiving the broadcast over an antenna connected to a TV set, or is it more like receiving the broadcast, reformatting, copying, and placing it on a different medium, and selling it to a downstream subscriber? That is the question being wrestled with in the courts right now. It's not a slam dunk either way in my opinion.
When you rip something to a DVD you're making a copy thus violating copyright laws. In this case nothing is being copied. Now what constitutes a rebroadcast? Does transmitting it simultaneously considered a rebroadcast?
Obviously not, you dolts; that would be illegal. You're changing the story somewhere.
Aereo's setup sounds sort of like a "startup telecom". Or an "indie telecom", whatever you want to call it. They're doing exactly what the existing telecoms are doing, except over the Internet (with a bunch of truly unnecessary converting in the middle). And are the old fashioned guys just whining that they're being beaten at their own game?
Existing telecoms pay to retransmit broadcast TV. How is it that Aereo can retransmit without paying while telecoms have to pay? And can I retransmit a signal and charge for it?
I'd say it is because Aereo isn't retransmitting because they aren't just receiving it one time and then sending it out to thousands of subscribers. Instead, and this of course is the crux of the argument, they have taken the broadcast equipment and and miniaturized it and are leasing you the right to use it for your own purposes.
This wouldn't even be an issue if there were any sort of decent dvr's for OTA signals. However there aren't. We can't apply the betamax test to a TIVO type device in our house because broadcasters made such things impossible. So I hope Aereo wins because they will be beating them at their own game.
Comments
When you rip something to a DVD you're making a copy thus violating copyright laws. In this case nothing is being copied. Now what constitutes a rebroadcast? Does transmitting it simultaneously considered a rebroadcast?
Originally Posted by dasanman69
When you rip something to a DVD you're making a copy thus violating copyright laws.
Nope. When you burn something to a DVD, you're making a legal backup copy.
In that you are correct but one isn't allowed to sell it which is what I should've said.
Originally Posted by dasanman69
In that you are correct but one isn't allowed to sell it which is what I should've said.
Ah, got it.
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Originally Posted by pt123
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Originally Posted by Tallest Skil
Obviously not, you dolts; that would be illegal. You're changing the story somewhere.
Aereo's setup sounds sort of like a "startup telecom". Or an "indie telecom", whatever you want to call it. They're doing exactly what the existing telecoms are doing, except over the Internet (with a bunch of truly unnecessary converting in the middle). And are the old fashioned guys just whining that they're being beaten at their own game?
Existing telecoms pay to retransmit broadcast TV. How is it that Aereo can retransmit without paying while telecoms have to pay? And can I retransmit a signal and charge for it?
I'd say it is because Aereo isn't retransmitting because they aren't just receiving it one time and then sending it out to thousands of subscribers. Instead, and this of course is the crux of the argument, they have taken the broadcast equipment and and miniaturized it and are leasing you the right to use it for your own purposes.
This wouldn't even be an issue if there were any sort of decent dvr's for OTA signals. However there aren't. We can't apply the betamax test to a TIVO type device in our house because broadcasters made such things impossible. So I hope Aereo wins because they will be beating them at their own game.
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Originally Posted by Tallest Skil
Oh, so it's legal? Then it's not stealing.
No, but when someone invents a new and novel way of breaking a law it can sometimes be difficult to argue that the law has in fact been broken.