Guardian story here: http://gu.com/p/3qdkt
The supreme court just ruled that the service offered by Aereo, which is essentially a DVR for over the air broadcasts, is illegal. So apparently it's illegal to record what broadcast companies put out in the open air.
I am willing to bet that the broadcasts companies asked Aereo to pay them money, and Aereo said no so the broadcast companies made a ruckus about it and took it to the SC. Then threw money at the SC and boom, Aereo is out of business. Welcome to america...
who cares, aereo is stupid anyways.
This whole fiasco leads me to think we should be blaming the fucking networks, not the ISPs as we have been. If the networks are making hundreds of millions on a monthly basis from ISPs, you wonder why ISPs offer shit service and higher prices than say parts of Europe and Asia. It isn't like they were capturing cable or fios or sattelite signals and rebroadcasting them. They were rebroadcasting fucking Open Air Waves. So in essence rebroadcasting something that doesnt take any bandwidth, as it is in the air and just waves to be captured.
Yes we can dabble that networks are assholes OR we can explore the legality of this. First of all, Aereo is a TV broadcast for the internet. It charges customers for the content it broadcasts. The question is, where are they getting the broadcast? Well, if it is from the broadcast itself from the providers in different areas, then they are definitely breaking the law. Repeating the signal to others is technically illegal because the broadcast is also protected by copyright and going through a repeater, even if it wasn't manipulated at all, is still forbidden. The main topic is that the airwaves are NOT free. There are strict rules the FCC put in place for broadcasts. If Aereo wanted to bypass this, they should have integrated themselves into the broadcast stations themselves, even though their would be a price to it. If they were truly getting the broadcast for free, and repeating it at a price to customers, then yes. That is a violation of copyright law.
This may sound stupid, but rebroadcasting without permission or licenses is illegal. Even if it is Open Air Wave.
Recording is also illegal. Either open air or not.
^ This.
It's like me taking an iPod, putting an "Orange" logo on it, and re-selling it as my own service. Just because The channels and content are out in the open, doesn't mean it's fair game to record it or save it, or profit from it.
Say your car was on the street. It's out in the open, right? So I guess I can sell it to a junk yard and get the profit from it. All they have to do is come take it. they don't have to break into it or anything. it was just there, in the open.
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2012-title47-vol4/xml/CFR-2012-title47-vol4-sec73-682.xml
This highlights the standards of television broadcasting. It is rather large, but it still is my source. The open air wave channels are only one way. There is no handshake between the bands. Thus, taking the bands and rebroadcasting them into an internet stream via 3G or land-line is a violation of these regulations. They didn't even sue for that anyway. They sued for copyright infringement. The FCC regulations would also come into play in the coming months for this company. They look like they will face serious fines if they don't get licenses.
Here is the regulations for rebroadcasting
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2012-title47-vol4/xml/CFR-2012-title47-vol4-sec73-1207.xml
Correct. Only if the service provider such as a Cable company or satellite gives them permission to do so. These exact regulations almost killed the VHS in the US due to a massive lawsuit from Hollywood. The record button was the most evil button on a VCR.