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by PI 6588 days ago
Zattoo is illegal (in the UK), as it doesn't have any partnerships with the TV channels as well as the fact that we have to pay a license fee and the TV Licensing people can't track "illegal" users of the service.

And to be honest, TV is crap. Here in the UK we have online catchup services for the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 only Five is missing a catchup service. And if you want to watch live news coverage BBC News (24) streams video via the BBC site.
1 comments
pmjordan 6588 days ago
From http://zattoo.com/en/about-zattoo/what-is-zattoo

Is Zattoo really legal?

Yes. Zattoo acquires the rights to retransmit the channels separately for each country we launch in. It takes a lot of legwork (read: flight miles and sizzling phone lines) to collect the necessary rights to transmit the channels. Unlike the fast food world, the media world doesn’t operate on a global basis, so if we acquire the rights to carry a French TV channel in Switzerland, say, we don’t automatically get the right to carry it also in France or Germany.

All of this doesn’t deter us, of course. Chances actually are that we’re talking to a broadcaster somewhere right now, as you are reading this. So stay tuned for more channels in Z-countries and a launch in countries that haven’t been zattooed yet.

I guess it's possible that they're lying, but given that the channel lineup varies greatly between countries, I somewhat doubt it.

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PI 6588 days ago
Zattoo is illegal because they are planning to insert advertisements in between moving from channel to channel, and in the UK advertising is not allowed on BBC channels because we the British public pay the license fee.

See: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/organgrinder/2007/08/tv_unfestiv... ...and... http://informitv.com/articles/2008/05/09/zattooclaimscopyrig...

Quote: In a statement the BBC said: “We have not entered into any formal agreements with Zattoo to redistribute BBC channels”. ITV said: “We wouldn’t rule out third party deals, but there aren’t any in place at the moment”. Channel 4 said: “We don’t have any formal arrangements with Zattoo”. Five said: “The inclusion of the Five service on Zattoo has not been authorised or licenced by Five”.

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halo 6588 days ago
http://informitv.com/articles/2008/05/09/zattooclaimscopyrig...

In the UK at least it seems they have no agreements with the channels and they're claiming it's legal under copyright law when in reality it's largely a gray area.

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