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by saulpw 777 days ago
> Imagine a video rental service where you can go in, and they will play whatever movie you want on a DVD player in the back room. How long can that wire be between the DVD player and the person watching before it starts being copyright infringement?

I imagine it would be when you put a Y on the wire so that two people can watch from two different monitors.
1 comments
paulmd 777 days ago
nope, aereo didn't have a Y in the wire, still found to be infringing.

of course this gets to the core of the problem: rights on paper are one thing, but they are easily taken away by a plaintiff with money. if you don't have the money to defend the right, you don't have the right (and in fact stand a good chance of getting the right taken away for everyone else too).

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AnthonyMouse 777 days ago
Didn't Aereo lose because they were basically found to be a cable company which then subjects them to a specific set of different rules?
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sp332 777 days ago
Yes, but that doesn't change the setup. They had a separate antenna and a separate server making separate copies of the shows for each user.

But, even after the Supreme Court said they were operating more like a cable company https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/06/supreme-court-pu... they were not allowed to actually operate like a cable company. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/10/in-win-for-broad...

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AnthonyMouse 777 days ago
Sounds like they had bad lawyers (or bad judges). Shouldn't be simultaneously possible to be a cable company and not.

But as IA isn't to my knowledge doing controlled digital lending with broadcast television, is there any plausible argument they would be found to be a cable company?

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paulmd 776 days ago
IA is doing a whole lot of digital lending other than television and that’s part of what this lawsuit is about iirc.
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paulmd 775 days ago
I’m not sure what you’re asking - they lost because the “we just host personal antennas for subscribers, it’s 1:1 between antennas and subscribers with no Y therefore it’s not rebroadcasting” was found to not be a viable argument, yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.

Like this is a weird “that’s not true, weren’t they actually…” that recites all the same reasons I just said they were found to be infringing?

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