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I think there's a big different between paying money all at once to buy and install hardware that I own vs paying a recurring fee for a service.

by harryh 12y ago

BrandonY 12y ago
Are you suggesting that it should be illegal to rent an antenna via a recurring fee?
- harryh 12y ago
  If it's bundled with a service that streams over the air broadcasts via the internet to wherever you happen to be, then yes.
  - davorak 12y ago
    So it would be ok to by the equipment, then occasionally pay for repair when it breaks? What is the dividing line that would make buying and paying for repairs ok, but not renting?
    - harryh 12y ago
      "bundled with a service that streams over the air broadcasts via the internet to wherever you happen to be"
      - davorak 12y ago
        The equipment I talked about above includes a server which can be used by the renter to server the signal from the antenna to themselves. So an end user could log on to their server tap into their antenna and watch whatever the antenna was picking up. They could install dvr software to their server if they needed to record shows and play it back latter.
baddox 12y ago
What if I paid for the antenna with a credit card, and am slowly making payments month by month? What if I rent the apartment where the antenna resides, and pay a monthly subscription for Internet?
- harryh 12y ago
  Are either one of those you paying a recurring fee to a company for a service that streams TV to you? No? Then you're fine.
  - baddox 12y ago
    The mechanism is exactly the same.
    - harryh 12y ago
      Doesn't matter. I know you don't like that but that's the way it is. Common law isn't source code running on a machine with perfectly defined rules, it's a set of values adjudicated by judges. They looked at Aereo and said: It looks like a cable company and quacks like a cable company so it's gotta act like a cable company. The precise configuration of equipment they have in their datacenter doesn't matter.
      - baddox 12y ago
        I'm not arguing that the law is the way I think it should be. I'm just arguing that the law is really dumb, and that it's pretty clear the legal system just makes decisions that serve the interests of powerful lobbies, rather than some intelligent or even discernible set of rules or principles.
        harryh 12y ago
        I understand that you think it's really dumb but I think most people would disagree with you. When you get bogged down in the technical details of Aereo's datacenter configuration you miss the forrest for the trees. They're a company that streams TV into people's homes. Other companies (the cable companies) have to pay a fee to the content creators to do that. Why should it be different for Aereo? It costs a lot of money to make American Idol and CSI and to license the rights to the Super Bowl. The people that own that content should have a right to license it out in whatever manner they choose.

I think there's a big different between paying money all at once to buy and install hardware that I own vs paying a recurring fee for a service.

by harryh 12y ago

I think there's a big different between paying money all at once to buy and install hardware that I own vs paying a recurring fee for a service.

BrandonY 12y ago

Are you suggesting that it should be illegal to rent an antenna via a recurring fee?

harryh 12y ago
If it's bundled with a service that streams over the air broadcasts via the internet to wherever you happen to be, then yes.
- davorak 12y ago
  So it would be ok to by the equipment, then occasionally pay for repair when it breaks? What is the dividing line that would make buying and paying for repairs ok, but not renting?
  - harryh 12y ago
    "bundled with a service that streams over the air broadcasts via the internet to wherever you happen to be"
    - davorak 12y ago
      The equipment I talked about above includes a server which can be used by the renter to server the signal from the antenna to themselves. So an end user could log on to their server tap into their antenna and watch whatever the antenna was picking up. They could install dvr software to their server if they needed to record shows and play it back latter.

baddox 12y ago

What if I paid for the antenna with a credit card, and am slowly making payments month by month? What if I rent the apartment where the antenna resides, and pay a monthly subscription for Internet?

harryh 12y ago
Are either one of those you paying a recurring fee to a company for a service that streams TV to you? No? Then you're fine.
- baddox 12y ago
  The mechanism is exactly the same.
  - harryh 12y ago
    Doesn't matter. I know you don't like that but that's the way it is. Common law isn't source code running on a machine with perfectly defined rules, it's a set of values adjudicated by judges. They looked at Aereo and said: It looks like a cable company and quacks like a cable company so it's gotta act like a cable company. The precise configuration of equipment they have in their datacenter doesn't matter.
    - baddox 12y ago
      I'm not arguing that the law is the way I think it should be. I'm just arguing that the law is really dumb, and that it's pretty clear the legal system just makes decisions that serve the interests of powerful lobbies, rather than some intelligent or even discernible set of rules or principles.
      - harryh 12y ago
        I understand that you think it's really dumb but I think most people would disagree with you. When you get bogged down in the technical details of Aereo's datacenter configuration you miss the forrest for the trees. They're a company that streams TV into people's homes. Other companies (the cable companies) have to pay a fee to the content creators to do that. Why should it be different for Aereo? It costs a lot of money to make American Idol and CSI and to license the rights to the Super Bowl. The people that own that content should have a right to license it out in whatever manner they choose.