OH NO - You can't watch Seinfeld on Toronto TV in Texas anymore.
================================================================
HEADLINES
Monday , January 31,
02:15 pm, EST
PITTSBURGH (Reuters) - A Canadian-based
Web site accused of pirating copyrighted U.S.
entertainment and sports programs appeared
Sunday to have complied with a federal judge's
temporary restraining order that it immediately
suspend its webcasts.
iCraveTV.com, the brainchild of two U.S.
citizens who are being sued by 10 Hollywood
movie studios, three television networks and
two professional sports associations, greeted
visitors to its Web site over the weekend with
the message that ''access to stations and
listings is not available at this time.''
Company officials could not be reached for
comment.
U.S. District Judge Donald Ziegler issued the
temporary restraining order after a four-hour
hearing Friday, constraining the website's
rebroadcast for TV shows including ``Frasier''
and ``Ally McBeal'' until Feb. 8, when he will
hear arguments about whether a permanent
injunction should be imposed.
Billing itself as the world's first 24-hour-a-day
free Internet TV companion, iCraveTV.com is
run by former Fox Sports Net Pittsburgh
general manager William Craig and his
business partner George Simons. Their
company, TVRadio Now Corp., picks up
broadcasts from 17 TV stations in Buffalo,
New York, and Toronto, and converts the
programming into digital webcasts which are
offered free with paid advertising.
But movie studios, including Twentieth Century
Fox and Walt Disney Co., as well as the ABC,
CBS and Fox networks describe
iCraveTV.com as ``one of the largest and most
brazen thefts of intellectual property ever
committed in the United States'' in their lawsuit
against Craig and Simons.
The two web operators face a separate but
similar legal action from the National Football
League, the National Basketball Association
and NBA Properties.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette quoted iCraveTV
officials as contradicting plaintiffs' claims that
the rebroadcasts were being seen by U.S.
citizens by saying there were ample warnings
and legal disclaimers to prevent Americans
from watching the TV show.
One iCraveTV executive also told Ziegler that
new security measures filtered out American
users with a 98 percent success rate, the
newspaper said.
However, a plaintiffs' witness demonstrated in
court the ease with which the website could
still be accessed from Pittsburgh.
Craig, former development director of the
National Hockey League's Pittsburgh Penguins,
was not present in court Friday. The
Post-Gazette said there is a warrant out for his
arrest charging him with failing to pay his
estranged wife $800,000.
TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian
broadcasters leapt into the fray against
Internet broadcaster iCravetv.com Monday,
filing a lawsuit to close the ``renegade
operation'' that has already been temporarily
shutdown by a U.S. judge.
In the suit filed in an Ontario court, Canadian
broadcasters are seeking C$70 million ($48
million) in statutory damages against the
operation that has struck fear in the hearts of
broadcasters and producers with its plans to
re-broadcast telivison signals free over the
Internet.
The group is also seeking C$1.1 million for
each subsequent day of copyright
infringement. The broadcasters also want
punitive damages of C$5 million levied against
iCravetv's parent company, TVRadioNow
Corp., and an injunction against the company
and its president, William Craig.
Another group, comprised of film companies
and another broadcaster, have filed a similar
lawsuit, their lawyer said.
The lawsuits follow a suit filed in a U.S court
on January 20 by 10 Hollywood movie
studios, three television networks and two
professional sports associations, which
maintains iCravetv is violating both trademark
and copyright laws by streaming TV signals on
to the Internet without permission.
Friday, a U.S. judge ordered the Webcasts
stopped until February 8, when he is
scheduled to hear arguments about whether a
permanent injunction should be imposed.
Toronto-based iCravetv, which bills itself as
the world's first 24-hour-a-day free Internet
television company, picks up broadcasts from
17 television stations and converts the
programming into free digital webcasts with
paid advertising.
iCravetv, whose officials could not be reached
for comment Monday, insists its actions are on
the right side of Canadian law.
Under Canadian copyright laws, companies
can retransmit signals -- providing they are
already available for free over-the-air
reception -- if they meet certain criteria,
experts said. The signal, if a local or distance
one, must be rebroadcast simultaneously and
be unaltered and the retransmitter must pay
royalties.
``Technically they're not doing anything
wrong,'' said Paul Kedrosky, a professor of
business at the University of British Columbia,
who has written extensively on Internet issues.
In December, iCravetv applied to Canada's
Copyright Board to be classified as a
retransmitter -- similar to a cable company --
and asked the Board to set an interim tariff for
it to pay. No decision has been reached yet.
``The people who are claiming, high and far,
that this is in pure breach of copyright
legislation must realize there's an argument that
cuts the other way,'' an industry expert said.
''The law allows cable companies to do what
they are doing, it's going to be a matter of
whether Internet communications fit the
definition of retransmission.
``When the cable operators set up in the
mid-50s, they were operating in a grey area of
law and look where they are today,'' he said.
``I don't think that iCravetv's counsel would
let them do what they do if they didn't think
they had a fair chance of winning the
argument.''
The Canadian company also has one less
worry after the federal broadcast watchdog,
the Canadian Radio-television and
Telecommunications Commission, last May
exempted Internet-based broadcasters from
broadcasting regulations.
Commission spokesman Denis Carmel said he
did not believe iCravetv was breaking any
rules under the broadcast act.
One argument broadcasters may be able to
use is the fact that iCravetv surrounds the
Web images with advertising. It is unclear
whether framing the content with banner
advertising constitutes altering the signal,
Kedorsky said.
But whether the lawsuits are successful in
Canada or not, analysts maintain that the
struggle with iCravetv is just an early skirmish
in the war likely to rage between content
providers and Internet-based operations on a
new battlefield.
``There's different issues here -- there's
intellectual property rights, there's copyrights,
there's cross-border data flow, there's the
implications for the Internet to bypass national
industries...and national legislation,'' said
Internet analyst Jordan Worth of International
Data Corp. Canada.
Both Worth and Kedrosky said it was
apparent the U.S and Canadian broadcasters
and film companies are intent on ensuring
iCravetv sets no precedent.