TV Networks Say You're Breaking The Law When You Skip Commercials

"The networks are accusing Dish of "inducing" copyright infringement. That's a legal theory first created in the record labels' case against peer-to-peer software maker Grokster. The problem for the networks is that a technology maker, service, or other middleman can't be held liable for inducing copyright infringement unless their customers are actually infringing. And that means the networks will have to convince a judge that people who record a TV show, and later decide to skip over the commercials during playback, are violating federal law."

Well I don't own one of these devices, but do know people who do, don't watch much television for that matter. Hopefully, the courts won't turn millions of American commercial-skippers into lawbreakers.

eff.org

Television networks are having a busy month trying to stamp out new TV-watching technology, including telling a court that skipping a commercial while watching a recorded show is illegal. Yesterday, Fox, NBC, and CBS all sued Dish Network over its digital video recorder with automatic commercial-skipping. The same networks, plus ABC, Univision, and PBS, are gearing up for a May 30 hearing in their cases against Aereo, a New York startup bringing local broadcast TV to the Internet. EFF and Public Knowledge filed an amicus brief supporting Aereo this week.

Noooooooooooooo! That's can't be right.

That's the only way I get to watch TV now, by skipping the advertisements! I can't stand to watch a 15-20 minute show in 30 minutes just coz they want me to look at stuff I don't need or don't want to buy.

But I can see this catching on, unfortunately!

This is just crazy! Why do all these people always just want to make our life's hell?

So soon, in cinemas, will they made movies have ads in the middle of them also? I am sick of all this malarkey all the time!

So why are they ONLY suing Dish Network and not Tivo or DirectTV?

OH, I KNOW WHY. It's because Dish will boycott a station over price hikes (and post it obviously on the menu) until the station agrees not to hike their prices. It's how Dish keeps prices low. I used to love seeing the "this channel is not available..." message while Dish Network stuck it to someone new, and my prices stayed the same.

This has nothing to do with copyright infringement. It's corporate bullying.

reply to post by Daedal


The funny thing is, when you paid for cable it used to mean you were paying to avoid commercials think about the evolution of things since that...

I love my TIVO and were they to force me to watch commercials I would kill my PAID subscription to Direct TV and never watch another TV show. There is nothing I can't get online.

Heck all I ever watch are shows about fishing and gold mining and of course my personal favorite, Whale Wars. I could live with getting what I need from the web or simply doing without.

It burns my ass that the Cable/dish companies shove nonstop commercials at me, My favorite are the paid late night infomercials. Charge me for the ability to charge others to shove ads down my throat.

God I want out of this piece of crap Country. Sadly most other Countries don't want Americans to own businesses in their Countries. Unless of course you are a mega-corp Then you can do WTF ever you want.

I hope and pray for total collapse of the USA even if I get stuck in it it will be well worth watching TV executives (and others) STARVE!

Opps started ranting.

TV programs are made to get people to watch commercials. The only reason TV programs exist in the first place Is to make money either off subscription or advertising. If you skip its like sneaking into a movie without paying i guess. I know most people think they just have the right to watch TV how they want because its there all the time but i can understand why the owners of the stations dont see it that way. Without adverting revenue then there will be no TV to watch as no company is going to pay for advertising space if some piece of tech is going to allow people to not see their adds.

Without good advertising revenue who is going to pay for the programs and the equipment to beam them out plus the wages of the people managing the whole thing?

I stopped watching TV a long time ago, i dont even own a TV

Jeez....What if I just leave the room when a commercial comes on? Is that against the law, do I have to sit and watch it like a good boy?

All joking aside, this is ridiculous. These commercial makers want for you to purchase their product is so great that they have to take it up to a whole other level by essentially making "Commercial Skipping" technology illegal..Even though it exists, and has for a while.

Let me simplify this for myself.

Businesses and Corporations are using Federal Laws in their favor to benefit their advertising strategies/profit. I wonder who made those laws. Not Dish Network obviously.

All I have to say is WOW! Te nerve these TV networks have. We pay them so they can force us to watch commercials? . They really think that I am that desperate to watch to mindless TV shows?

I'm happy that this feature (the skip the adds after recording a show) exists on new technologies there are WAYYYYYYY to many adds on TV. It saturated me to the point where I can't watch TV any more without being disgusted by the amount of repetitive garbage I have to watch. Plus the volume is raised when the adds start another way for them to make sure you get your daily dose of product conditioning through at least one of your senses.

I hope the TV networks LOOSE in court with all my heart

Never mind

Obviously it's not illegal to skip adverts and it's impossible to see how it ever could be.

However, TV stations rely on adverts for revenue. Without the adverts there would be no TV programmes. So naturally they don't want technology that enables everyone to readily skip adverts as then why would anyone want to place adverts with them?

If there are no adverts and/or no-one watches them, there will be no TV, except the BBC in Britain, which I think is the onlt channel separately funded through a compulsory license for all TV owners, regardless of whether they watch the channel - which seems the only alternative?

I don't watch TV, but when I did I paid for the service of having their programs pumped into my home. They were not selling me a product, they were providing me a service. As such, I could choose which portion of their service to utilize, the programs or the advertisements. I chose the programs over the ads. I did not block them from being sent to me, I simply chose not to view them.

This argument holds no water. Before TiVo, I muted the commercials. Are television manufacturers now to be held liable for my ability to block the audio of their transmissions? Of course not.

I actually think that's funny. People say they hate commercials and skip them - yet they love to watch 20,30 year old commercials. Websites like Retrojunk feature them, Youtube is full of them and people go all nostalgic about them, watching them and reminiscing about the good old days

Well i guess Advertisement is important, it finances the television stations in the first place. It's just like here on ATS where it's officially forbidden to use any kind of software to block out advertisements because otherwise the mods and owners become all whiny saying how it finances everything

Yes, old commercials, yep, but........
consider the number of commercials today. Its hard to even remember one, so much of it that in latter days you say "I dont remember this ads" instead "yeah, that one with the jello"

i'll watch ads, no need to tie me down, just pay.
Paid to watch ads, whoaaa

If I pay to have the signal, i should be able to watch all or only which part I want to watch. If no commercials makes my cost unreasonable then I give up the service.

The worst part is Dish has many channels (about half) that are nothing but a giant commercial anyway.

"we just provide the technology, we don't actually break the law" is the oldest excuse in the book.

Ranks right up there with "it's not the gun that pulls the trigger, it's the owner"

I just mute commercials. In one day of watching, say the sci fi channel, I would be bombarded with so many insurance commercials
Progressive, The General, 21st century, Geico, on and on. Its ridiculous.

They will have to pry the remote from cold dead hand.
Before I'll watch commercials.

We can't have people missing portions of their PROGRAMMING.

The idea here folks, is to criminalize all normal behavior. That way, all citizens are criminals. And we need more and more legislation, taxes, and fees to control that population of criminals.

I don't feel sorry for these networks, or their advertisers, one iota. We've paid for our own brainwashing way too long.

Turned on the tube and here is what is going on some of the channels. Some of this is on 2 channels at the same time.

Mom is 57, look 27
Over 55 with joint pain
grow bigger tomatos
Paint my house
Silver jewelry
Isomer's skin care
Color cosmetics (qvc)
Shark steam pro
Insanity workout
Secrets of big sound
24 ladders in 1
Brazil butt lift

This is the good stuff. Channels of pure commercials. How long before I have to have the TV on for a certain number of hours a day via their remote control?

Notice: You cannot watch this news channel - Your daily quota of hours on infomercial channels has not been met. Please watch commercials and try this channel at a later time.

reply to post by ShadowAngel85

yet they love to watch 20,30 year old commercials.

Because 30 years ago they knew how to make commercials that were good, like mini soap series (Bovril ads for example) and people followed the commercials to see what happened.

They don't make commercials like those any more.