U.S. Supreme Court takes up fight over TV streaming
Source: LA Times
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal from the nation’s television broadcasters and decide whether to shut down a new streaming service that sends shows to consumers via the Internet for a monthly fee.
Aereo, a Brooklyn-based start-up distributor, uses small antennas to pick up over-the-air TV signals and allows a consumer to store them for later viewing. The company says its service is entirely legal since it uses the signals that a homeowner with an old-fashioned antenna could pick up as well.
But broadcasters see a major threat to their industry because Aereo is re-transmitting their copyrighted programs and not paying for them. These days, broadcasters depend heavily on revenue paid by cable and satellite companies that carry their signals, and they fear that business model will erode if cable firms are told they can take over-the-air signals for free.
The biggest TV companies, including ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and PBS, went to court in New York and sued Aereo for violating their copyrights. They cited a provision of the law that gives a copyright holder the exclusive right to “perform the copyrighted work publicly.”
Read more: http://touch.latimes.com/#section/1780/article/p2p-78848720/
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6 months free Hulu with the purchase of the mid-range, which is more than enough. We bought 2 units, so had a year free. Haven't seen the deal since.
Hulu is my least favorite channel - slower than christmas, horrible search function, and it always seems to reset right in the middle of watching a show. But, we do get to watch shows with very little limited interruption, and we do watch the shows we like by noon the next day. Just wish they would update their servers or whatever is causing the problem.
With amazon, pricey for the prime, but we figured that instead of paying $6.59 per month, they charge it all in one whack. 6 of one, half dozen of another. There are quite a few shows that are free with prime, but nothing recent. You have to wait for those.
I forget who, but someone on DU was singing praises of Roku for months, so much so that it convinced me to buy one. Glad we did, love them.
Our directv contract ends on 28th and we are seriously thinking/more than likely completely pulling the plug too, and going air/roku only. TNT won't stream their shows unless you have a directv account - wth? - and I do refuse to pay amazon to stream their shows, so we will miss those shows, but the rest of the directv line up - meh. I'm paying for 100s of channels I refuse to watch for general principle.
Once all the providers come out with ala carte, we'll think about replugging. But until then, we'll have air (live very near the towers) and roku. But boy, we are going to miss the DVR. 
Incredible rip-off, and the fact they've refused to provide ala cart, which they are certainly cable of, has always been reason enough NOT to sign a contract with their phony deals.
And by the way, I don't miss cable news what so ever. It was easy to do once I finally made my mind up. I'll occasionally watch a clip that's posted here or there which might have a bearing on something that I'm really interested in hearing, but most of the time the promo is over hyped, like a lot of headlines are on Huffpo etc. Terms like "slap down" etc might have been entertaining to watch if only it were true.
Rarely is the promo close to being as advertised, so I finally learned to ignore them and avoid "clicking" on them now. Don't miss it at all and my budget is very happy for it. 
Damn Bush and his conservative appts.
