3 Count: Cord Uncutting

Jonathan BaileyFebruary 25, 2014

2 minutes read

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1: Broadcasters Warn They May Reconsider Offering Free TV

First off today, Amol Sharma and Shalini Ramachandran at The Wall Street Journal reports that U.S. TV broadcasters including ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox have filed a written petition with the Supreme Court in the Aereo case that not only outlines its arguments, but also says that it may cause the to stop offering free broadcast television or scale back such offerings.

Aereo is a TV streaming service that uses a series of antennas, one per customer, to capture over-the-air broadcast television and stream it to customers via the Web. Aereo has argued that it is no different than what users can do in their own home, however, broadcasters have sued with mixed results. Though a Utah court recently granted an injunction against Aereo, the New York court did not and the appeal of that denial has now reached the Supreme Court.

Though most of the filing restated arguments previously made by the broadcasters, they also claimed that, if Aereo is allowed to continue, broadcasters could scale back over the air programming or convert their services to cable channels. The broadcasters say that, if Aereo is allowed to continue, cable companies may use similar workarounds to avoid paying retransmission fees, which are worth billions each year.

2: Federal Judge Inclined to Dismiss ‘Trouble With the Curve’ Case

Next up today, Ted Johnson at Variety reports that a a federal judge has said she is inclined to dismiss a lawsuit filed against Warner Brothers over the film “Trouble with the Curve”.

The lawsuit was filed by screenwriter Randy Brown, who claims that he came up with the idea for the movie in the 1990s. However, the judge disagreed saying that the two stories were “very different” and said she would issue a summary judgment order in the case shortly.

The lawsuit has been particularly bitter as Brown accused Warner Brothers of tampering with evidence and called Ryan A. Brooks, the listed screenwriter, an “impostor”. Warner called those claims “reckless”.

3: Paramount Sets Lawyers on ‘Top Gun’ Frame-by-Frame Tweets

Finally today, Andy at Torrentfreak writes that a Twitter user by the name of @555uhz has earned attention from lawyers from Paramount Pictures of his unusual activity os posting a frame from the film “Top Gun” every thirty minutes.

The channel, which was recently suspended, would have taken several months to get through the full film. It had put out over 1,500 tweets and attracted nearly 7,000 followers. However, a DMCA notices from Paramount Pictures claimed that the account was infringing their copyright and, sometime later, the account went down.

Whether the suspension was caused by the DMCA notice or due to another violation of the Twitter terms of service. The full DMCA notice is available on Chilling Effects.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today. We will be back tomorrow with three more copyright links. If you have a link that you want to suggest a link for the column or have any proposals to make it better. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I hope to hear from you.