3 Count: Over The Top

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1: CBS Chief Moonves: We Can Go Over-the-Top If Aereo Wins at Supreme Court

First off today, Todd Spangler at Variety reports that CBS CEO Leslie Moonves spoke at the Deutsche Bank’s Media, Internet and Telecom Conference and downplayed the threat of Aereo. He said that, should the TV streaming service win its case, CBS can go “over-the-top” to prevent Aereo from retransmitting their service.

Aereo uses a series of tiny antennas, one per customer, to capture over-the-air broadcast television and stream it to users. Broadcasters, eager to protect retransmission royalties paid by cable companies, have sued. One of the cases, a victory for Aereo in New York, is being heard by the Supreme Court in April.

Going over-the-top would likely mean stopping or curbing over the air broadcasts, turning CBS into more of a cable station or even an Internet-based one. Though Moonves didn’t say exactly what the plans were, he was emphatic that, even if Aereo wins, CBS will ensure that Aereo will be unable to get their signal without paying for it.

2: Popcorn Time Deleted by Dotcom’s Mega, MPAA Lawsuit Pending?

Next up today, Andy at Torrentfreak writes that Popcorn Time, a BitTorrent-based streaming app that was lauded for its friendly interface, has been removed from Kim Dotcom’s file sharing service Mega. In addition to the filets removal, it’s creators have been tipped off that a lawsuit by the MPAA is being prepared.

Popcorn Time became a popular tool for piracy due to its Netflix-like interface and ability to stream movies from BitTorrent. However, the Mega link to download the software has been removed though it is unclear why. Kim Dotcom had previously tweeted about Popcorn Time, generating a great deal of publicity for the app.

Since the app is open source, even if it is removed and its current developers stop work on it, others will be able to pick it up. As such, the developers of Popcorn Time said that, “This could be the end of Popcorn Time (not the community, its open source!) but maybe our goodbye as a team.”

3: Tim Berners-Lee: The Web Needs its Freedom

Finally today, Kieron Monks and Mark Tutton at CNN report that today marks the 25th anniversary of Tim Berners-Lee’s proposal for Mesh, a system that would later go on to become the World Wide Web.

According to Berners-Lee, the Internet is akin to a young adult now and needs its independence. In particular, Berners-Lee focused on issues of spying and censorship, saying that privacy and freedom of speech were going to be key for the Web and its role in promoting democracy.

However, he also looked to the recent copyright wars, calling for an evaluation of how copyright has impacted the Web. Berners-Lee is currently the founder of the World Wide Web Consortium, which sets the standard for the Web’s infrastructure, and The Web Foundation, which aims to improve the distribution and ethical use of the Internet.

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.

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