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stories filed under: "tv guide"
Legal Issues

Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick

Wed, Apr 29th 2009 1:03pm


Filed Under:
australia, copyright, tv guide

Companies:
icetv, nine network



Australian High Court Says Electronic TV Guide Isn't Copyright Infringement

from the good-news! dept

Back in 2006, an Australian TV network, The Nine Network, sued a startup, IceTV, for creating an electronic program guide that listed out when TV programs played for use in programming DVRs and such. It was difficult to see how a simple listing of TV program info could be infringement, but an Australian court disagreed, saying that the networks owned their own scheduling info. Luckily, however, Phill informs us that Australia's high court has overturned the lower court ruling, saying that creating your own TV program guide without licensing the info is perfectly legal. It's sad that it had to take nearly three years for this conclusion, but at least it's the right result.

11 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
Deals

Deals

by Mike Masnick

Fri, Dec 7th 2007 3:42pm


Filed Under:
content, drm, tv guide

Companies:
gemstar, macrovision, tv guide



Why Would A DRM Company Buy TV Guide?

from the because-it's-thinking-in-the-wrong-direction dept

Macrovision, a company that's well known for its DRM products, made quite a splash today with its announced plans to buy Gemstar-TV Guide for $2.8 billion. The rationale for the deal seems to be that the folks at Macrovision may actually believe the commonly stated myth that DRM "opens new business models." Macrovision talks about how combining its DRM with Gemstar listings and content could enable a bunch of new offerings -- but it's difficult to believe those new offerings will be particularly compelling. DRM has never been about enabling new business models, but about making any content less valuable by limiting its usefulness in the hopes of being able to charge separately for each use. Perhaps that's what they mean by "new business models" but it's hardly a business model if it's simply pissing off consumers. As Saul Hansell at the NY Times notes, the direction Macrovision seems to be moving in is (along with the recent story of hard drives that block MP3 sharing) one where technology companies feel that they need to be policing how people use content. That's a very anti-consumer position to be in -- and it's generally not a good business proposition to be focused on limiting consumers. Apparently, investors agree -- as they've sent the stock price of both companies way down in reaction to the deal.

11 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
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