Australia - Channel 9 suing IceTV (1 Viewer)

[SSSputnik]

Just to let Australians know that Channel 9 has taken IceTV to court (Aussie EPG supplier) over copyright issues.

Basically, Channel 9 is trying to shut IceTV down

Will keep people posted.

 

[Nightmare77]

god i hate australian tv broadcasters, they are trying to put aussies dtv back to teh stone age

 

[ivars]

As a result of remarkably fortuitous reforms to Australian media law, the Nine Network is being sold by local media baron James Packer to fund his gambling industry interests. Nine has been in trouble for some time now, essentially because its senior executives lack imagination and the guts to revamp their business model to adapt to changes in the media scene globally. Their response has been the same as their American brethren: SUE.

The Seven Network (largely responsible for Nine's decline) took no action against IceTV - now there's a message there. According to IceTV “in May 2005 .... Channel Seven accused IceTV of copying its published television programme guide. IceTV invited Seven’s lawyers to inspect the process used to create its ICEguide to allay their concerns in this regard. A team including one of Sydney's top intellectual property lawyers visited IceTV’s premises on Seven's behalf, examined our processes, and Seven then took no action despite having threatened the same copyright action Channel Nine has now taken.” (http://www.icetv.com.au/cgi-bin/downloads.cgi?op=get_file&number=8)

The matter went to the Federal Court on Monday (http://www.theage.com.au/news/techn...c-program-guide/2006/10/09/1160246043440.html, http://www.theage.com.au/news/busin...v-guide-company/2006/10/16/1160850871483.html) but as yet no outcome has been announced.

 

[and-81]

Warning: Rant ahead.

That's only one of the reasons I hate Australian TV Broadcasters. Don't get me wrong, it's a big one, but here are some others ...

<Rant>

- They banish good shows to ridiculous times because they know we will watch them anyway. The Sopranos at midnight? Really.

- They're flooding us with cheap "Top 20 this and that" style shows. How many 20-to-1's can they make? I really don't care what some air head presenter thinks of Donald Trump's hair style. Which brings me to... "Big Questions" ? Come on channel 9, we're not stupid. We don't like Jules Lund, stop ramming him down our throats. He was voted off that terrible ice skating show and you brought him back! "By popular demand", who's demand!? The demand was to get him off the show. We're sick of your profile building rubbish, and we're not buying in.

- Cost cutting at Nine in particular is spawning a series of on-the-cheap shows that really do look on-the-cheap. Archival footage shows are getting pretty lame guys, and another re-voiced UK documentary is not going to cut it.

- They refuse to start shows on time or finish within their time slots. This doesn't just annoy the recorder, it also enrages the everyday viewer, see if they put up with it much longer ...

- Time slots no longer start and stop on 30 minute intervals. Starts 9:35pm, what kind of a time is 9:35pm !? If you're going to specify your start time to 5 minutes, be accurate! If I said I arrived for work at 9:35am you would think I was being specific about the time. When a TV station says it will start a show at 9:35pm you'd think the same, but you'd be wrong!

- They continually slip in repeat episodes of high rating shows to string out the season. The sooner I can filter my EPG to not record repeats of CSI the better. What they did with Frasier was criminal. Thank god I didn't like Friends when that was finishing up, I would have come over all "stabby"

- News is meant to be current, if you're advertising stories that will be on next week then IT'S NOT NEWS, IT'S CURRENT AFFAIRS. And all your "Exclusives" that everyone else had, how is that exclusive? What's more, why do I care if you've got an exclusive on the cat behind the brick wall story?

- A Current Affair / Today Tonight. They ran out of stories 5 years ago, and have just been repeating the same old scare tactics, racism and filth since. The Racism propogated in these shows is criminal. Seriously, Criminal. I don't believe Australia is a racist nation, I do believe that our Media is following a US style State Of Fear approach which features doom and gloom, end of the world, and xenophobic rubbish. We are living in the height of our civilization, we have the longest life expectancy we've ever had, we have decreasing crime rates, and ever improving quality of life. But our Media tells us that we're all at risk of being murdered by some ethnic or religious minority group every time we walk out our front door. It's truly insulting.

- Late night game shows. Every commercial network now runs this utter garbage! Pathetic, really pathetic guys. Is this the best we can do?

I'm not going to campaign for a boycott of Australian free to air tv, but I will record all the shows I like, watch them at the time that suits me and skip the ads. And I will buy the DVDs of good shows from the US or UK and never watch them on free to air. And I will keep an eye on the guide for good shows on the ABC and SBS and try to watch those stations more.

Sooner or later the advertisers will realise that these antics are hurting them, not the broadcasters. When they do, hopefully they will use there influence to pull the broadcasters back in line. And if they think going after IceTV will stop us they are truly inept. The HTPC user is, by and large, intelligent and resourceful. We will find a way.

The free-to-air TV broadcasters in Australia can go to hell for all I care, if they continue to treat us like idiots they will be the ones who suffer in the end as more and more people move to recording their shows with DVD-Rs, PVRs and HTPCs, and downloading shows from the internet. Advertisers will pull their money out of TV and pour it into online marketing, radio and print media.

This non-ratings season in Australia is set to be the worst ever.

If I didn't like Cricket I'd probably shoot myself.

If I started telling everyone that calling me by my first name without paying me for it was a breach of my copyright could I sue them?

Channel Nine seems to think that the name and time a show is meant to start is copyright. Let's hope that sanity wins the day.

</Rant>

Sorry for the long post, just needed to get it off my chest. It's a sad state of affairs.

Keep us posted on the IceTV story, it's gunna have a big impact on the HTPC scene here.

 

[Taipan]

Hey Aaron, do you feel better now ......

Unfortunately, the points you make about commercial TV in Australia are all too true. Even worse, most of the viewing public doesn't care, which is why 7, 9 and 10 get away with it ....

I only watch ABC and SBS live - anything on 7, 9 or 10 that is worth watching I record (allowing 25 minutes extra recording time because they are always late!), strip the ads out with comskip and then watch it in peace when I am ready ......

I just hope that IceTV wins the court case and sticks it right up the Nine Network! Even if Nine do win the court case, they have already lost the battle.....

 

[James]

and pay TV cost too much and is crap anyway!

 

[samuel337]

and pay TV cost too much and is crap anyway!

Unfortunately I reckon our paytv is better than FTA.

Anyway, I like IceTV's analogy (ok, the facts are wrong, but the idea is good):

"At the end of the day, commercial TV channels will just have to change the way they handle their business models, to cope with the advent of new technology," he said.

"Even in the worst case, if they [PBL] beat us, what are they going to do? Deny every Australian of digital TV?"

"It'd be like Australia Post suing Microsoft for inventing the email," he said.

Link: http://www.arnnet.com.au/index.php?id=1784690620

Channel 9 is really going down the drain, I don't think I've watched anything on that channel for a long while (and I'm the type to watch non-intellectual tv shows too so they should be appealing to me) unlike channel 7 and 10 (no I'm not an Idol fan ).

Sam

 

[dodo]

Just thinking about this case...

I'm thinking that IceTV's argument is that facts cannot be copyrighted (which is true). Now considering that the advertised start times of Channel Nine's shows are pure fiction, perhaps they can be copyrighted! Maybe this is part of their plan.

 

[NickName]

That's only one of the reasons I hate Australian TV Broadcasters. Don't get me wrong, it's a big one, but here are some others ...

<Rant>


</Rant>

Sorry for the long post, just needed to get it off my chest. It's a sad state of affairs.

Keep us posted on the IceTV story, it's gunna have a big impact on the HTPC scene here.

You saved me a lot of typing by you're <rant>. Well done! I avoid their rubbish too as it's insulting to anybody with half a brain.
I actually signed up with IceTV so that my subscription can help them fight Nine. Note: I didn't need to sign up as getting a free guide is pretty easy but I figured a little money towards the fight would be helpful.

I am truly concerned about democracy in Australia with Howard's new Media laws and the anti-terrorism laws. Ugh... don't get me started...

 

[sonome]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/nine-to-sue-ad-blocker-company/2006/10/14/1160246373780.html

Free-to-air stations in Australia have refused to provide their guides because of the threat the technology poses to their most crucial source of income - commercials.

This news article links the Channel 9 v. IceTV suit directly to the issue of users cutting out commercials. I find it this sort of backwards "head in the sand" logic by the tv broadcasters very disturbing. Surely their time and $ could be better spent on marketing and ad revenue tactics geared towards htpc users (whose numbers are growing daily) rather than trying to alienate those users altogether. If we're not attracted to watching broadcast television (not knowing what is on tv is a definite turn-off!), we're even more likely to move towards other media for our entertainment needs than the average tv viewer.