Startup Sued for Putting Local TV on the iPhone

By Peter Svennsson

New York - Broadcasters have sued a startup backed by media billionaire Barry Diller that sends live local TV feeds to iPhones and iPads in the New York area.

Two groups of broadcasters, including ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and the local PBS station, filed suits Thursday in federal court, saying Aereo Inc.'s service uses their content without permission.

Aereo launched two weeks ago, but it's available by invitation only. Subscribers pay $12 per month for access to 27 locally broadcast TV channels through the Web browsers on their Apple devices. It's set to open up to more subscribers on March 14. The company hopes to expand service to other cities.

Aereo says the suits are groundless and it looks forward to "a full and fair airing of the issues."

Aereo has more than $25 million in venture capital backing, with more than $20 million of it coming from a funding round led by InterActiveCorp, which owns Match.com, Ask.com and other websites. Diller is the chairman of InterActiveCorp and the former CEO of Fox.

The startup exploits what it believes is a loophole in the laws governing retransmission of local broadcasts. It doesn't use one big antenna to pick up the local broadcasts and relay them to the Internet. Instead, it uses one tiny antenna for each subscriber that's watching.

People are entitled to watch local broadcast TV when they use their own antennas, and Aereo believes that what it's doing, legally speaking, is acting as a remote antenna for each subscriber, rather than taking broadcasts and retransmitting them.

Broadcasters aren't buying that argument.

"Aereo's service to the end user is similar to and competes with cable or satellite operators and telephone companies that also retransmit broadcast programming to their subscribers, except that Aereo's service is unlawful," said the suit filed by ABC, CBS, NBC and others.

Senate to Vote on Bill Allowing Unlawful Detainments

Washington D.C. - RT and Democracy Now, unlike CNN, Fox, or MSNBC, reported on a piece of legislation that allows the government to detain anyone they deem a terrorist both domestically and abroad.

Go ahead and re-read that.

If this bill gets through the Senate - it already passed the House in May - it will mean the United States government is declaring the entire world, including the country itself, as a battlefield.

The Obama Administration threatened to veto the bill but knowing the Republican Party they will say he is weak on defense.  With his approval numbers getting worse as time passes, the mainstream news acting like it's true, and the President's obvious lack of a spine, people will believe it although it's not only not true, but accept the narrative as well without looking at the provision that caused him to veto it.

What's really telling is a provision in section 1031, which states:

(b) Applicability to United States Citizens and Lawful Resident Aliens-

(1) UNITED STATES CITIZENS- The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to citizens of the United States.

(2) LAWFUL RESIDENT ALIENS- The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to a lawful resident alien of the United States on the basis of conduct taking place within the United States, except to the extent permitted by the Constitution of the United States.

 For those of you saying "The Republicans are crazy," I have news for you.

Update: Be sure to sign the petition as well as write, phone, protest in front of, or occupy in order to get your point across.

Another update: The Senate voted against the Udall Amendment, which would ban this from happening yet let the rest of the legislation pass. Can you say "police state" everyone?

It was proposed by Michigan Democrat and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services Carl Levin.