Supreme Court Puts Aereo Out of Business

[ghostjmf]

I think the problem here is that the DVD recorder, while it does hold a disk, doesn't accept formatting from a TiVo, since it was invented before TiVos were. It has it's own menu screens, which are complex enough, believe me. I need to buy one of these before they go through the roof on Amazon, for the future days when I'll need to be recording digitally, but playing my tapes on a machine which will up-convert them to digital & play them on a digital screen. Which this Panasonic does.


So sister would have to buy an external hard drive that takes instructions from TiVo. She's pretty adept at this sort of stuff, but I believe you will admit we are not only getting into added expense, we're getting into added programming expertise too.

[Bob Juch]

I think the problem here is that the DVD recorder, while it does hold a disk, doesn't accept formatting from a TiVo, since it was invented before TiVos were. It has it's own menu screens, which are complex enough, believe me. I need to buy one of these before they go through the roof on Amazon, for the future days when I'll need to be recording digitally, but playing my tapes on a machine which will up-convert them to digital & play them on a digital screen. Which this Panasonic does.


So sister would have to buy an external hard drive that takes instructions from TiVo. She's pretty adept at this sort of stuff, but I believe you will admit we are not only getting into added expense, we're getting into added programming expertise too.

A TiVo can export to a recorder. I wasn't suggesting you do that however, just replace the recorder with the TiVo.

I'm starting to think Renee Ellmers might have had a point.

[ghostjmf]

Well, since she wants permanent copies of some things, recordings that exist outside of the memory capacity of the TiVo or DVR or whatever, there has to be something attached to the TiVo or DVR or whatever in order to get the permanent copies.

"Just replacing" the DVD recorder with a TiVo or DVR or whatever doesn't solve the "want a recording I can keep in my permanent library" problem.


I do not know who or what Renee Ellmers is. OK, googling shows she's some pol who said "bring it down to a woman's level". Yup, that's insulting.

[ghostjmf]

Hmm. So you're saying that having to buy new equipment you can't afford, rather than trying to get the equipment you already have to do what it used to do perfectly before Time-Warner screwed around with their own system, which you are already paying for, is "low-level domestic thinking, indicative of women" per Renee Ellmers?

Here's a Renee Ellmers link for those like me who've never heard of her: http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/20 ... mment.html


Back to my actual topic, its no wonder people are "cutting the cord" re cable when the cable cos do the crap they do. A few years ago, Comcast here in the Boston area stopped sending out the local ABC affiliate to a friend's house. Comcast's "solution", instead of researching what the heck they had just done with their signal, was that the friend should just pay for a more expensive package in order to get ABC, something cable cos are mandated to send in every package.

[Jeemie]

Because they have a built-in DVR, which accounts for the "rebroadcast" part, & transmit via the internet, they are offering additional services.

This is untrue.

There is precedent for having remotely-based DVR service...it's perfectly legal as long as the customer controls when the DVR is "turned on".

Supremes got this totally wrong.

(Wouldn't have seen this thread had I not gone to the fraudsters thread!)

[Jeemie]

from article: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/bus ... /11352989/

The justices found Aereo's cloud DVR feature – in which customers can record shows on Aereo's servers, watch almost in real time and even skip commercials – particularly troublesome.

"Rather than directly send the data to the subscriber, a server saves the data in a subscriber-specific folder on Aereo's hard drive," Breyer noted. "Aereo's system creates a subscriber-specific copy — that is, a 'personal' copy — of the subscriber's program of choice."

Like I said, hubris. If Aereo had just sent their amped-up signal out "live" & let the subscriber work on getting their own copy made, I bet the fight would not have reached this stage.

This where the Supremes got it wrong- this is not what Aereo does.

There is no "copied content" that goes into a subscriber-specific folder until the SUBSCRIBER takes an action to do it. Meaning- the SUBSCRIBER controls when content gets into his folders.

Like I said, what Aereo did was nothing different than if I had an antenna that could capture free over the air signals and a digital recording device that I rented to my neighbor for his use. Even if the stuff was in my house and I set up a way he could control it remotely, it would be perfectly legal.

As usual, the consumer gets screwed again. And in this case, it was a set of devoted consumers that the bigwigs shouldn't have WANTED to screw....but did anyway.

[ghostjmf]

I have an acquaintance here in the Boston area who is old (even older than me!) & every time Comcast screws with their service, & wants them to pay more for the screwing, which is every couple months it seems, the acquaintance intentionally whines at them "I am very old & I can't understand all this & I will just cancel my service if you make me pay this charge", at which point, they say, Comcast backs down.


I mentioned this to my sister, but she doesn't want to chance this with Time-Warner in NYC. They just might call her bluff.


For what happens when someone really does tell Comcast to cancel their service, listen to an audio call 8 minutes of which (actual call lasted at least an hour) the local media says has gone viral on You-Tube. Basically, the Comcast rep does not know when to take "cancel my service" as an order.


I had that problem with a service that was supposed to be getting me cheaper hotel/motel rooms. Try it for free, than after a month they charge your credit card. Usually I camp anyway, but I was traveling with a friend & we were going to be staying in motels anyway so thought I would try their service. They never, ever had a cheaper hotel/motel where we wanted to stay. They tried to sell me rooms an hour away, though. So I called to cancel the service before they could charge me for it. Boy, this Comcast rep has nothing on the person I had to talk to.

[Jeemie]

I have an acquaintance here in the Boston area who is old (even older than me!) & every time Comcast screws with their service, & wants them to pay more for the screwing, which is every couple months it seems, the acquaintance intentionally whines at them "I am very old & I can't understand all this & I will just cancel my service if you make me pay this charge", at which point, they say, Comcast backs down.


I mentioned this to my sister, but she doesn't want to chance this with Time-Warner in NYC. They just might call her bluff.


For what happens when someone really does tell Comcast to cancel their service, listen to an audio call 8 minutes of which (actual call lasted at least an hour) the local media says has gone viral on You-Tube. Basically, the Comcast rep does not know when to take "cancel my service" as an order.


I had that problem with a service that was supposed to be getting me cheaper hotel/motel rooms. Try it for free, than after a month they charge your credit card. Usually I camp anyway, but I was traveling with a friend & we were going to be staying in motels anyway so thought I would try their service. They never, ever had a cheaper hotel/motel where we wanted to stay. They tried to sell me rooms an hour away, though. So I called to cancel the service before they could charge me for it. Boy, this Comcast rep has nothing on the person I had to talk to.

If you understand why that phone call happened, you can use it to your advantage.

Tired of people complain about how companies mistreat them. There are plenty of options out there.

Aereo was one of those options until the Supremes took care of that. But there are still options out there.

[Bob Juch]

I have an acquaintance here in the Boston area who is old (even older than me!) & every time Comcast screws with their service, & wants them to pay more for the screwing, which is every couple months it seems, the acquaintance intentionally whines at them "I am very old & I can't understand all this & I will just cancel my service if you make me pay this charge", at which point, they say, Comcast backs down.


I mentioned this to my sister, but she doesn't want to chance this with Time-Warner in NYC. They just might call her bluff.


For what happens when someone really does tell Comcast to cancel their service, listen to an audio call 8 minutes of which (actual call lasted at least an hour) the local media says has gone viral on You-Tube. Basically, the Comcast rep does not know when to take "cancel my service" as an order.


I had that problem with a service that was supposed to be getting me cheaper hotel/motel rooms. Try it for free, than after a month they charge your credit card. Usually I camp anyway, but I was traveling with a friend & we were going to be staying in motels anyway so thought I would try their service. They never, ever had a cheaper hotel/motel where we wanted to stay. They tried to sell me rooms an hour away, though. So I called to cancel the service before they could charge me for it. Boy, this Comcast rep has nothing on the person I had to talk to.

If you understand why that phone call happened, you can use it to your advantage.

Tired of people complain about how companies mistreat them. There are plenty of options out there.

Aereo was one of those options until the Supremes took care of that. But there are still options out there.

Ryan Block is a former VP of AOL. Do you remember the horror stories from way back when about people trying to cancel their AOL service?

[silverscreenselect]

I received an e-mail from Aereo today telling me they've filed Chapter 11. For a while, they tried to see if there was some other business model that offered them some prospect of continuing as a viable concern but obviously decided there was nothing they could do, and they will get a better price for their assets in Chapter 11 than in a creditor-fueled firesale.