IPTV Meets The Law

Michael Hedges May 21, 2009 Follow on Twitter

Fearsome battles between start-ups – up-starts – and rights holders – holders-on – aren’t very imaginative. One side wants to get a grip on peoples’ eyes and ears. The other wants keep its grip. While the battles are fought, won and lost, the war for hearts, minds and money is already over.

Movie industry giants Warner Brothers and Universal added to the tidal wave of lawsuits by filing against IPTV start-up Zattoo for - you guessed it – copyright infringement. A Hamburg District Court enjoined Zattoo from streaming films produced by the American companies and broadcast on German public networks ARD and ZDF. Warner Brothers and Universal argue that Zattoo violates the law by interrupting films with its own ads, thus not complying with rules allowing one-to-one distribution.

“We have been very careful playing by the rules,” said Zattoo CEO Beat Knecht to Broadband TV News (May 20). Of course, that’s for the court to decide. Zattoo airs about 40 television channels in real-time, including all ads. It inserts tiny ads when users change channels.

ADR and ZDF are – for the moment - staying out of this fight, as are other public and private broadcasters. An agreement between Zattoo and the German public networks expired in April though all parties have agreed to live under the previous one year deal as the dispute with the movie industry finds resolution. For Warner Brothers and Universal that means fees from Zattoo on top of those paid by the broadcasters.

Zattoo has rolled out a premium high-definition service in Switzerland and Germany and is ramping up marketing in both countries. The low-definition service remains free. Zattoo has about 4 million users worldwide, more than half are in Switzerland and Germany. The peer-to-peer technology was developed by a couple of geniuses at the University of Michigan (US) where the technology side of Zattoo is based. The business side resides in Zürich.

Yep, it’s a peer-to-peer streaming application. Zattoo’s servers host nothing, except their little ads. It uses BitTorrent technology. Sound familiar? It’s the same process used by Pirate Bay and about a zillion other audio and video delivery platforms. It makes the music and movie industries crazy…and crazy for lawsuits.

Just under half the world’s IPTV users live in Western Europe, said a research report from Broadband Forum (March 2009). In 2005 other experts predicted IPTV users worldwide to top 35 million by 2009. According to the Broadband Forum report a tad more than 20 million by the end of 2008.

Zattoo and similar peer-to-peer streaming providers are in direct competition with the pay-TV people for consumers’ hearts, minds and money. Dismal economics, legal fees notwithstanding, may benefit the free IPTV streamers. Stanford University professor and expert on new media and the law Lawrence Lessig, however, isn’t betting against for-fee providers. “If a culture product is available for free and for pay, everybody in their right mind would go for the free,” he wrote in Intellectual Property Watch (May 11). “Looking more closely at the actual situation one finds that free has its price as well: downloads are dragging, break off, are malware-infested.”  

The next question is whether or not content streamers can fend off lawsuits long enough for the technologies, including broadband access, to rise to the occasion.

Media in Spain - Diverse and Challenged – new

Media in Spain is steeped in tradition. yet challenged by diversity. Publishers hold great influence, broadcasters competing. New media has been slow to rise and business models for all are under stress. Rich in language and culture, Spain's media is reaching into the future and finding more than expected. 123 pages, PDF. January 2018

Order here

The Campaign Is On - Elections and Media

Elections campaigns are big media events. Candidates and issues are presented, analyzed and criticized in broadcast and print. Media is now more of a participant in elections than ever. This ftm Knowledge file reports on news coverage, advertising, endorsements and their effect on democracy at work. 84 pages. PDF (September 2017)

Order here

Fake News, Hate Speech and Propaganda

The institutional threat of fake news, hate speech and propaganda is testing the mettle of those who toil in news media. Those three related evils are not new, by any means, but taken together have put the truth and those reporting it on the back foot. Words matter. This ftm Knowledge file explores that light. 48 pages, PDF (March 2017)

Order here

More ftm Knowledge files here

Become an ftm Individual or Corporate Member to order Knowledge Files at no charge. JOIN HERE!