Locast takes a legal hit

[2leftfeet]

https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/locast-t...adcasters/

[mvallevand]

Yes and especially unfortunate since I was working with sub to see if we could make this an internal feature. The main reason seems to be the price is too high, which at least does provide one easy solution but it doesn't bode well for new expansion.

I thought about it and found this interesting link https://paddockpost.com/2020/08/06/execu...on-at-pbs/ so there still can be motivation for non-profit status.

Martin

[BrettB]

Yes and especially unfortunate since I was working with sub to see if we could make this an internal feature.  The main reason seems to be the price is too high, which at least does provide one easy solution but it doesn't bode well for new expansion.

I don't view this ruling as that dire just yet. The judge just refused "summary judgement"--meaning that the lawsuit should proceed and have full evidence presented, etc. (i.e. it does have enough merit to warrant a full "investigation")

It's not clear to me from the article if the copyright exemption of costs "necessary to defray the actual and reasonable costs of maintaining and operating the secondary transmission service” includes the initial capital costs for the equipment for the secondary transmission service or if it only allows for income to offset the on-going costs after it is setup. I would think that their primary expenses would be that initial capital (and then the depreciation of that) not much actual on-going expenses (server costs, power, network, etc.). In the current model, Locast is effectively spreading those initial costs (for expansion) as well as the on-going operating costs across all of its donators by having a single $5 required donation amount. It may be that they will need to have more of a tiered donation structure where new markets (which higher initial costs) will require a larger donation and more mature markets (where actual costs are lower for just on-going maintenance) are lower. Or it may be that they will need to structure some of their internal costs and financing differently to better tie to individual markets.

I definitely don't see this particular ruling as a death knell for Locast.

[2leftfeet]

I definitely don't see this particular ruling as a death knell for Locast.

I hope you are right, I am counting on Locast so that I can finally dump cable TV.

[BrettB]

Here's another article better explaining what the summary judgement really means.

https://thestreamable.com/news/locast-la...able-cause

[2leftfeet]

Just recieved this email from Locast:

Locast Nation
As you probably know, the federal district court in the Southern District of New York issued a ruling in the case brought against Locast by the big media companies. The court concluded that by interrupting programming to ask users for donations, and by suspending those interruptions based on whether a user makes contributions, Locast actually was charging a fee, not merely seeking a voluntary contribution. The court then concluded that revenues Locast collects in this manner exceed the cost of operating the service because funds are used to add new markets, rendering Locast ineligible to use the copyright exemption for non-profits (17 U.S.C. 111(a)(5)).

Although we disagree with this interpretation and are exploring our legal options to contest it, out of respect for the court's order,

Locast is suspending immediately all programming interruptions to request donations.

This means that anyone located in a market we serve who signs up for Locast will get the service without interruption, regardless of whether or not they donate.

Of course, it is up to you whether or not to contribute to Locast. But if you currently contribute, we humbly request that you continue to do so. And if you don't contribute, we hope that you will do so if you can afford it.

[mvallevand]

It will be interesting to see how many subscribers they loss. It also seems like a great time to introduce new users to NextPVR

Martin

[BrettB]

It will be interesting to see how many subscribers they loss.  It also seems like a great time to introduce new users to NextPVR

Yep. I agree on both parts.

My guess is that they won't loose that many subscribers (at least initially), but won't get new donators at nearly the same rate.

[sub]

I see I got a new email from them 30 minutes or so ago, saying to help address the findings, they're going to stop interrupting the stream to ask for donations.

[mvallevand]

On the SageTV forums nyplayer posted this useful link https://youtu.be/SI0lF3fJIXY that really explains the situation well. It might be interesting for those of you with cable in the US to look at your bill and see the charge they tack on which they pay to the networks for access to the local channels. It looks to be about 3 or 4 times what Locast charged.

It's not about DMA or Neilsen and number of viewers for the commercials, they have billions at stake.

Martin