NAB SAYS JUMPTV STREAMING VIDEO PLAN COULD KILL BROADCASTING
Allowing JumpTV to stream video of U.S. TV stations into Canada “could cripple, if not destroy, the U.S. and Canadian successful system of free, local, over-the-air television,” NAB said in petition filed Mon. with Copyright Board Canada. NAB said JumpTV’s promises to prevent U.S. consumers from accessing U.S. video from its site couldn’t be proved, and allowing Internet streaming into U.S. would violate international copyright rules.
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If U.S. TV programming is available via Internet it “could cause incalculable harm to those stations and put their basic economics in grave jeopardy” because station businesses are based on exclusive carriage of popular programming, NAB said in its petition. It said advertisers would pay “much less to sponsor programming” if it also were easily available on Internet, and more than 110 million Americans had access to Internet: “The dimensions of this issue are huge.”
JumpTV is seeking compulsory license allowing it to carry TV programming via Internet, situation similar to that of failed iCraveTV. JumpTV said its service should be more attractive than iCraveTV because it had “border blocking system” that would limit programming to Canadians.
However, NAB said there was no evidence border blocking would be effective, noting that JumpTV claimed only that geographical blocking systems for Internet “are being developed.” NAB also pointed out that U.S. Registrar of Copyrights recently told Congress she wasn’t aware of any effective blocking systems, and even if they existed they were likely to be hacked quickly. “Given the enormity of what is at stake, the NAB respectfully submits that the U.S. and Canadian broadcasting industries should not be permitted to serve as experimental fodder for… basically untested developmental geographic blocking mechanisms,” it said. NAB said even preliminary analysis of JumpTV’s mechanism showed many problems, including classifying www.fbi.gov as U.K. Web site. NAB said Copyright Board Canada should at least require JumpTV to submit detailed description of its border blocking system, along with witness that could be cross-examined about its effectiveness.
NAB also dismissed JumpTV claims that it would use other methods, such as lawsuits against hackers, to protect copyrights: “It is sheer folly to suppose that [JumpTV] would have, or would employ, the resources to file thousands or tens of thousands of lawsuits against hackers in the U.S.” It also said there was nothing to stop creation of so-called “mirror” Web sites that could recreate JumpTV content in jurisdiction where no copyright protection was available. Overall, NAB said, okaying JumpTV “would have profound international implications and adverse consequences, and likely would violate international law.”