Are you a thief (copyright story)

[kirpen]

In a recent interview, Jamie Kellner, Chairman and CEO of the Turner Broadcasting division of AOL-TimeWarner, had some harsh words for those PVR users who skip commercials:

"[Skipping commercials is] theft. Your contract with the network when you get the show is you're going to watch the spots. Otherwise you couldn't get the show on an ad-supported basis. Any time you skip a commercial . . . you're actually stealing the programming."

To be completely fair, Mr. Kellner did admit that "there's a certain amount of tolerance for bathroom breaks." He added, however, that "if you formalize it and you create a device that skips [30]-second increments, you've got that only for one reason, unless you go to the bathroom for 30 seconds. They've done that just to make it easy for someone to skip a commercial"
http://writ.corporate.findlaw.com/commentary/20020509_sprigman.html

I'm sorry but I have never seen anything this funny before.

[Tommyknocker]

Dear Mr. Turner:
Bite me.

Signed,

Tommyknocker

[Treebeard]

Dear Mr. Turner:
Bite me.

Signed,

Tommyknocker

Ditto

[Jeff Muller]

I don't remember signing any agreement that stated I was required to watch all commercials.

Yes, I understand that that is the basis for the entire Network business model... but that's their problem, not mine. They will, of course, evolve their strategy, and already have. There are tons of product placements in shows already. Currently, we deal with "new" crawls and channel icons, whose only real purpose are marketing/advertisement. I'm sure, unfortunately, in the future, we'll have pop-up ads on the tv screen, just as we have to deal with pop-up ads on the web, now.

[thayne]

Funny, why do we have to pay $$$ for cable TV then? I'm not taking about premium channels like HBO, but for basic cable....

[MJPollard]

In a recent interview, Jamie Kellner, Chairman and CEO of the Turner Broadcasting division of AOL-TimeWarner, had some harsh words for those PVR users who skip commercials:

http://writ.corporate.findlaw.com/commentary/20020509_sprigman.html

I'm sorry but I have never seen anything this funny before.

This is actually old news, but that doesn't make it any less head-slapping ridiculous. It's further proof that the Big Media Establishment(tm) doesn't occupy the same reality as the rest of the planet.

[Doggiedaddy]

Ted Turner is so f**ked up Hanoi Jane even left his sorry ass. Now it don't get no lower than that, you can't even keep that piece of $*it happy with your billions of dollars.
Cable/satellite and all network TV is so bad that it is produce with nothing but light porn for people no smarter than a fence post. Fox broadcasting should be rated RRRR/DDDD. I will not let my teenage children watch it because it is soooooooooooooo dumb and full of pornography. Me, I do not watch that idiot box, haven't for years now and never will again..

[BobK]

Dear Mr. Turner,

Please send me a copy of the contract I signed. I seem to have misplaced my copy.

In addition- if I did sign a contract it would have been well over 25 years ago. I don't remember signing any additions to the contract that allowed you to increase the time used for commercials every hour.

In addition, since you've made so much money from our alleged contract I'd like a raise.

[Gazorgan]

Not.

Let me expalin about Greed and Cable TV.

The Turner Package is carried by nearly every Cable system out there: It's very very cheap. To get CNN/CSPAN/TNN/TCM and some others cost a cable company something less than 30 cents each subscriber for 8-9 channels. Multiply that by the 150 Million cable TV subscribers and you generate 45 million a month. This is the original cable TV model.

Disney used to be $10 premium channel, then they went to the 20 cent model, got everyone that has cable TV and generated more monthly income.

So what's the problem? TNN has commercials. Whoops. Yep, good ole liberal commie Ted Turner is double dipping. He's getting paid by the cable companies and by ad revenue. If advertisers point out all the PVR's, then they can say

Well, yes you have 300 million viewers, but 20% have PVR's, so we want a 20% reduction in advertising rates

Sorry Ted, but some of us know how Cable TV works, and your arguments don't hold water. Are you telling me I can't channel surf during your commercials? Channel surf or fast forward, it's all the same remote for me :P

[MOVIEGEEK]

To:Mr. Turner et al
From:MOVIEGEEK


Maybe you overpaid morons should seek legal advice because time shifting is legal under the US Supreme Court ruling regarding fair use(Universal Studios vs.Sony).

[CaseyComb]

Hey, it's Jamie Kellners job to keep his/her nose up Ted Turner's billion dollar ass. I'm sure he/she gets paid alot of money to make sure that Ted gets his money. Bottomline anything percieved as a threat is going to get knocked, as unwarranted as it is. Sounds like Kellner doesn't have much job security.

[BJ_M]

i often wonder why at 3 in the morning i get 60 channels of shopping network , chicken roaster adversing , some tall guy looking like he is using far to many happy pills , how to buy a home with no money, newest wrinkle formula of the month , newest diet of the month (baby food diet is the latest (i just made that up but it sounds realistic)), etc etc etc and all those other "paid advertisment shows" ....

and i'm PAYING for basic+ cable ?

They should be paying me ... i pay for 24 hour service and i get maybe 8 ... thank godness for space channel and showcase and bravo -- thats about it for late night (superstation does count because everything is edited to much plus the stuff they have on at 3am sucks) ...

we dont get hbo in canada

[Solarjetman]

Ted Turner is so f**ked up

True, but he owns half the city of Atlanta

And I have to admit, it is ammusing to watch him.

I have to admit, I would not be classified as a thief according to this. I actually like watching commercials. There are some pretty funny ones out there.

Just get rid of those "low budget, shot with a $100 video camera from Walmart" commericals.

[i_am_dave]

Dear Mr. Turner:
Bite me.

Signed,

Tommyknocker

DITTO!!!!

[Northstar]

If you live in Britain you get BBC1 and BBC2 (with no ads) where you are FORCED to pay a yearly license fee for those two channels whether you watch them or not, if you dont pay and are caught with anything that can pick up tv, such as a tv, video recorder, pc tv card, you will be taken to court and fined upto £1000.

The only reason you are forced to pay them is cause they wont have ads and its the only way to pay for their broadcasting, i say put ads on ffs, i wont care, plus i WILL NOT pay them a penny for a license anyways (till i get caught of course) so they can do what they want for me

How wrong is that eh?

[Conquest10]

If you live in Britain you get BBC1 and BBC2 (with no ads) where you are FORCED to pay a yearly license fee for those two channels whether you watch them or not, if you dont pay and are caught with anything that can pick up tv, such as a tv, video recorder, pc tv card, you will be taken to court and fined upto £1000.

The only reason you are forced to pay them is cause they wont have ads and its the only way to pay for their broadcasting, i say put ads on ffs, i wont care, plus i WILL NOT pay them a penny for a license anyways (till i get caught of course) so they can do what they want for me

How wrong is that eh?

i heard they do this same thing in japan. they make people with tvs pay for public broadcasting. can anyone confirm this?

[BJ_M]

in canada we pay for CBC via taxes , though they have ads anyway ... but its a gov run corporation (crown corporation)

[g_shocker182]

If you live in Britain you get BBC1 and BBC2 (with no ads) where you are FORCED to pay a yearly license fee for those two channels whether you watch them or not

I have an idea. It involves a harbor and a bunch of tvs. Throw tvs in harbor in protest. ...hey its what we did...

[Solarjetman]

But how would that hurt broadcasting companies? All it would do is peeve off the TV manufacturers that you took the inventory from. Unless you paid for them in which case they would be very grateful for such a large purchase :P

[g_shocker182]

Ok. Throw Peter Hunt into a harbor. I think this is going to far so I'll stop now.

[hoyboy]

In Australia we have two stations that are publically (or to a large degree) funded- ABC and SBS. ABC had a slogan a few years ago-"only eight cents a day"- some people reckoned it wasn't worth eight cents a year!

[indolikaa]

Does this mean if we advocate commercial-skipping we'd be advocating warez?

[Tommyknocker]

Okay, let us say I am a man, and I just got back from Mr. Turner's obligatory bathroom break. When I plop down in front of the "boob tube" and see a tampon commercial, I must watch it? Or if I am a recovering alcoholic, do I have to watch the beer and wine commercials? Or if I am a devout Catholic, do I have to watch the condom commercials? Sorry, but I cannot and will not subscribe to Mr. Turner's opinions.

[mrtristan]

Truth is indeed stranger than fiction. Or at least stupider.

So I guess I can sue Turner, since I'm offended by the crap that's on tv. The public owns the airwaves and my opinion counts as much as the multimillion dollar owner of a group of networks stations.

I honestly can not believe that someone would even suggest that it's ******* illegal to skip what I do not wish to see. Communism, anyone?

[flaninacupboard]

heh, not communism, more like a religion. at many stages through english history death has been the punishment for not subscribing to this weeks chosen religion. the guy making the choice was always some fat guy on the throne, with about as much idea what your life was like as a glass of water. to quote monty python on the subject, upon the visit of a knight to the masses
"Oooh look! he must must be a King"
"Why's that?"
"He's not covered in shit."

As for the BBC licencing issue, it has good points and bad points. it means we actually get a decent variety of programming. a programme doesn't have to have a multi million dollar advertising deal to be shown, and because there is no sponsor to upset it gives people a lot more freedom. as was discussed just recently american TV is very restricted because it not only has to appeal to the lowest common denominator, it also must be PC and inoffensive. Roll on another 60 programmes following policemen beating up black guys. great. wheras the BBC comissions programmes, and gets people to make them, as opposed to people coming up with a ratings orientated piece of crap, and TV execs saying "we'll take it!"
It leaves them free to take risks as well. that program just recently with the elephant stealth cameras, for instance. what if they'd got no interesting footage, or the elephants had just trashed every single camera? it wouldn;t matter to the BBC, they've already had their money for the project.