Hacker News Reader

Comment by ironchef | Hacker News Reader

I think this is key "To redistribute this content to users". The redistribution is not that far from what's currently OK right now, though. Is it illegal (right now) for one to record (using an antenna) on to a TIVO and then to watch said recording over the internet for yourself?

There is 1 antenna per user. There is 1 recording per user (Aereo is not recording a single instance of desperate housewives and then muxing that out to everyone). It is over the network.

Other than not owning the means of reception and means of storage, I don't see much of a difference between this and in home recording.

View on HN

The difference is obvious: when you're home recording, you're doing it for yourself, while Aereo is doing it for others. The fact that it's using 1 antenna/recording per user is an irrelevant technical detail.

When "I" am home recording, I am actually using the capabilities of a black box technological device purchased from a 3rd party. Are VCRs illegal now?

It's still you who are recording, not the 3rd party. If I purposely hit someone with my car, the car manufacturer can't be blamed, but if I tell my driver to hit someone and he does, shouldn't he be blamed?

Are you really suggesting it should be illegal for me to pay someone else to record a television show for me while I'm away?

Oh, I would never suggest that. I think what Aereo does should be legal. But judges are supposed to uphold the existing law, not what they think it should be.

It is you that are recording with Aereo's service...

Not anymore than I'm driving through my driver. Aereo controls what gets recorded, not the user. They're not an agnostic tool that can be used for any purpose, like a VCR.

What's the difference between me clicking on my remote to tell tivo to record for me than me clicking on a button in a web page telling aereo to record for me? It's still being done on request, no?

Aereo controls what gets recorded, TiVo (the company) doesn't. They're not selling an agnostic tool, they're selling the recording of a particular set of channels.

Not sure that this is true from a technical level, but from a customer level, I actually choose the shows to be recorded in a similar fashion that I would use TiVo. Aereo only records what you schedule to be record when it comes to their DVR portion of the service.

When I mean record, I mean capture and encode the signal. It doesn't have to be viewed asynchronously to be a recording.

How does Aereo control what gets recorded? I click to record a show in the interface. That tunes the antenna to that channel at that time and records an individual recording for me.

By choosing where to place the antennas.

Choosing where to place the antennas largely affects the who can sign up for the service. Antenna placement does not cause me clicking "record channel 4 at 7:30 pm" to become "record channel 7 at 9 am".

Try again?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com