Craig Birkmaier wrote: > The reality today is that the content oligopoly wants to extend > their control over content distribution through the Internet. > They ARE NOT willing to establish "fair and reasonable terms" and > extend them to anyone. Each platform must negotiate with each of > the congloms and hope that they can get reasonable terms. That may be one half of "the reality," as you put it, although IE and Safari, and others, seem to have no problem. The other half of "the reality" is that Comcast and Apple, to name just two, are trying to set up their own barriers to access over the Internet. For some reason, you are always unwilling to admit or object to these walled gardens, preferring to vent your ire only at content owners. Imagine a box that only allows access to a handful of Internet walled gardens. Why should the congloms go for that? > The congloms are not going to cut any deals that undercut the > current MVPD model that forces consumers to pay for stuff they > don't consume. Then how come I can watch Fox for free both over the Internet and OTA? The plain truth must be, the content owners are unhappy with certain distribution models, and not with other distribution models. The distribution models I use DO NOT force me to pay for stuff I don't consume. It would be inconveivable to me that any conglom would force people to use their prorietary STB to access their content. Because the congloms are well aware that people won't buy into a scheme that allows access to just their one network. So instead, what I see, and you seem unable to see, is that the congloms object to people creating any sort of exclusive Internet access for the conglom's stuff over the Internet. The congloms seem happy enough with the MVPD model, with the FOTA model, and with THEIR OWN web sites, but not happy with other Internet distribution schemes, including Google. You seem totally stuck on Google, for some reason. Perhaps the congloms feel that Google would have too much control into how consumers are directed to certain TV content? Maybe they perceive a risk that Google will get in bed with certain TV content sources, making them very easy to find and making others much more difficult? Wow, that seems sooo far-fetched, right? Like we don't see that all the time. Bert ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.