[opendtv] Re: Users as Toast: The Blocking of Google TV

At 11:46 AM -0500 11/12/10, John Shutt wrote:
But this is still America, and we still respect property rights. Somebody who owns a patent is free to license that patent to one company, and refuse it to others.
No. If you choose to protect your intellectual property with a patent, you are required to license the patent under the condition of "fair and reasonable terms." Once you have established a price for a license you must give everyone the same terms.
That being said, you can enter into cross licensing schemes where the actual value of the patents may be difficult to establish.
But the whole point is to make your IP available to ANYONE at fair and reeasonable terms.
As long as public airwaves are not being used to distribute the content, the content OWNER can do whatever they choose with THEIR property. 

Absolutely.
Go back a few months and look at your arguments defending Apple for blocking Flash based apps. Turn Apple into ABC, and Flash into Google TV, and you're now on the other side of the argument.
Apple simply choose not to support Flash on the iOS platform. They have strongly encouraged web developers to offer the same content using HTML5 and H.264. More than half of all websites that were formerly FLASH only are now accessible via Apple iOS devices. 

Apple stated a very logical case for not supporting FLASH video:

1. Instability - it is the #1 cause of crashes on MacOS.
2. Battery life - the Flash Video codec is extremely processor intensive (it literally burns up this Powerbook). And FLASH based ads are also processor intensive, not to mention that pop up ads are extremely annoying. Virtually all websites and ad services that use Flash automatically insert static ads on iOS devices. These performance issues are easily demonstarated on Android devices. 3. At the time of the introduction of the iPhone Adobe did not offer a mobile version of Flash... 
it is still beta software.
By the way, you can access Hulu Plus on iOS devices... all you need is a Hulu Plus subscription and a free app. And Hulu is provisionng this content using the HTML5 file wrapper with H.264. 

Go Figure.
So to be completely accurate, Apple has not blocked any websites that offer their content in a manner that is compatible with iOS. But the congloms are not only blocking Google TV, they are blocking every back door workaround when they learn about them. And the technolgy they are using just happens to be... 

FLASH.
Sheesh, Craig, you make it sound as if accessing Law and Order on whatever device you choose is a Constitutional Right. It is not.
The congloms have the right to decide if they want to make Law and Order accessible via the Internet. They chose to do so and made it available to any PC browser. But when a browser showed up integrated with a TV... 

Sorry, you can't do that.
This is nothing less than a blackmail technique to force companies like Apple and Google to require a subscription to Hulu Plus. 

But you can take heart...
It is highly likely that the Free Hulu site will soon be downgraded or eliminated in favor of Hulu Plus.
And you know I work for a University owned Public Broadcasting station, so I'm not sticking up for the Eeeevil Congloms. We're the network that was required to provide our signal in the clear on satellite for backyard dish owners. 

I'm just a bit startled by the double standards expressed here recently...

Regards
Craig



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