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Comment by wdewind | Hacker News Reader

>Yes, changed the world by making it legal to build a business off someone else's content that you got for free through a legal hack. Tragic it didn't work out.

I think I mostly agree with you, but just to play devil's advocate: this is broadcast television. It's already being given away for free. I could easily and legally build a kit to record this broadcast without a cable box/official dvr. I could also rewatch that stuff any time legally. In theory I could legally pay someone to do this for me, head over and pick up the DVDs/VHS tapes in person and rewatch them myself. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but up until this point it's all legal right?

But doing all this over the internet is suddenly illegal? (Or is it the point where I pay someone else to do it for me? Either way seems kind of arbitrary to me...)

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More to the point, they sell USB->Digital TV Antennas adapters and software to turn your computer into a DVR.

I had one (eye-tv) with an antenna, my computer is essentially a DVR (You subscribe to a program guide too, which makes picking programs to record tivo easy). I don't use it anymore, the computer died and I pretty much stopped watching tv.

At the very least, if the court said Aereo was a cable company the other brances of government should have at least respected that and given them the license to be a cable company.

What else is going to made illegal when renting a cloud computer?

The court didn't buy that you were "renting a cloud computer." They were selling a service.

There are things that you can do personally and not as a business. Sometimes businesses try to thread this needle. It depends on many factors and luck whether they succeed.

Doing it in someone else's facility I think is what makes it illegal. IF you had exactly the same scheme but hosted the equipment in your customer's houses, Aero's business model would be perfectly legit. (I think, it's been a while since i read the opinion)

That makes about as much sense to me as the Vatican saying it's OK to employ the rhythm method as contraception technique but don't you dare put on a condom! Sigh...

I think that's right. Its about the similarity of Aero to any other cable company, who also use antennae to distribute media. Its about where we're at and taking small steps. So maybe it seems odd from close up (why does it matter if I rent/own the receiver?), it makes whatever sense it makes from a bigger view - the state of the current industry of cable and broadcast.

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