Tuesday, December 14, 2004

German P2P Television

Om Malik points to an article in The Independent that identifies a German company called Cybersky which has announced plans to distribute television content over the Internet in a streamed P2P network like Skype's for voice. Many have already charged the concept with " illegally broadcasting copyrighted programmes without permission" a la Napster.

Unlike Napster, however, the German broadcasters would still be making money off of the Cybersky distributed content. Right? Well, the commercials would still be in place, and isn't that what generates most of the fees? You might argue that once digital, the commercials could be skipped or removed, but didn't PVR/DRV's already fight that battle?

This legal dispute is going to be much more interesting than the Napster one. I can't wait!

posted by Charles @ Tuesday, December 14, 2004