By: Robert Labossiere
The National Football League (NFL) wasn't about to let Canadian Internet start-up iCraveTV profit from its live Internet simulcast of Sunday's Superbowl. On Friday a Pittsburg court issued a temporary restraining order forcing iCraveTV to take its netcasting offline immediately.
| This graphic was reproduced without the permission of iCraveTV, any professional sports association, movie studio or television network. |
 |
At issue for the NFL and 14 other U.S. plaintiffs is access by browsers in the U.S. Lawyers for iCraveTV maintain that the site is targeted only at Canadians. ICraveTV had taken steps to restrict access in the U.S. by requiring browsers to enter a Canadian area code and click "I agree" to a statement promising that they are receiving the feed in Canada. But evidence presented to the court indicated that 90% of iCraveTV advertising revenue comes from the U.S.
The Internet is a worldwide network and there is no technology at present to restrict access geographically. Not so the law. A notice on the site states simply "Access to stations and listings is not available at this time."
Robert Labossiere has been involved in alternative publishing and independent presses since 1982 when he helped co-found the Winnipeg culture-crit magazine Midcontinental. He has also written for Fuse and others. In the mid-eighties he succumbed to an uncontrollable urge to impale himself on the status quo and went to law school. His law practice since 1992 has focussed in part on the creative community. He is presently the Executive Director of The Electronic Rights Licensing Agency (TERLA) a copyright collective that represents Canadian freelance writers, photographers and illustrators.
