ICraveTV

iCraveTV was a Canadian website, which operated from 1999 to 2000. The site offered streaming Internet broadcasts of the conventional television stations, both Canadian and American, that were available as over-the-air signals in Toronto.

The site, launched by William Craig, was intensely controversial during its short lifespan, raising significant issues around the interpretation of copyright law. Craig viewed the service as essentially equivalent to a cable television distributor, while many of the television stations whose signals were being distributed viewed the site's actions as analogous to the RIAA's copyright infringement case against Napster.

In December 1999, iCraveTV (a Toronto-based company) began to “stream” broadcast programming over the Internet. The company provided Internet users with access to nine Canadian and eight U.S. over-the-air television signals which it received off-air in the Toronto area, converted into an Internet-compatible format, and then streamed over the Internet.

Reaction to iCraveTV’s operation was swift. Alleging copyright infringement, some industry representatives – including the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, Twentieth Century Fox, Disney Enterprises, Paramount Pictures, Time Warner Entertainment Co., and Universal City Studios – threatened or actually took legal action against the company.

In February 2000, a U.S. court issued a preliminary injunction against iCraveTV enjoining it from streaming its signals into the United States. However, the Canadian courts did not have the opportunity to consider the matter because, in late February, the company succumbed to legal pressure and agreed to discontinue its streaming operations in return for the withdrawal of all actions against it. The company also agreed to withdraw its December 1999 request to the Canadian Copyright Board for an interim Internet retransmission tariff for the years 1999 and 2000, with a final tariff to be determined in due course. (The measures enacted in relation to retransmissions are discussed below.)

External links

* [http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,33093,00.html iCraveTV article at "Wired"]