
Locast, a Free App Streaming Network TV, Would Love to Get Sued - pseudolus
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/31/business/locast-streaming-free-network-tv.html
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Rebelgecko
_“I ask people all the time, ‘Do you know you’re supposed to get television
for free?’” Mr. Goodfriend said during an interview in Central Park, gesturing
to a gaggle of visitors. “Most people under 50 don’t get it.”_

It's really amazing how many people don't realize this. A friend of mine came
over, saw I got a bunch of HD channels, and when I mentioned it was free her
first assumption was that my $8 antenna was some sort of satellite hacking
device.

~~~
Pristina
Facebook is free too you know.

Subjecting your brain to consumerism brainwashing is itself a cost.

~~~
untog
Then only tune your TV to PBS, that way the rest of us will get to avoid
having this tedious conversation yet again.

~~~
wideasleep1
Hmmm, I take it has been a few years since you've visited PBS..

~~~
RobLach
What’s up with PBS?

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function_seven
How Locast differs from Aereo:

1\. They place an antenna in the same market as the subscribers, and don't
stream content from one market to a viewer in a different market

2\. They're nonprofit, which I guess changes the rules on this type of
activity?

I hope he does get sued, and wins. This seems to be analogous to time-shifting
your content using a VCR (now DVR), except it's space-shifting your antenna
instead.

~~~
wyldfire
> except it's space-shifting your antenna instead.

IIRC, Aereo had distinct aerials per customer (at-a-time -- they
oversubscribed/multiplexed them).

> 2\. They're nonprofit, which I guess changes the rules on this type of
> activity?

Not really in terms of the statutes AFAIK, but it likely does change the
specifics of the debate ever-so-slightly.

~~~
javagram
[https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/111](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/111)

This is the statute Locast is relying on. “(5) the secondary transmission is
not made by a cable system but is made by a governmental body, or other
nonprofit organization, without any purpose of direct or indirect commercial
advantage, and without charge to the recipients of the secondary transmission
other than assessments necessary to defray the actual and reasonable costs of
maintaining and operating the secondary transmission service.”

Aereo obviously couldn’t take advantage of this since they were for profit.

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kevincennis
Former Aereo employee here. A couple things:

1\. Getting sued actually isn't as fun as it sounds

2\. I love this so much

Locast is trolling in the best possible sense of the word.

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satori99
This would be unnecessary in the city I live in.

All commercial and public broadcasters already provide real-time internet
streams of their channels in addition to catch-up libraries for missed
programs.

The only exception being some live sporting events.

And it has always been completely free.

edit: They even established an industry wide group to develop and maintain a
mobile app for all channels in the entire country.
[https://www.freeview.com.au/](https://www.freeview.com.au/)

~~~
koolba
That sounds great but that’s not just a different city, that’s a different
country (Australia).

~~~
satori99
Yes, but all the relevant parameters are the same. Commercial and public
broadcasters using airwaves to transmit content and advertisements to viewers.

Why would the broadcasters have a problem with this if it means potentially
more people seeing their ads?

I guess I am just surprised that they don't do it themselves already.

~~~
SifJar
Because in the US, people pay $12 a month via their cable companies to see
those ads.

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mrpippy
This is awesome, best of luck to them. I'm curious what kind of re-encoding
they do though, and what the end-result bitrates are.

I would love to see a service like this that had a sensible API available so
3rd-party DVR software (MythTV, Kodi, Channels, etc) could integrate with it.
And it would be even better if they provided access to the raw, untouched
MPEG2 transport streams for optimal video/audio quality.

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smitop
The location-based filtering is easily evaded. It doesn't check your IP
address, just uses the HTML5 geolocation API, which is client-side. In Chrome,
it's very easy to spoof your location. Open DevTools, click the three dots,
click Sensors, input coordinates of a valid location (Lat: 40.7128, Long:
-74.0060 works for me), hit enter, and reload. Chrome will then spoof the
location to New York, and I have been able able to watch New York videos
despite not being there.

~~~
mrpippy
If they get sued, this will be why. Other TV services go to much greater
lengths to check location, with server-side geotracing and/or mandating use of
mobile apps which access cellular/GPS location

------
subpixel
Picture quality is pretty low, but the current generation of 'pirate' on-
demand and archived streaming services mean I can, in a pinch, watch anything
I want to. And in the case of archived material, without commercials. And if I
use a sketchy paid app on my Android TV device, I can get things in HD.

I mention this not to promote piracy but to suggest that the 'Spotify-ication'
of video seems enevitable. Netflix is great, but the new order is starting to
carry the same baggage as cable: $15 for this, $19 for that, every month,
until I feel economic pressure to install a VPN and find things for free. This
is the same phenomenon that made the previous generation of pirate sources so
popular.

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joshlittle
I can throw a rock and hit Sutro Tower - San Francisco’s very omnipresent TV
transmission antenna.

That being said, the convenience of watching broadcast TV for free on my iPad
and not investing in hardware I have to manage for sure has me interested.

~~~
mcny
By the way you can also use Chromecast and cast it from your Android phone to
your Chromecast enabled television. You can even start casting and open
Firefox to write a comment like I just did.

~~~
ForHackernews
So instead of connecting an antenna to your TV...?

~~~
bradbatt
Some TVs these days come without tuners. Internet only.

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fitzroy
Just tried it in NYC: Mac/Safari couldn't determine my location for some
reason and wouldn't play. The iOS app worked flawlessly. The quality is really
nice.

Off to watch reruns of Hogan's Heroes...

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koolba
Anybody in this crowd try this out yet? Sounds pretty cool. Would be awesome
to tie it into a home DVR like a Homerun or Recast.

~~~
pseudolus
Both the app and the website are functional but sparse. The picture quality is
quite good and I stream the content from my computer to my tv with no great
loss in picture quality. On occasion I've had trouble using my Mac but the IOS
app works flawlessly.

As others have mentioned, they appear to be using some kind of geolocation to
ensure that viewers are only viewing content specific to their particular
location. While the service is nominally free, commercials soliciting monthly
and one-time donations to maintain the service are inserted frequently.

~~~
wyldfire
> While the service is nominally free, commercials soliciting monthly and one-
> time donations to maintain the service are inserted frequently.

Do these offset content or ads? If it's ads, it seems like it's definitely
infringing and not likely to last. Even if it's content it probably still is.

~~~
pseudolus
When users load the app or launch the player from a web browser they receive a
message explaining that the service is free and requesting a donation. I don't
think that could be termed infringement. When I used the player in the web
app, however, content would be interrupted with a similar type message mid-
stream. That interruption could be problematic.

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aeolis_mons
Can anyone give a summary of the privacy policy? They're getting my
location... are they going to sell it?

~~~
joecool1029
It's here: [https://www.locast.org/terms/](https://www.locast.org/terms/)

In short: No, unless they are acquired by someone else who chooses to.

