Last month I talked about the controversial Peer 2 Peer TVU Player that has caught media attention over the fact that it streams regular TV channels over the internet without permission.
Paul Shen, the CEO of TVU Networks, the China based software company behind TVU Player based in Shanghai China, was interviewed by CNET. Last month the company did not respond to interview requests from CNET.
Although the company claims to be based in China, Paul Shen is actually living and working in Northern California.
Many are wondering about the legal aspects of Shen's P2P software since it transmits TV shows, pay per view broadcasts from TV stations all over the world.
It appears some content owners are already aware of the site and wondering what action to take. Copyright experts already believe that unless TVU Networks has permission to broadcast the channels, then it is illegal.
Paul Shen argues that it is responsibility of the users of the software for what they upload, although he admits his technology allows them to broadcast the TV stations and many of the TV stations belong to others. It is the users of the software, not the company itself, that are broadcasting this copyrighted content over the internet.
Whether TVUNetworks is protected by safe harbor laws given the high rate of copyrighted content that the company is aware of is very questionable.
Paul Shen also states that his software is merely a way to demonstrate the technology and it offers something very beneficial to TV networks allowing them to broadcast stations over the web easily and cheaply, and even integrate region sensitive advertisements.
Also See:
TVUPlayer Review
Viidoo - TVUPlayer TV Guide
Lifehacker TVUPlayer Review
TVUPlayer another Napster
1. Hi, I have made asimilar software and was sued by premiere for now 1,5 years. I have finally won the first steps due to one reason:
The architecture of the software is important.
If tvunetwork is technically in the position to stop an infringing stream, than they have to stop it (not only on request, they have to make sure - by control means- that those streams will never popup again).
If they cannot stop a stream, they are fine and will face no problems. Technology itself is never responsibel for users action. See Grokster Case.
And in fact, p2p-tv software saves a lot of bandwidth bills and so copyright infringement is only a sideeffect tv stations must tolerate (if software operator cannot stop a stream).
This is at least the german legal situation. Maybe US courts rule in another way, but Supreme Court decision is clear enough here too.
Again, it depends on the inner architecture. And here most of p2p-tv software will face some problems .
Posted at 6:40PM on Nov 23rd 2006 by Guido