Copyright infringement or ingenious entrepreneurship? You be the judge

[thatcrazycajun]

Read this story from Techdirt.com, all you legal eagles on my f-list, and tell me what you think. If a truck-stop chain airs TV shows in its establishments and runs commercials it sells to advertisers seeking to target truckers over the ones sold by networks and cable channels to their advertisers, is this actually copyright infringement? And if so, would this extend to viewers at home skipping ads using their VCR or TiVo? Or Websurfers using adblockers in their browsers? The possibilities for litigation positively boggle the mind.

Comments

[musicmutt.livejournal.com]

This is an interesting case. My take on it doesn't really fall into copyright infringement as I understand it. This being reproducing and selling someone else's work. Where it does get touchy is inserting their own ads over network ads which advertisers have already bought and paid for. I would consider this to be an obstruction of business more than a copyright issue. They may have worked something out with Flying J, but they are a truck stop and they don't have the broadcasting license. As such they are not in a position to sell ad space. If they have worked out something where they have set up their own channel, buying their own programming and airing them at their truck stops, then okay they can sell ad space and air ads but there wouldn't be a legal issue if this were the case.

[stevemb.livejournal.com]

It seems to me that selling their own ads (either in place of or in addition to the ones bundled with the programming) could be considered unauthorized commercial use of the programming. (Insert cleverly-worded IANAL disclaimer here)