This really bites-----

[CelticWinter]

Court Slams Dish Over Signal Imports

By Ted Hearn, STAFF
<snip>(Multichannel News) _ Washingto EchoStar Communications has until Dec. 1 to stop selling out-of-market station feeds of ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox programming to 800,000 Dish Network subscribers scattered in markets around the country, according to a nationwide injunction handed down Oct. 20 by a U.S. District Court Judge in Florida.

EchoStar was given just six weeks to try to escape the inevitable. The company is likely to ask the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to suspend and narrow the scope of the injunction, imposed by Judge William P. Dimitrouleas in Fort Lauderdale.

EchoStar is planning to seek help from Congress, possibly during the lame-duck session slated to begin the week of Nov. 13.

http://hometheater.consumerelectronicsnet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=77679

I think its great that most local stations can be had on satellite but in my case and many others like me it didnt help. I can get the network stations out of New York City but cant get them in my local area due to interference of a tree line from the national forest. BUT because they are offered I will lose my distant networks on Dec 1. I had to call Spector's office and express my concerns about this, and was told they were getting flooded with calls of the same nature. I told they guy who answered to FIX IT or he could explain to my hubby and son why they wont be able to watch the super bowl this year!!!! I cant use an antenna it doesnt pick anything up here *sigh and I cant see the government being happy if I cut down a bunch of trees lol. Im done ranting now, I just had to get a little steam off since this will interfer with my soaps too LOL.
Thanks for letting me vent.
Celtic

[TallahasseeGrannie]

1. We can't get the networks except with a dish

or Comcast. This would send us to Comcast, I guess. We are kind of in a valley and rabbit ears don't cut it.

[Orsino]

2. Same here.

I'm not far outside Atlanta, but in a sort of valley that means TV reception sucks on all the network channels. I'm a quarter-mile off the highway, and don't feel like paying fifteen hundred bucks for cable. Satellite is where it's at.

[CelticWinter]

5. I agree I love satellite

I just dont see what the big deal is, I cant get the locals due to the signal interference so let me continue to get them from a distant network. I swear they sit around thinking up ways to make life more difficult.

[CelticWinter]

3. I dont really have any options

and wish I did. I live in a rural part of NW PA and I dont even have access to DSL yet LOL.

[TahitiNut]

4. It's just another example of how we've lost sight why we have such laws.

Such intellectual property laws were NOT enacted to enrich people, least of all corporations. These laws were enacted in the public's interest to ensure that such material (e.g. music, news, entertainment) was made available to the public by mandating that the originators received fair compensation. If people who create such works weren't compensated, both for their efforts and their expenses, then the public would be deprived of such inventions, innovations, and creations. 'Enrichment' was NEVER the rationale, nor was deprivation.

The broadcast media corporations use the public airwaves only with the forbearance of the public. As long as they operate in the public interest, their use of the airwaves is legitimate. Thus, while EchoStar should be sharing the proceeds of such content with the producers, the producers should not be able to prohibit such dissemination. That's contrary to the very basis on which they're even allowed to operate.