Craig vs. Hollywood
Craigslist founder sues for our right to skip commercials

By Annalee Newitz

If you don't watch the commercials when you tune in to your favorite TV show, you're breaking the law. At least that's what lawyers for dozens of entertainment giants, including Paramount and Turner Broadcasting, are arguing in a civil lawsuit filed in a Los Angeles district court against ReplayTV and SonicBlue. The entertainment companies claim that ReplayTV's digital recorder – which operates like TiVo – should be outlawed because it allows viewers to zap out commercials and share recordings of television shows with other people.

But now viewers are striking back – yes, we have a right to skip commercials! – with a federal lawsuit brought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) against Turner Broadcasting in Los Angeles. Joining the plaintiffs is local celebrity Craig Newmark, best known for creating the much beloved Bay Area community Web site Craigslist (www.craigslist.org). "The idea is that Hollywood and also the tech industry are really well-represented, but no one stands up for ordinary citizens and consumers," Craig wrote on his Web site when he joined the suit. He told the Bay Guardian that this is part of his newest effort to educate the public on technological issues he cares about, such as the public use of high technology. Plus, "I want to give my nephews and nieces a break from the rampant consumerism on TV by using ReplayTV's commercial-skipping feature."

"We're not asking for money with our suit," EFF attorney Fred von Lohmann said. "We just want the court to make a clarifying decision about whether individuals are breaking copyright law here. We argue that taping a TV show and watching it without commercials is fair use." He explained that the ReplayTV suit is indicative of the kinds of legal tricks Hollywood companies are using in their ongoing copyright battles with the high-tech industry: Hollywood corporations sue companies that make technology, rather than attacking consumers for infringing copyrights.

And yet consumers – the little people who just want to watch Law and Order without Coke ads – are the ones who will be hurt by these kinds of suits. "We wanted to put a human face on this mythical ReplayTV [customer] that Hollywood has invented," von Lohmann said.

And Newmark, with his community-minded high-tech values, makes a perfect consumer advocate. The case will probably make it to court early next year.

What boggles both Newmark and von Lohmann about the Hollywood companies' suit is its sheer outlandishness. Von Lohmann points out that consumers won the right to tape television shows in a 1980s Supreme Court case involving Betamax. And yet several weeks ago Jamie Kellner, CEO of Turner Broadcasting, said, "Anytime you skip a commercial, you're actually stealing the programming." When asked whether it was also a copyright violation for viewers to go to the bathroom during commercial breaks, Kellner conceded, "There's a certain amount of tolerance for going to the bathroom."

With brilliant thinkers like Kellner behind the wheel, it's no wonder they call it the idiot box.

Annalee Newitz can be reached at foo@techsploitation.com.