How Mark Cuban Stands To Benefit From The Broadcast Flag: By Not Using It

from the it's-called-competition dept

With all the talk about the broadcast flag today, Mark Cuban has written a long note on his blog telling the FCC to call the entertainment industry's bluff. They claim they'll stop making content available for TV without the flag. Cuban says the FCC should see what happens. As many people have said in the past, it's unlikely the content industry would stop making content for TV. Where there's consumer demand, the content will go. In fact, Cuban makes the point perfectly at the end of his article: "Every single content entity I have would benefit from the broadcast flag. Not because it would protect content, it wouldn't. Content doesn't need any special protections. There are enough laws on the books regarding theft that no special content laws are needed. They all would benefit because we wouldn't use the broadcast flag. While the big networks would create confusion and anger with their customers, our businesses could be the knight in shining armour and provide content in exactly the means consumers want it, unencumbered and available to watch, where and how they like." Exactly.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Bob Magog, 23 Feb 2005 @ 3:21pm

    Copying isn't theft.

    And Mark Cuban is only rich because he rode Yahoo!'s coattails there, i.e. he got lucky. I respect his thoughts about as much as I respect any lotto winner's, or heiresses'.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. icon
    Mike (profile), 23 Feb 2005 @ 3:36pm

    Re: Copying isn't theft.

    Who said anything about why he got rich? He made a good point. If you disagree with the point, debate it here.

    Otherwise, what does how much money the comentator has have to do with anything?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Tony, 23 Feb 2005 @ 3:56pm

    Re: Copying isn't theft.

    How he got rich has everything to do with his commentary. Why are you linking to it? Because he's rich, if I or any Joe schmoe that wasn't rich made the comment, it would be on anybody's radar.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. icon
    Mike (profile), 23 Feb 2005 @ 4:01pm

    Re: Copying isn't theft.

    Er... no. The amazing thing about this whole internet space and "blogs" (maybe you've heard of them) is that anyone can write what they want, and we'll link to whatever we find interesting. In this case, we linked to what Cuban said because it was interesting. Just like we link to what many people say... and the vast majority of them are poorer than Cuban.

    The comment made sense, and was said in a way that others weren't saying it. That made it interesting. The fact that he also runs a company that can do something about is also interesting.

    Neither of those things has anything to do with how much money he has.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 Feb 2005 @ 6:04pm

    Re: Copying isn't theft.

    People don't become BILLIONAIRES by luck, people. He had some good timing but the bottom line is that he's an extraordinary business person with a lot of great vision. Stop letting your biting jealousy show through while you waste away at your 9-5 - it's poor form!
    Admin when someone is smarter than and has done better than you!

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.