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Time Warner Cable Box Rental Inspired Antitrust Lawsuit
EmagGeek writes "Matthey Meeds, a real-estate agent, was so irritated about having to pay the monthly rental fee that on Tuesday he filed an antitrust suit against Time Warner Cable and its 84 percent owner, Time Warner Inc. The suit alleges that, by linking the provision of premium cable services to rental of the cable box, the companies have established illegal tying arrangements. 'Time Warner's improper tying and bundling harms competition,' Meeds' lawsuit states. 'Since the class can only rent the cable box directly from Time Warner, manufacturers of cable boxes are foreclosed from renting and/or selling cable boxes directly to members of the class at a lower cost.' I pay Comcast over $25/mo for my two DVRs. I'd love to just be able to buy them or build my own. I can't wait to see how this unfolds."
...are the vast numbers of people over the whole of this world of ours who *pay* for TV services that *also* have advertising included.
Here in the UK, you don't get much of a choice to not pay the TV License fee but at least everything the BBC broadcasts is advert free. And likewise, I will happily sit & watch the free cable/satellite channels that have advertising breaks.
But I definitely *WON'T* pay to be advertised at.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
Naughty. You used the word "Vista" and "solution" in the same sentence without a negative. This is Slashdot, what were you thinking?
Anyways:
Enjoy your 3 months of free DVR rental as part of your settlement offer
The point here is not to make a quick buck in a settlement. It's to get the cable company to unbundle thier service from thier hardware. If the company won't give you access to thier premium services without renting thier cable box, your alternatives don't help.
it is Time Warner's network and they should be able to do whatever they want with it. I hate this current generation of people who think they're entitled to something just because they don't think it's "fair". Well, I've got news for you, this is how property rights work. If it's your property, you get to decide what to do with it.
But... It's not their property. It's actually the government granted right of way. What does that mean? That means IT'S YOUR PROPERTY. If there were actual competition, then sure, what you said is valid. But there isn't competition, cause the government said they don't need any competition. the government said they can go ahead and abuse YOUR PROPERTY to setup this network. In return, they are obligated to follow rules that are supposed to be more stringent because the free market is not capable making sure the deal is fair.
Modding Trolls +1 inciteful since 1999
And the reason those boxes are of such crappy quality is because the cable companies have such a tight lock. The cable companies want to keep the box cost down to maximize their own profits. If Motorola and SA could sell directly to consumers, they would suddenly have an incentive to improve the quality.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
And the reason those boxes are of such crappy quality is because the cable companies have such a tight lock. The cable companies want to keep the box cost down to maximize their own profits. If Motorola and SA could sell directly to consumers, they would suddenly have an incentive to improve the quality.
If consumers would grow a pair of balls and realize that TV isn't really worth this much money Time Warner would eventually have to lower their rates or be content with less subscribers. I remember when basic cable (roughly 40-50 channels back in the day) cost $20/mo around here. That was as recent as nine years ago before the local cable company got bought out by Time Warner. Now it costs $60/mo for the same number of real channels and about a dozen home shopping channels that weren't available before.
I dumped my cable down to 'lifeline' (local stations only) four years ago and haven't looked back since. Hell, I'd dump lifeline and go with an aerial if I could get decent reception out here in the boonies. The combination of the internet, books, PBS and the major networks is all the entertainment I need.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
There are two sides to this coin though.
Yes, TiVo's are awesome. Unless they break, then you have to fix it. 'Fix' sometimes = Buy a new one.
Time Warners box costs $6.95 or whatever a month. It'd take you 43 months to pay $299 that say a TiVo costs (ok not all do, but I'm doing the HD dual tuner model)
When has one TiVo stayed on the market for 43 months without a new model with new features?
At time warner, I get a new one if a new functionality/feature comes out, and if it breaks, I get a new one no questions asked (barring 'why does this look like it was beat with a hammer' kind of thing)
oh, did TiVo stop charging monthly too? I quit using one about two years ago. yes you can buy the one time thing I think, but again that's a good chunk of money.
Having had a TiVo Break, or a new version come out within 43 months of purchase, I can say that to me the time warner deal isn't that bad.
As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.