经济学人383:美国电视产业 广播电视业界的强盗

 　　Television in America

　　美国电视产业

　　The bandit of broadcast

　　广播电视业界的强盗

　　The Supreme¹ Court's decision on Aereo may affect more than the TV business

　　最高法院将对Aereo案件进行裁决，而其影响范围或许会超出电视产业本身

　　CHET KANOJIA, the founder² of Aereo, wonders which actor will play him, when Hollywood makes a film about his startup disrupting the television industry. “Probably a white guy,” Mr Kanojia, who is Indian-American, says drolly³. Whether his firm will feature on the big screen or rapidly be forgotten depends on the outcome of a lawsuit⁴ between Aereo and America's big free-to-air broadcast networks—such as ABC, CBS and Fox—which is being weighed by the Supreme Court. Oral arguments in the case were heard on April 22nd and a decision is due within months.

　　当好莱坞的电影公司想要拍一部关于Aereo创始人Chet Kanojia如何瓦解整个电视产业的电影之时，这位老板也在思考着到底让哪一位演员来扮演自己。“或许会挑个白人，”印度裔美国人Kanojia先生戏谑地说道。最后他的电影到底是能成功登上大荧幕，抑或是迅速被大家所遗忘，要取决于一场官司的最终结果。最高法院正在对这场官司进行权衡，而对抗双方则是Aereo与美国免费广播电视巨头，如美国广播公司、哥伦比亚广播公司和福克斯广播公司。案件的口头辩论在4月22日已经完成，而最终裁决将在数月之内宣布。

　　Aereo新服务.jpg

　　Mr Kanojia and Aereo are not yet household names, but are the subject of much debate among geeks, copyright lawyers and TV executives. Aereo picks up the signals of free-to-air channels and streams them to its subscribers over the internet, so they can watch them with the same good picture quality as they get via cable, but for a fraction of the average monthly cable bill. Each subscriber⁵ is assigned one of a huge number of thumbnail-sized aerials in Aereo's warehouses⁶. Aereo claims this is in principle no different—and thus no less legal—than the subscriber putting an antenna⁷ on his roof. But broadcast bosses see it differently. They say Aereo is violating copyright law by not paying them for a “public performance” of their content.

　　Kanojia与Aereo目前还不是一对家喻户晓的名字，但对于极客、版权律师以及电视主管们来说，这确实是极为火热的话题。Aereo公司接收免费广播电视的频道信号，并把这些频道转化成流媒体以供他们的付费订阅用户在线观看。因此，这些用户在付出相当于普通有线电视月租费用的很小一部分，就可以享受跟有线电视一样的高画质电视服务。相当于在Aereo公司的仓库里，有数以百万计的“微缩远程天线”，而每个订阅用户都能分到其中一条。Aereo公司宣称，这与免费广播电视的服务没什么不同，就像是让他们的客户在自己家的房顶安装天线接收信号一样，是非常合法的行为。但广播电视公司的老板们却不这么认为。他们坚持Aereo公司违反了版权法，因为后者没有给他们提供的节目内容付费，就进行了“公开传播”。

　　So far Aereo is available in only 11 cities. But broadcasters worry that it threatens a fast-growing revenue stream: the fees they get from cable- and satellite-TV operators that retransmit their channels. Such fees came to about $3.3 billion in 2013, according to SNL Kagan, a data firm. The pay-TV companies would not want to keep paying these if Aereo did not have to. So broadcasters have threatened that if Aereo wins, they will take their content off the public airwaves and offer it through pay-TV only.

　　目前，Aereo的服务范围仅限于11个城市。但是，广播电视公司担心这样的服务会威胁到自身的快速增长利润源：对有线或者卫星电视运营商处所收取的转播费用。数据公司SNL Kagan所提供的资料显示，2013年该转播费用总计为33亿美元。如果Aereo公司无需为转播权买单，那么其他付费电视公司也将停止为自己的转播权付费。因此广播电视公司对Aereo公司做出了相应的警告：如果Aereo公司胜诉，那么他们将停止在公共无线频道上提供电视转播服务，转交由付费电视公司独家供应给观众。

　　Aereo has raised around $100m from various investors⁸, including Barry Diller, a veteran media executive. Mr Diller's volte-face is worthy⁹ of a prime-time drama: having launched Fox, one of America's four big broadcast networks, in the 1980s, he is now a booster for broadcast's bandit. But if Aereo loses it will probably shut down. The government has supported the big broadcasters, undermining Aereo's chances. As for the courts, so far their judgments¹⁰ on Aereo's legality have been mixed: last year two federal courts sided with Aereo, but in February a federal court in Utah ordered it to close its operations in that state.

　　Aereo已经得到了各路投资者约1亿美元的资金，这其中还包括传媒大亨巴里·迪勒。迪勒先生截然不同的投资转变就像是一出黄金时段的电视剧：80年代，他成立了福克斯广播公司，而现在他却成了电视业大盗的赞助者。然而Aereo公司一旦败诉，很可能对其意味着关门大吉。目前政府已经与各大广播电视巨头在统一战线，使Aereo公司的胜诉几率大减。在法庭方面，他们对Aereo合法性的判决并没有达成共识：去年两个联邦法庭支持Aereo公司，但今年2月犹他州的一个联邦法庭则勒令其停止在本州内的所有业务。

　　Legislation has not kept up with new technology. Cable in America is regulated by a 1992 law, and copyright by a 1976 one. Both were written before the rise of the commercial internet, notes Rich Greenfield of BTIG, a research firm.

　　法律法规没有跟上新科技的步伐。有线电视产业受1992年出台的法律管制，而版权问题则受1976年的法律所管理。来自调查机构BTIG的Rich Greenfield表示，在网络商务兴起之前这两部法律就已经制订完成。

　　Many are watching the case to make sure the verdict does not imply that it is piracy¹¹ to transfer any sort of content via the internet without a licence from whoever owns the copyright to it. That could be costly¹² for firms that store media files in the “cloud” for paying clients, such as Apple and Google. As Stephen Breyer, one of the Supreme Court justices, said in this week's hearing, “What disturbs me…is I don't understand what the decision for you or against you…is going to do to all kinds of other technologies.”

　　许多人正关注着本案的进展。他们要确定本次的宣判是否意味着在网络上传播任何未经版权拥有者许可的内容，都会被认定为盗版行为。一旦如此，许多为付费用户提供“云端”影音资料储存的公司将会出现极大的经营成本负担，比如苹果和谷歌。最高法院的法官之一斯蒂芬·布雷耶在本周的聆讯过程当中表示：“困扰着我的问题是...我不能确定本案的判决会对其他各类科技产生什么样的影响，无论好坏。”

1 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

2 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

3 drolly   

adv.古里古怪地；滑稽地；幽默地；诙谐地

参考例句：

4 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

5 subscriber   

n.用户，订户；（慈善机关等的）定期捐款者；预约者；签署者

参考例句：

• The subscriber to a government loan has got higher interest than savings. 公债认购者获得高于储蓄的利息。 来自辞典例句
• Who is the subscriber of that motto? 谁是那条座右铭的签字者？ 来自辞典例句

6 warehouses   

仓库，货栈( warehouse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The whisky was taken to bonded warehouses at Port Dundee. 威士忌酒已送到邓迪港的保稅仓库。
• Row upon row of newly built warehouses line the waterfront. 江岸新建的仓库鳞次栉比。

7 antenna   

n.触角，触须；天线

参考例句：

• The workman fixed the antenna to the roof of the house.工人把天线固定在房顶上。
• In our village, there is an antenna on every roof for receiving TV signals.在我们村里，每家房顶上都有天线接收电视信号。

8 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

9 worthy   

adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的

参考例句：

• I did not esteem him to be worthy of trust.我认为他不值得信赖。
• There occurred nothing that was worthy to be mentioned.没有值得一提的事发生。

10 judgments   

判断( judgment的名词复数 )； 鉴定； 评价； 审判

参考例句：

• A peculiar austerity marked his judgments of modern life. 他对现代生活的批评带着一种特殊的苛刻。
• He is swift with his judgments. 他判断迅速。

11 piracy   

n.海盗行为，剽窃，著作权侵害

参考例句：

• The government has already adopted effective measures against piracy.政府已采取有效措施惩治盗版行为。
• They made the place a notorious centre of piracy.他们把这地方变成了臭名昭著的海盗中心。

12 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。