Deal with NPS to "save" distants on DISH!

Tower Guy

SatelliteGuys Pro
Nov 1, 2005
752
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Who's DBS license?

The filing by Echostar cites a case where the owner of a building was legally separate from the operator of an optometry business as a tenant of that building. The argument sounds compelling, but has a serious legal flaw. In the case cited, the license to practice optometry was issued to the tenant, not the building owner. In the Echostar case the license to operate the satellite has been issued to Echostar, not NPS.

If the Echostar arguments were valid, I could legally practice law if I rented office space from an attorney.
 
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mraudit

SatelliteGuys Family
Apr 11, 2006
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Omaha, NE
Crud

All I know is I recently moved to farm town Iowa, and I do not qualify for these channels. Does someone have to move to the moon to qualify?? Looks like no bowl games for me on New Years Day!!
 

wayne231

SatelliteGuys Pro
Feb 9, 2006
215
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Memphis, TN
The filing by Echostar cites a case where the owner of a building was legally separate from the operator of an optometry business as a tenant of that building. The argument sounds compelling, but has a serious legal flaw. In the case cited, the license to practice optometry was issued to the tenant, not the building owner. In the Echostar case the license to operate the satellite has been issued to Echostar, not NPS.

If the Echostar arguments were valid, I could legally practice law if I rented office space from an attorney.

Man, I'm glad your not my attorney!! That makes as much sense as I once threw a peanut to an elephant so therefore I am a animal trainer.
 

ArtWIS

SatelliteGuys Pro
May 20, 2005
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I have been in contact with a very good comminications lawyer over the past few weeks about all of this and he has been examining the documents I have been sending him.

Today I sent him Dish Networks response to the NAB complaint and here is his reply which I think you might find interesting.

Tell Charlie about this guy! He can't do any worse than the E* lawyers have done lately. LOL :)
 

Malamute

Active SatelliteGuys Member
Nov 16, 2006
16
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The DMA is where the bulk of the viewers in the area do their TV viewing.

The viewers make the choice - not the FCC, not the NAB, not Dish, not the local TV station - the viewers - and thats why DMAs change, as noted in the thread below on the DC locals.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=83621

Essentially the viewers in the DMA "choose" which DMA they want to be a part of for lack of a better term.

Copyright holders then license stations to right to broadcast that material in that DMA as result of the choice made by the consumers.

But it is niellson media that makes the DMA map correct?

How do you get your DMA changed then?. The area i am in should 100% be in green bay DMA yet we are in Marquette DMA. I mean even the cable companies in Marquette DMA have 2 of 4 networks as green bay, 1 network is from a lower michigan DMA and we have 1 NBC local that makes cable as well. Maybe this is something that could fall into the 'significantly viewed' area?
 

SmityWhity

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Jun 8, 2006
1,246
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Denver, CO
The filing by Echostar cites a case where the owner of a building was legally separate from the operator of an optometry business as a tenant of that building. The argument sounds compelling, but has a serious legal flaw. In the case cited, the license to practice optometry was issued to the tenant, not the building owner. In the Echostar case the license to operate the satellite has been issued to Echostar, not NPS.

If the Echostar arguments were valid, I could legally practice law if I rented office space from an attorney.
Hummmm... I thought it was a Drug Store in the building could no longer do optometry (for safety reasons?), but another independent business could set up shop within the actual Drug Store and still be independent and do optometry.

To practice law sounds valid - provided in 49 states you took some internet courses to study case law. But in Louisiana, they don't use case law, so you don't have to take the courses.:D
 

Tower Guy

SatelliteGuys Pro
Nov 1, 2005
752
122
Hummmm... I thought it was a Drug Store in the building could no longer do optometry (for safety reasons?), but another independent business could set up shop within the actual Drug Store and still be independent and do optometry.

OK, but it was the independent optometrist that had the license to practice optometry. The Drug Store could not get the optometrist license for him.

Echostar owns the license to deliver to DBS dishes from that orbital location, not NPS. Therefore, NPS cannot serve customers without using E*'s DBS license. Hence, E*'s FCC license is being used for DNS. The two are legally linked, E's license and DNS. Unfortunately, I feel that the Magistrate must find that NPS and E* are acting in concert.
 

navychop

Reunite Pangea! Stop overfishing Panthalassa!
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Jul 20, 2005
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janetdee

Because DirecTV compresses more, thereby producing lower PQ, and has fewer national HD stations. And, I think it's still true, Dish covers more DMAs with analog SD LiLs. And the ViP622 beats anything DirecTV has BY FAR. And Dish has more internationals- and may cost less! Darth Murdoch is not trying to be the best, just to serve the largest "lowest common denominator."

Dish may not be perfect, but it is better than DirecTV and certainly better than the god awful cableco I must deal with in my area.
 

navychop

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"Acting in concert" does not mean "doing business together." You can still perform the normal conduct of business without "acting in concert" in violation of any court order. And it IS the normal conduct of business, because Sky Angel does something similar.
 

abfabguy

Well-Known SatelliteGuys Member
Nov 27, 2006
30
2
Northern Illinois
.....If the Echostar arguments were valid, I could legally practice law if I rented office space from an attorney.

No Tower, the argument is made that the landlord owns the building and occupancy permits that allows him construct the building according to code and allow occupants and the public access in and out of the building. Although the visitors are physically in his building it is his TENANT who is conducting business within the confines while enjoying full use of the tenant's portion of the building and all its functions.

 

SmityWhity

SatelliteGuys Pro
Jun 8, 2006
1,246
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Denver, CO
Echostar owns the license to deliver to DBS dishes from that orbital location, not NPS. Therefore, NPS cannot serve customers without using E*'s DBS license. Hence, E*'s FCC license is being used for DNS. The two are legally linked, E's license and DNS. Unfortunately, I feel that the Magistrate must find that NPS and E* are acting in concert.
Good argument.:up

I don't remember everything in the response from Dish, so I don't remember if they specifically addressed who owned which licenses to allow this or not; or if that was addressed by saying "Dish was nothing more than a media or conduit" as in some other case.

I guess we'll find out sometime between now and 8 years. :D
 

Tower Guy

SatelliteGuys Pro
Nov 1, 2005
752
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I don't remember everything in the response from Dish, so I don't remember if they specifically addressed who owned which licenses to allow this or not; or if that was addressed by saying "Dish was nothing more than a media or conduit" as in some other case.

You and I read it the same way. It's just that Dish glossed over the requirement for an FCC license to transmit DBS signals.
 

HDTVFanAtic

SatelliteGuys Pro
May 23, 2005
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But it is niellson media that makes the DMA map correct?

How do you get your DMA changed then?. The area i am in should 100% be in green bay DMA yet we are in Marquette DMA. I mean even the cable companies in Marquette DMA have 2 of 4 networks as green bay, 1 network is from a lower michigan DMA and we have 1 NBC local that makes cable as well. Maybe this is something that could fall into the 'significantly viewed' area?


Simple - Nielsen surveys the stations that people watch in that County (and Counties have been known to be split) and the majority rules as to which market they Identify with.

The Marquette DMA probably has Green Bay as Significantly viewed - as it is split off from the rest of Michigan, similar to the earlier Salina Kansas (Topeka/Wichita) and Palm Springs (Palm Springs/LA) examples I have posted in other places.

If the majority view the other market stations, then it moves to that DMA with the Significantly viewed switching to the other.
 

waltinvt

Supporting Founder
Supporting Founder
Feb 16, 2004
3,439
2
Vermont
I am eligible for distants. I wasn't illegally given them.
Janet, please research the various threads. In a nut shell, it doesn't matter if you legally qualify for distants. Congress wrote a law AND a penalty that basically throws the baby out with the bathwater. The court has not choice but to enforce it.
 

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