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Sirius Shuts Down Howard Stern Pirate Radio Streamers
Sometimes it helps to be a little less obvious. Broadcasting cops are always on the prowl looking for pirates illegally stealing their airwave booty. Streaming corporate-owned broadcasts of anything -- audio or video -- is an obvious no-no (unless, of course, it gets viewed as helping feed the publicity machine, wink, wink...but that's another story). Which makes me wonder about some news this weekend from Sirius. Apparently, some numbskulls decided to rebroadcast Howard Stern's new satellite radio show live on the web...without permission from either Sirius or Howard Stern. Is this for real or it is manufactured publicity? And how can we tell the difference?
If it is real, it may mark the first time a subscription satellite radio show was "pirated" to the point of forcing legal action to clamp down on illegal rebroadcasting over the Net (as opposed to what is normally done using some low-power local radio transmitter built from a kit).
Now, the Jointblog wouldn't be surprised if there are more of these sites out there. In fact, it's not a stretch to guess there may have been fan sites these last few years rebroadcasting satellite shows from either Sirius or XM with or without approval. That's what fans do and, in a way, it could have been viewed as a way to fuel more underground "buzz". If so, it appears those days may be over, at least for Howard Stern's show.
There could be dozens or hundreds of sites doing this illegal rebroadcasting "on the down-low" out of sight from the search spyders. Remember (for you in legal departments), we don't support nor promote this activity. With amazing quickness we applaud, after less than 2 weeks into Stern's new Sirius show, Sirius discovered two unauthorized Web sites that were rebroadcasting his subscription-only satellite radio show via a free Web audio stream. Immediately, cease-and-desists were issued and the sites were shut down over the weekend.
The sites? Hello, a little obvious. Not exactly "underground". HearHoward.org posted a notice saying that it has shut down due to the cease and desist letter it received from Sirius. The domain name of the second site, HearHoward100.com, is now for sale on eBay. The Boston Herald reported Friday that Sirius considered the audio streams "online piracy." The Herald said an unidentified Boston man was an administrator of the site. A blogger named Brad Beckett also claimed to be behind the site.
It does make you wonder, though...is this a real incident or a marketing incident? Could this be a new media trend with Internet marketing? Makes you wonder. Were the pirate's subscriptions refunded (since they must have need a subscription to receive the original broadcast)? Discuss...
posted by Unknown @ Monday, January 23, 2006,
1 Comments:
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At 9:57 AM,
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I currently pay For Sirius radio, which is a waste because all the of talk channels I listen to have commercials. Now Sirius wants us to spend even more to stream their content over a PDA or computer Internet connection. Now I understand why they need to play commercials during live Howard Stern and other shows, but even on the repeats they play commercials. I PAY for a service that promotes their content as being (((NO commercials!))) which is a lie. They only have this set up for music. So Boo hoo Sirius. Some hackers and pirates are streaming your content for free. I feel so badly for you.... Get rid of the commercials and then I would feel bad that others are streaming your content. But seeing as commercials are part of FREE radio, your Howard Stern shows are no longer part of a paid service. So good luck trying to stop all of the pirates. Has anyone been able to stop hackers yet? Oh that's right, NO!! So Boo Boo Sirius, you will never win this war. A big Shoutout to the streamers!! It's great that you are able to let us listen to PAY RADIO that has commercials, free of charge. Get rid of the extra fees to be allowed to stream Sirius content on our computer and get rid of the commercials!!!
