This summer a worldwide audience may be able to watch a bevy of TV network broadcasts, including Global Television and CBC, free over the Internet at iCraveTV.biz, the newest incarnation of the controversial retransmitter set to launch June 1.

Although Herbert Becker, president of iCraveTV.biz, says he does not expect any resistance, early indications suggest broadcasters and copyright interests will come down on Becker with the same force as they did on the original iCraveTV.com, which was shut down by the courts just after it launched in 1999.

Beyond the name, Becker’s project is in no way related to Bill Craig’s iCraveTV.com, which attempted to make money selling banner ads on the site that retransmitted entire broadcast schedules. Craig was, however, recently appointed to the board of directors of the new, L.A.-based iCraveTV.biz. The site plans to provide live Internet access to broadcast schedules, not to generate revenue from them but in an attempt to showcase new technology developed by Becker’s company Entervision – technology Becker says could revolutionize the transmission of video over the Internet.

‘I would suggest that what [Becker] is doing is blatantly illegal and I would predict that broadcasters and other content and copyright interests will aggressively try to block his business venture,’ says Dennis Wharton, the National Association of Broadcaster’s VP of corporate communications.

The Entervision technology moves away from streaming media by taking an analog signal directly to the capture buffer of a computer. ‘Our system takes each individual frame, turns each frame into a complete exact JPEG, which flips in your browser at the same rate that they flip on the big screen or your television set,’ Becker explains.

It can also, according to Becker, geographically restrict a broadcast, which was a major stumbling block for the original iCraveTV model. ‘We can block out any area we choose,’ he says, adding viewers watching broadcasts from iCraveTV.biz will not be able to capture or keep them on their hard drives.

Eventually, Becker hopes broadcasters will come to see the Internet as an affiliate station on which they can sell additional advertising and reach a global audience.

Because iCraveTV.biz will not generate revenue, Becker believes it will not be subject to the same legal constraints as iCraveTV.com. ‘The reason we’re doing this is for a showcase for our technology. We sell the technology through the Entervision website and [iCraveTV.biz] gives people the opportunity to see our technology happening.’

However, concerns over intellectual property are as much about control as they are about profit.

‘The notion of copyright has never been driven by whether somebody is going to make money from the use of the work, it has been driven by the right of the author or owner of the copyright to control how it’s used,’ says Gary Maavara, senior VP of CanWest Interactive. ‘If someone owns a work, they should have the right to control how it’s used subject to very limited exceptions.’

Although Becker says he has permission for some of the broadcasts that will be viewable on iCraveTV.biz, he admits that other broadcasters remain unaware of his intention to retransmit their signals. He confirms that at least two Canadian broadcasters will be included among the hundreds of broadcasts he plans to make available through iCrave and does not deny that CBC and Global will be among them.

The fact that Becker intends to retransmit material without permission of any kind from copyright holders remains problematic for broadcasters.

‘If he’s got a great new technology that allows people to put their content on the Internet in a cost-effective and quality way, then why doesn’t he come and see us?’ asks Maavara.

Steve Ellis, president of Toronto production and distribution company Ellis Entertainment, says the main concerns for content creators and providers is that they share in the revenue stream and have some say in the distribution of their product.

‘The thought that there might be a whole new way to earn revenue over and above the existing ways is quite appealing. The problem arises when you discover this new way of someone earning revenue is going exclude you but is going to use your programming,’ says Ellis.

Tech guru Jim Carroll, coauthor of the first edition of the Canadian Internet Handbook, fears that iCraveTV.biz doesn’t stand a chance against the deep pockets and legal clout of big broadcasting business. ‘The bottom line is, [iCraveTV.biz] is going to piss off a lot of people,’ he says. ‘Those people are going to have more money to spend on lawyers than [Becker] does and those people are going to win.’

Carroll says it will not matter what steps Becker takes to accommodate the interests of the broadcasting community. ‘The current intellectual property system has existed for many years and is currently defined and controlled by a generation of people who have not grown up with technology. I think there’s wonderful technological opportunities here, but it isn’t going to happen with the current generation of executives.’

-www.icravetv.biz