foghorn2 said:
If this guy looses, which he very well may, we all loose.
This will then demotivate and delay the sat providers to provide full rez HD.
[GLOW="Bad Move!"]Bad move.[/GLOW]
So you are advocating doing nothing? That's akin to a prosecutor telling a victim's family, "We're not going to prosecute the man who killed your husband & father in cold blood. We know the guy killed him, and we have a mountain of evidence to convict. However, there is a possibility the jury may not convict the individual for his crimes. If so, we may wind up provoking this murderer into committing even more heinous crimes when, in fact, there is some indication he may eventually grow out of his killing phase and lead a productive life as a law abiding member of our society."
Yes, let's do nothing!
Anyway, let's look at why the Court's ruling is important:
1. The Court acknowledges that customers have a right to sue DirecTV for damages brought about by their actions. The court ruled D* cannot take away an individuals legal rights simply because they slipped it into the customer agreement; it is unlawful and unenforceable item in the contact.
2. The FCC's ATSC HD standards only cover terrestrial broadcast and cable. As far as the FCC is concerned, DBS providers and their substandard HD-Lite falls through the legal loophole when it comes to their regulatory control.
3. The FTC may very well have regulatory control over DBS when it comes to their deceptive advertising practices and fraud; it is a fraud to sell HD-Lite to their customers as HD, and customers certainly aren't receiving the services being advertised. They can package the turd as nicely as they wish---and even wrap it with a pretty pink bow---but the fact remains that HD-Lite is still a turd.
Customers are paying for HD service and D*, and E* for that matter, is knowingly and wilfully substituting this service with HD-Lite, an inferior product. Fix it, stop charging a premium for it, or call it what it is...HD-Lite. I say it's about time someone with deep pockets (and hopefully a good team of lawyers) is pushing this issue.