FC: AOL exec: Skipping commercials is same as stealing?

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From: "White, Sam" <Sam.White_at_mail.house.gov>
To: "'declan'" <declan_at_well.com>
Subject: skipping commercials is stealing?
Date: Thu, 2 May 2002 17:43:40 -0400
Hi Declan -
I thought the politech folks would have a barrel of laughs over the comments
of Jamie Kellner, the CEO of Turner Broadcasting (a subsidiary of the
much-beloved AOL).  Apparently, in an interview with CableWorld, Kellner, in
response to a question about why personal video recorders were bad for the
industry, responded:
Because of the ad skips.... It's theft. Your contract with the network when
you get the show is you're going to watch the spots. Otherwise you couldn't
get the show on an ad-supported basis. Any time you skip a commercial or
watch the button you're actually stealing the programming.
This is from an article in 2600 magazine, found here:
http://www.2600.com/news/display.shtml?id=1113
The text of the interview can be found here:
http://www.inside.com/product/product.asp?entity=CableWorld&pf_ID=7A2ACA71-FAAD-41FC-A100-0B8A11C30373
Regards,
Sam 
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