iCraveTV.com Preempts Its Rebroadcasts

PITTSBURGH —  A Canadian-based Web site accused of pirating copyrighted U.S. entertainment and sports programs appeared Sunday to have complied with a federal judge’s temporary restraining order that it immediately suspend its Web-casts.

iCraveTV.com, the brainchild of two U.S. citizens who are being sued by 10 Hollywood movie studios, three television networks and two professional sports associations, greeted visitors to its Web site over the weekend with the message that “access to stations and listings is not available at this time.”

Company officials could not be reached for comment.

U.S. District Judge Donald Ziegler issued the temporary restraining order after a four-hour hearing Friday, constraining the Web site’s rebroadcast for TV shows including “Frasier” and “Ally McBeal” until Feb. 8, when he will hear arguments about whether a permanent injunction should be imposed.

Billing itself as the world’s first 24-hour-a-day free Internet TV companion, iCraveTV.com is run by former Fox Sports Net Pittsburgh general manager William Craig and his business partner George Simons. Their company, TVRadio Now Corp., picks up broadcasts from 17 TV stations in Buffalo, New York, and Toronto, and converts the programming into digital Web-casts that are offered free with paid advertising.

But movie studios, including 20th Century Fox and Walt Disney Co., as well as the ABC, CBS and Fox networks describe iCraveTV.com as “one of the largest and most brazen thefts of intellectual property ever committed in the United States” in their lawsuit against Craig and Simons.

The two Web operators face a separate but similar legal action from the National Football League, the National Basketball Assn. and NBA Properties.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette quoted iCraveTV officials as contradicting plaintiffs’ claims that the rebroadcasts were being seen by U.S. citizens by saying there were ample warnings and legal disclaimers to prevent Americans from watching the TV show.

One iCraveTV executive also told Ziegler that new security measures filtered out American users with a 98% success rate, the newspaper said.

However, a plaintiffs’ witness demonstrated in court the ease with which the Web site could still be accessed from Pittsburgh.

Craig, former development director of the National Hockey League’s Pittsburgh Penguins, was not present in court Friday. The Post-Gazette said there is a warrant out for his arrest charging him with failing to pay his estranged wife $800,000.