NCTA Copyright Attacks Based on 'False' Reading of the Law, CVCC Says

NCTA criticisms of the FCC set-top plan are “based on a false rendition of copyright law,” said the Consumer Video Choice Coalition in a letter posted in docket 16-42 Thursday. “Time and again, NCTA mistakenly claims that the NRPM’s [sic] proposed approach grants rights to 'unlicensed parties,' when in fact the NPRM simply gives consumers meaningful choices in how they access and view the MVPD programming packages they have paid ever-growing amounts to subscribe to.” NCTA’s copyright “attack” on the NPRM is based on “claims to rights that are held by others -- the subscribers who buy access to programming for personal viewing and recording, and the public at large,” CVCC said. “Empowering subscribers to view the content they pay for is not copyright infringement,” CVCC said. “There is no exclusive right in the Copyright Act that gives an MVPD the power to require subscribers to forfeit their First Amendment rights to find the same or other programming from competitive sources.” Multichannel video programming distributor representatives, including from NCTA, recently lobbied the FCC for MVPDs' alternative proposal to the NPRM (see 1607060043).