Cord Cutters: Protect your right to free local TV
Donation protected
Hello avid TV viewer,
We’re winning. But we need your help to go all the way. Please contribute to the Locast Legal Defense Fund on this GoFundMe page.
Locast, a service provided by Sports Fans Coalition NY, Inc., has modernized the way viewers connect to local TV by making local broadcast news, weather, emergency information, sports, and public interest programming more available to people like you. Local TV for free, the way it was meant to be. We are a non-profit providing a public service to the people.
For almost 2 years, we have offered a simple proposition to the public: deliver local broadcast TV to anyone located in a TV station’s local market, over the Internet, without charging an arm and a leg. We do this legally under a longstanding federal Copyright Act 17 USC 111(a)(5) provision allowing non-profits to perform this public service. And because of you, it’s working. Read more in this white paper on this topic.
Locast now serves 16 markets, large and small, accounting for 35% of U.S. TV Households. Our viewers can watch their local TV channels for free on most internet-connected computers, smart TVs, phones or tablets.
Here is what Locast users have told us:
• I never could watch my local PBS affiliate before, but with Locast, I can.
• I used Locast during a tornado to stay informed of weather reports.
• I couldn’t pick up my local channels with an antenna, now I get them through the internet.
• I can cut the cord and stay in touch with local news.
This is why America needs Locast: to make sure that people can exercise their right to local broadcast TV, a right grounded in the billions of taxpayer dollars and public resources devoted for generations to giving every American access to local news, weather, emergency information, sports, and public interest programming.
But greedy Big Media companies are trying to take it all away.
The parent companies of ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox sued Locast in an effort to shut us down. They got the biggest Washington, D.C., and New York law firms they could find and filed a claim in federal court, saying that Locast is not a real non-profit deserving to operate under the copyright provision.
We are fighting back. We hired a team of experienced lawyers to defend Locast’s proper interpretation of the Copyright Act and countersued Big Media, accusing them of illegal collusion in an effort to undermine our non-profit. The battle is on and we need your support!
The good news is that we’re winning. The courts allowed Locast to continue operating while the lawsuit is pending. We even launched three new markets – Atlanta, Phoenix, and Seattle – shortly after Big Media sued us, with more markets on the way. Every day, we add new users who choose to donate $5 a month, generating enough revenue to keep our daily operations going.
But we need your help to keep our lawyers in court. We need resources to stay in the fight.
So we’ve started this GoFundMe page where you can donate to our Legal Defense Fund and make sure we can stay in this fight.
Please contribute by encouraging your friends and family to join Locast Nation to become a donating member, which is a user who contributes monthly and does not receive further contribution requests, and by giving to our Legal Defense Fund.
Suggested contribution levels:
• Winner’s Circle $50,000+
• Champion $1,000
• Friend $100
• Locast Nation $5 - $25
(Please note: Contributions to the Legal Defense Fund do not result in uninterrupted Locast service. All Legal Defense Fund contributions will pay for litigation costs in defense of Sports Fans Coalition NY, Inc. Any surplus contributions will be applied to operating expenses. Your donation may be tax deductible as Locast is a service of Sports Fans Coalition NY, Inc., which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.)
Thank you!
P.S.
When Big Media sued us, they wrote in their court papers, “Locast is not the Robin Hood of TV.” WRONG, Big Media! We really ARE the Robin Hood of TV, but instead of stealing from the rich, we just give Americans what they have the right to get. Help the Robin Hood of TV and contribute today!
Sincerely,
David Goodfriend
Founder and Chairman of Locast.org
www.locast.org
We’re winning. But we need your help to go all the way. Please contribute to the Locast Legal Defense Fund on this GoFundMe page.
Locast, a service provided by Sports Fans Coalition NY, Inc., has modernized the way viewers connect to local TV by making local broadcast news, weather, emergency information, sports, and public interest programming more available to people like you. Local TV for free, the way it was meant to be. We are a non-profit providing a public service to the people.
For almost 2 years, we have offered a simple proposition to the public: deliver local broadcast TV to anyone located in a TV station’s local market, over the Internet, without charging an arm and a leg. We do this legally under a longstanding federal Copyright Act 17 USC 111(a)(5) provision allowing non-profits to perform this public service. And because of you, it’s working. Read more in this white paper on this topic.
Locast now serves 16 markets, large and small, accounting for 35% of U.S. TV Households. Our viewers can watch their local TV channels for free on most internet-connected computers, smart TVs, phones or tablets.
Here is what Locast users have told us:
• I never could watch my local PBS affiliate before, but with Locast, I can.
• I used Locast during a tornado to stay informed of weather reports.
• I couldn’t pick up my local channels with an antenna, now I get them through the internet.
• I can cut the cord and stay in touch with local news.
This is why America needs Locast: to make sure that people can exercise their right to local broadcast TV, a right grounded in the billions of taxpayer dollars and public resources devoted for generations to giving every American access to local news, weather, emergency information, sports, and public interest programming.
But greedy Big Media companies are trying to take it all away.
The parent companies of ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox sued Locast in an effort to shut us down. They got the biggest Washington, D.C., and New York law firms they could find and filed a claim in federal court, saying that Locast is not a real non-profit deserving to operate under the copyright provision.
We are fighting back. We hired a team of experienced lawyers to defend Locast’s proper interpretation of the Copyright Act and countersued Big Media, accusing them of illegal collusion in an effort to undermine our non-profit. The battle is on and we need your support!
The good news is that we’re winning. The courts allowed Locast to continue operating while the lawsuit is pending. We even launched three new markets – Atlanta, Phoenix, and Seattle – shortly after Big Media sued us, with more markets on the way. Every day, we add new users who choose to donate $5 a month, generating enough revenue to keep our daily operations going.
But we need your help to keep our lawyers in court. We need resources to stay in the fight.
So we’ve started this GoFundMe page where you can donate to our Legal Defense Fund and make sure we can stay in this fight.
Please contribute by encouraging your friends and family to join Locast Nation to become a donating member, which is a user who contributes monthly and does not receive further contribution requests, and by giving to our Legal Defense Fund.
Suggested contribution levels:
• Winner’s Circle $50,000+
• Champion $1,000
• Friend $100
• Locast Nation $5 - $25
(Please note: Contributions to the Legal Defense Fund do not result in uninterrupted Locast service. All Legal Defense Fund contributions will pay for litigation costs in defense of Sports Fans Coalition NY, Inc. Any surplus contributions will be applied to operating expenses. Your donation may be tax deductible as Locast is a service of Sports Fans Coalition NY, Inc., which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.)
Thank you!
P.S.
When Big Media sued us, they wrote in their court papers, “Locast is not the Robin Hood of TV.” WRONG, Big Media! We really ARE the Robin Hood of TV, but instead of stealing from the rich, we just give Americans what they have the right to get. Help the Robin Hood of TV and contribute today!
Sincerely,
David Goodfriend
Founder and Chairman of Locast.org
www.locast.org
Organizer and beneficiary
Locast Admin
Organizer
Sports Fans Coalition NY Inc.
Beneficiary