Whether or not MobiTV was in the right, HowardForums should take advantage of the protection US law gives site owners for just this situation, by registering an agent for service of process with the Copyright Office:

http://www.copyright.gov/onlinesp/

{ProfJonathan}

FYI, late this afternoon, MobiTV caved.

Apparently, when they saw that basically all of the major gadget blogs, Digg, Cnet, and the AP picked up the story, they backed off.

I have a feeling they’re regretting opening their mouths on this one.

I tried viewing the MobiTV streams with VLC after reading about it on Gear Diary and it worked. Totally unbelievable how they can leave out basic authentication. More unbelievable how they reacted. They will be shooting themselves in the foot pursuing this more.

Dugg, bad precedent setter.

Very pathetic move… Maybe MobiTV should use this as inspiration to secure its service.

Too bad I canceled MobiTV a long time ago, or they’d now have one customer canceling because of this. Unbelievable…

Thanks for bringing this to our attention…

Wow. HoFo is one of the best forums out there, and MobiTV is using poor security as an excuse to litigate. This is hardly what I would call hacking.

I voted on Digg. Even had to set up an account to do it.

Does MobiTV not understand the Streisand Effect?

This is going to hit a lot of the blogosphere, and they aren’t going to look good at all!

Digg my ***. Someone just call the frikkin EFF. MobiTV will be slapped down hard and fast.

First of all, any company that doesn’t make efforts to secure their copyrighted content has no leg to stand on when it comes to distribution.

Second, any web host that would authorize a takedown doesn’t deserve the customer. If I were Howard, I’d be taking my business elsewhere.

HG, the funny thing is, there is no login. They, basically, have no security. It’s just a bunch of URLs. There was no hacking involved. Someone just stumbled upon it.

If this is how they treat their, so called, “intellectual property”, I’d be worried about what they’re doing with my personal info, if I was a MobiTV customer.

I’ve been a loyal Hofo member for years. It’s the best mobile site on the web. Most of the cellular news on the web originates from those forums.

Companies like MobiTV are kept alive by the very geeks they’re trying to take down. This stuff is aggravating.

Everyone needs to Digg this story, and if you have the means, become a paying member of Hofo. Howard needs our help.

This is real bad if they do shut down Howard’s site, because of MobiTV not securing there login. It’s like leaving your cell phone somewhere and if you don’t lock it and Some one gets it and makes calls, you wouldn’t blame the place you left it because they didn’t watch and stopped whoever from using your phone. MobiTV has to do there part, and that is protect its login.