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Technology Stocks : Gemstar Intl (GMST) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Climber who wrote (1451)	1/11/2000 12:42:00 PM
From: ratan lal	Respond to of 6516

The Stephens' report (pg 17) mentions that "some cable operators strip Gemstar's data out of the VBI (vertical blanking interval]" because "they want to preserve (the VBI) for themselves." I dont see how that could be illegal. GMST does not have the rights to VBI and I presume any cable co. would want to keep all the advantages for themselves.

To: Climber who wrote (1451)	1/11/2000 2:55:00 PM
From: NY Stew	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6516

Climber, I'm not sure if this is the same issue you're talking about, but the report makes no reference that I can see to the practice being illegal. My post was half jest in reference to the Forbes Patent Terrorist article. Henry did call this practice, or threat thereof, terrorism in a conference call. It is not inexpensive for cable companies to continuously strip the VBI prior to rebroadcast and it can be circumvented by picking up the signals directly via rabbit ears. The proprietary wireless system that covers over 98% of the continental US will resolve this annoyance fairly soon. The threats are few and I have only heard of a few instances when a cable company has actually employed this tactic. Regards Stew