iCraveTV
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iCraveTV was a Canadian website, which operated from 1999 to 2000. The site offered streaming Internet broadcasts of the conventional television stations, both Canadian and American, that were available as over-the-air signals in Toronto.[1]
The site, launched by William Craig through his TVRadioNow Corporation in December 1999, was intensely controversial during its short lifespan, raising significant questions around the interpretation of copyright law.[2] Craig viewed the service as essentially equivalent to a cable television distributor, while many of the television stations whose signals were being distributed, and the producers of programming airing on those stations, viewed the site's actions as analogous to the RIAA's copyright infringement case against Napster.[3]
Although it was in operation for just three months before shutting down, the site had the effect of pressuring both Canadian and American television networks to start streaming their own programming directly on the web,[4] and thus played a disproportionately prominent role in the development of the web as it exists in the 21st century.[5]