Nielsen Issues DMCA Takedown Notice to Wikipedia over DMA Listings

[arnoldevns]

Nielsen is very protective of anything they produce. Whether it's ratings data or market rankings. They have a duty to their stockholders to protect those copyrights. If they let Wikipedia get away with using the market data, they would have a hard time charging someone else for it.

I do kind of like one suggestion made earlier: have the FCC come up with their own markets. Frankly, the folks at Nielsen would then be compelled to use the FCC markets for their own since that's how TV station ownership would be measured. It's also probably why the FCC doesn't do that. Nielsen would complain to members of congress and congress would step in and overrule the FCC.

 

[azumanga]

Nielsen is very protective of anything they produce. Whether it's ratings data or market rankings. They have a duty to their stockholders to protect those copyrights. If they let Wikipedia get away with using the market data, they would have a hard time charging someone else for it.

Even for something as banal and everyday as how the market ranked among the 210. I though something as simple as that would get a pass from Nielsen, with the "meat" -- numbers and demographic information -- making the most money for the company. But we were wrong.

It's also probably why the FCC doesn't [make their own markets]. Nielsen would complain to members of congress and congress would step in and overrule the FCC.

I wonder what would happen if Nielsen ever goes out of business -- if the market boundaries suddenly disappear, what would the FCC do?

 

[Markxxx]

Both Nielsen and BBM Canada are hyper-protective of their data, and I can never understand why.

My theory is Nielsen is the only game in town. If you let anyone use anything of yours they may take you're ideas and improve it and sell it and there you go.

The thing people forget is Nielsen isn't scientific nor has it ever claimed to be.

But everyone has agreed to use them because there's nothing better out there. And they have to have some way of setting rates.

As for TRIP well don't forget to NOT tell anyone your specific method of categorizing your TV stations on your website, that way when Wikipedia steals your method you can sue them

 

[azumanga]

My theory is Nielsen is the only game in town.

Remember when Arbitron did TV ratings in addition to radio?

 

[arnoldevns]

Nielsen is very protective of anything they produce. Whether it's ratings data or market rankings. They have a duty to their stockholders to protect those copyrights. If they let Wikipedia get away with using the market data, they would have a hard time charging someone else for it.

Even for something as banal and everyday as how the market ranked among the 210. I though something as simple as that would get a pass from Nielsen, with the "meat" -- numbers and demographic information -- making the most money for the company. But we were wrong.

It's also probably why the FCC doesn't [make their own markets]. Nielsen would complain to members of congress and congress would step in and overrule the FCC.

I wonder what would happen if Nielsen ever goes out of business -- if the market boundaries suddenly disappear, what would the FCC do?

Nielsen spends a lot of money every year trying to determine how many households there are in each market and what the demographic makeup of each market is. It is not "banal" or "everyday" to them. Without that data they couldn't do much with the "meat" you mention.

If Nielsen ever went out of business someone else would be there to do what they do.

Here's the real nub of the matter: since we can get this information for free from Nielsen's website, we don't understand why everyone can't just use this information however they want. We don't see how it hurts Nielsen. The fact is, what we think does not matter. We don't own the copyright to this information, Nielsen does. If they want to let some places use it freely and keep it off of others, that it their right. I am sorry Wikipedia didn't work out a deal with them in advance. Since Wikipedia is a non-profit I would have thought they could do a deal to use the data and give Nielsen a tax deduction for a donation.

I'd love to see a competitor to Nielsen created. If it were up to me, I'd make different market boundaries than Nielsen does. For example, I'd make the Bryan-College Station area a separate market from Waco-Temple-Killeen. I would create a system that was all-electronic and would never rely on having people fill out paper diaries and send them in. I might actually just go to the big cable, satellite and DVR providers and buy the data from their set-top-boxes to use in my service in addition to putting my own boxes in other households. (not a perfect system, but far better than the one Nielsen has today)