And the tech industry breathes a sigh of relief. According to MediaPost, MobiTV appears to be backing off legal action against HowardForums.com, a popular mobile forum, after hitting the site with a cease-and-desist letter last week for posting a Web address providing free access to the MobiTV programming. This is despite the fact that the URL has been widely circulated over the Internet for months.

The URL—which was unencrypted and public, incidentally—allowed users to bypass MobiTV's paid front-end to view television cable channels over the Internet, via a cell phone or a PC, without having to pay for it, the report said.

The URL pointed to an XML file which contained all of the addresses for various channels. Note to MobiTV: Next time, try protecting your service better, instead of sending a team of crazy lawyers after one of the most respected forum sites on the Internet.