In sponsored listings and top search results, we often see indoor antennas promising 80 miles, 100 miles, or even 120 miles of coverage, when more respectable vendors say 70 miles or so is the best case scenario even for outdoor antennas. We also see product images promoting cable channels that you can’t get over-the-air, or promising 4K HDR video when the current broadcast standard doesn’t support it.

While Amazon removed some of the offending listings after I contacted them–and replaced the top non-sponsored result in a search for “antenna” with its own AmazonBasics product–finding more bad actors was trivial. I’m curious to see whether Amazon has a long-term plan to deal with sleazy sales tactors, or if this sudden enforcement was a one-time deal.

In any case, these misleading claims aren’t just bad for cord-cutters. They also could harm respectable antenna makers that refuse to get in the muck with less scrupulous brands. If any of this bothers you, please take a few minutes to read the full column on TechHive for more details and info on what you can do. And thanks again for your patience!

This solution does require a sizeable investment in hardware and setup, and it doesn’t work with every channel, but the payoff is a much more flexible DVR than what you get with live TV streaming services like YouTube TV and PlayStation Vue. I’ve been using Channels DVR with cable streams for the past couple days, and while it’s still in beta testing, it works well.

Plex’s piracy clubs: The Verge ran an interesting story this week about the culture of piracy that’s emerged around Plex, the media server software that lets you stream video from one device to many others. Because Plex lets users share media remotely as well as around the house, it allows private groups to share in troves of illicitly-gained movies and TV shows. (Plex doesn’t provide that content itself, it merely makes the content easier to watch and share once users have acquired it.) And while this isn’t a new trend, it could become a bigger one as more media companies pull popular content from Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu onto their own streaming services.

I wrote a deep dive a couple years ago about Plex’s attempts to legitimize itself through legally-acquired content. It now offers an over-the-air DVR service, free streaming news, podcasts, and streaming music via an integration with Tidal, but still a long way from being the ultimate media aggregator–that is, unless you count pirated content among its offerings.

TV blackouts on the rise: Speaking of good reads, Ars Technica took a long look at channel blackouts, which have already occurred in record numbers this year as networks and TV providers butt heads over the cost of carrying content. As the pay TV audience shrinks, networks are desperately trying to compensate by charging more money for their channels, resulting in more pushback from TV providers that can’t sustain the ever-higher prices. This is especially true for satellite TV providers, which can’t rely on internet service to stay profitable. Broadcasters say that AT&T (via its DirecTV and U-Verse services) and Dish Network account have accounted for 85% of all blackouts. (Just this week Dish, narrowly avoided a blackout of regional Fox Sports networks on its satellite service and Sling TV, albeit on a temporary basis.)

While Ars tries to present both sides of the story, the bulk of the blame is squarely on TV networks, whose increasing consolidation has given them much more power to negotiate higher fees. Retransmissing fees for broadcast networks alone reached $10.1 billion last year, up from $200 million in 2006, and it’s hard for TV providers to resist when the major broadcast networks also own popular sports, news, and entertainment channels. This is going to get worse before it blows up in both sides’ faces and gets better.

Netflix’s product placement strategy: Over at Fast Company, I wrote about Netflix’s use of product placement in Stranger Things, and how it might be a blueprint for advertising without advertising in future shows. While Netflix has made a big deal about how it didn’t take money from Coca-Cola, Burger King, or other brands features in Stranger Things 3, it still benefitted from those brands’ expensive marketing campaigns, in which they helped promote Netflix to their customers. As one product placement expert told me, the value Netflix gets from that marketing is equal to the value the brands get from appearing on the show, even if no money actually changes hands.

Netflix still insists that it will not introduce commercials to its shows, and paid product placement will never be a major source of revenue for the company. But looking ahead, it’s not hard to imagine Netflix greenlighting more shows that have the potential for major cross-marketing campaigns, as they ultimately help fulfill Netflix’s goal of bringing in more subscribers.