David Goodfriend and David Hosp are on a mission to rebroadcast TV transmissions.

Goodfriend is the founder of Locast, the latest organization that's trying to fill a critical gap for cord-cutting TV watchers: over-the-air local programming delivered via the internet.

Hosp is Locast's attorney. This is not the Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe partner's first attempt at finding a workaround for local TV viewers. He represented Aereo Inc. as it litigated its novel technological approach to live streaming through the Second Circuit. Ultimately the Supreme Court turned thumbs-down on that effort in 2014.

Goodfriend and Hosp believe they've hit on a new solution. Locast is organized as a nonprofit, and retransmits CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox and other local programming free of charge—though it does put the squeeze on viewers for $5 a month donations. Section 111(a)(5) of the Copyright Act provides safe haven for nonprofits that act “without any purpose of direct or indirect commercial advantage, and without charge to the recipients of the secondary transmission service.”

Locast has been operating for a year and a half and is in 13 media markets. Last week AT&T announced a $500,000 donation to the organization. So far, there's been no legal challenge, despite the broadcast industry's track record of defending its broadcasts.

“It may be there will be no litigation,” Hosp said. “It may mean they've looked at the legal issues involved and come to the same conclusion we have.”

Over-the-air broadcasting is something you were supposed to be able to get without paying an arm and a leg,” Goodfriend said. Viewers don't want to pay hundreds of dollars a month for channels they never watch just to get local news and sports, he said.

A lawyer, lobbyist and former staff adviser to an FCC commissioner, Goodfriend has been operating the nonprofit Sportsfan Coalition for 10 years. It's main claim to fame is helping persuade the FCC to eliminate its blackout rule against local broadcasts of NFL games that weren't sold out.

When teaching a class on telecommunication policy at George Washington University, Goodfriend brought in Hosp, a GW alum, to talk about the Aereo case. “It was probably the best class I ever taught,” Goodfriend says.

Aereo's idea was to set up thousands of tiny antennae that serve to individualized signals to online subscribers. That way, Aereo argued, it wasn't performing the broadcast works publicly and therefore didn't violate copyright laws. The Supreme Court disagreed.

Goodfriend set up Sports Fans Coalition NY, a 510(c)(4), to operate Locast. Users are asked to donate $5 a month. If they decline, their broadcast is regularly interrupted with fundraising pitches.

“It's a free service, but there's an incentive to become a contributing member,” Goodfriend says. “By law we're not allowed to make a profit. We're only paying for our expenses.”

Locast also geofences its retransmission to the local market. Users can't watch San Francisco programming while in New York.

Peter Menell, a Berkeley Law professor who contributed an amicus curiae brief on behalf of the broadcasting industry in Aereo, said he thinks Locast, “at least as it is portraying itself, qualifies for the exemption.” But he noted that Congress passed Section 111(a)(5) “long ago during a different technological era.”

“It is unclear whether its activities will stray into direct or indirect commercial advantage or whether Congress would revisit the statute in the current technological age,” Menell said.

The fact that law may not yet be settled doesn't bother Goodfriend. “The realm of the unknown is not an invitation to do nothing. It's an invitation to do something,” he says.

Meanwhile, Locast is pressing the issue. Last month it opened for business in San Francisco and Los Angeles. “The Bay Area, especially Silicon Valley, loves to cut the cord,” Goodfriend said in a written statement. “The innovations of tech entrepreneurs have reshaped the way millions of Americans consume their news and entertainment. Locast adds to this tradition and improves the reach of local broadcasters serving their communities, supporting local journalism in the process.”

Hosp says it's a lot of fun advising Locast. “A lot of the public has forgotten that these signals are supposed to be free,” he said, “because we live in a cable-driven world.”