John Shutt wrote: > Bert, > > What if the Broadcasters, mean and greed lot that we > are, got the FCC to mandate Philips "TV-Advert > Enforcer" chip to be installed in all TV sets, STBs, > and recording devices? Who are you going to buy your > television from then? > > Lest you think this is far-fetched, I simply point to > the Broadcast Flag. Excellent points, but I have no problem with any of that, as long as the FCC do their job. On the Broadcast Flag, which we have discussed many times, notice that the *words* used by the Michael Powell FCC were extremely clear on what consumers have to be allowed. Time shift recording must be unimpeded. The broadcasters and CE vendors can magically prevent redistribution to the Internet, but not to a consumer's legitimate time-shift recorder. And not to forget the analog hole was left in place, as far as the FCC is concerned. If the FCC does its job right, that means enforcing this rule with fines, if need be. So you don't get overly anxious CE vendors cavalierly abridge our rights as consumers (I sound like a gun yahoo with the 2nd Commandm ... I mean Amendment). And on the side of the broadcaster, because they too have the right to make the business work, I have long favored a compromise position in which fast-forward would be allowed, but not outright skipping. This can work in everyone's favor. Fast forwarding forces the viewer to PAY ATTENTION to what's going by, so he actually does see the ad, but at the same time it doesn't take away the viewer's control. DVDRs and PVRs do fast forward much better than VCRs did. No wild distortion, as you got in the cheaper VCRs. So if the FCC does its job right, I should still be able to buy perfectly functional CE boxes, with no mind-bending 1984-esque features. Bert ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.