A suggestion from a long-time "Lurker" on this group. Identify each advert with an unique key at transmission time and then provide logic within the device to play each advert once and only once and to otherwise skip them. This could also be made to work for programme "announcements" which are little more than adverts anyway. Decoders have limited memory so discard keys over 1 month old. Advertisers would get tricky by changing ID for each transmission so this would have to be covered by a code of practice. Russ -----Original Message----- From: Manfredi, Albert E [mailto:albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx] Sent: 29 November 2004 17:40 To: OpenDTV (E-mail) Subject: [opendtv] Re: Is 'Fair Use' in Peril? Tom Barry wrote: > If this passes, every moment a viewer spends watching > commercials will be a testimonial and obvious reminder > to the public of how much our legislators are > controlled by special interests without the public > good in mind. Well, there is the other side to consider. If commercials cannot work, then the public will be forced to pay more out of pocket for something that's been "free" as long as TV has existed. So that is not necessarily in the public's best interest either. Even for those who have made themselves dependent on a multichannel provider, higher monthly fees can be expected, if commercials don't work. But there's a simple enough compromise. Just let recorders fast forward through commercials, but not just automatically skip over them. With disk type recorders especially, FF still shows the commercial enough to see the product name and to slow down playback if the commercial seems interesting. Which I do often enough. The FF speed has to be fast enough to make it worth while, though, so that mean maybe 8X or 16X. That still shows enough frames to see what's going on. Seems obvious that you can't simply yank away the revenue source for broadcasters. And forcing everyone to become pregnant with a multichannel provider is no solution either. Some might think *that's* being "controlled by special interests." I certainly would, if that were the "solution" Congress comes up with. 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. ________________________________________________________________________ This e-mail has been scanned for viruses by MessageLabs. ________________________________________________________________________ This e-mail has been scanned for viruses by MessageLabs. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.