[opendtv] Re: MVPD and VOD; A Solution to Time-Shifting

  • From: dan.grimes@xxxxxxxx
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:56:40 -0700

According to my discussions with Cox Communications, we are allowed to
convert anything Cox delivers (to the university) to analog and record it
for use in our educational and research setting under "fair use"
guidelines.  I was thinking that by displaying it on a screen, that is
converting it to analog, and then we can record it, whether by VCR or by
camera.  Would you agree?

Actually, Cox said they would provide us the boxes to convert their digital
service to analog and then we can digitize it and store it on our SAN.  Of
course, that is for education and research purposes.

Dan



                                                                       
             John Willkie                                              
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                                       [opendtv] Re: MVPD and VOD; A   
             06/30/2008 01:50          Solution to Time-Shifting       
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You should be able to license content, but pointing a camera at the screen
is a criminal matter, not merely a civil one.  Maybe the University will
continue to pay your salary, but I suspect that's unlikely.


However, fair use 'generally' provides for using short exceprts for
commentary, illustration, satire.  Education, IIRC, isn't part of that.


Does you university include warnings about copyright on student coin-op
copiers?  San Diego State University has had them for more than 3 decades.
Funny that you would think that digital gives you a work around or
putuative right that you don't have with paper copies.


John Willkie




-----Original Message-----
From: dan.grimes@xxxxxxxx
Sent: Jun 30, 2008 1:30 PM
To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [opendtv] MVPD and VOD; A Solution to Time-Shifting



Here in Las Vegas, there is a group under Cox Communications, the
Hospitality Group, that offers programming to hotels. The system is not the
usuall cable system. They push digital content to servers in each of the
hotels and offer the programming as VOD. As I understand it, a full week's
schedule of every channel (I don't know how many) is stored on the server
and it all is available VOD and complete with a full programming guide.

Now, to me, this makes a lot of sense. I would be interested in subscribing
to services that pushed all the media to a DVR in my house and I could
chose to watch any program when I wanted. Naturally, this would take a lot
of storage space. Perhaps I can't have every program, so perhaps I
subscribe to just the channels I want. One thing that won't work is having
to set the record times. That works for the programs you know about, but
not the ones you don't and might be able to find by "surfing" the storage.
And then you could "surf" on the program level rather than channel by
channel and only what is being offered at the time.

There is still one problem: sharing. I realize that sharing media is not
allowed, but what if I saw a story and I wanted someone else to see it? How
do I get it to them? It would be great if I could simply send them a
pointer that cues up the very program on their own storage. That way I'm
not distributing the material and they get to see the story.

Actually, there is still one more issue: fair use. If the media is locked
up on a DVR, how do I get access to use it in a lecture or other "fair use"
category? Well, I guess under fair use, there is nothing that requires it
to be available for fair use. I suppose you could make a photonic bridge:
point a camera at the screen!

Dan


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