[opendtv] Re: Philips' invention blocks DVRs, set-tops from skipping TV ads
- From: "Albert Manfredi" <bert22306@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 21:02:36 -0400
Al Limberg wrote:
>If you buy an original painting, unless you buy the copyright
>as well, you cannot reproduce the painting -- e.g. by
>photocopying it. Banks who want a pretty calendar to give
>to their customers often make this mistake.
Okay, but I'm not saying I want to cheat or steal anything. If I own a
painting (or even if I don't own it, within certain limits), I can make
copies for my own personal, non-commercial use, for example to include in a
school term paper. And I can hang it up or not, without the artist having
any say. I would be equally obnoxed if a painting I bought had some sort of
coating on it that prevented me from such perfectly legitimate uses, only
because it might be possible for someone to make copies for illegal uses. Or
if I were required to hang it up in my home in plain view "or else."
This Philips scheme is similar, in that it allows the broadcaster to make
worst-case assumptions on my intentions, and prevent me from doing what
custom, the FCC, and even the courts have said is okay. Which includes
copying for time-shift purposes and switching channels whenever I durned
well please.
Imagine trying to catch a newcast at the last minute, and being prevented to
do so because some idiotic ad is airing on the channel you're tuned to. Or,
as Tom suggested, one broadcaster obnoxiously airing a long string of ads at
the top of the hour, to prevent my recorder from switching to the next
channel in its schedule.
Mind you, if a cable or DBS company used such boxes in *their* nets, or
USDTV for their own subchannels, I would be far less indignant. Those are
closed, proprietary systems, so anything goes. The box is being sold to the
cable operator, not to the consumer, in that case. The operator, as customer
has a say.
Bert
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