TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future?

Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future?

Barry Margolin (barmar@alum.mit.edu)
Wed, 15 Dec 2004 00:42:54 -0500

In article <telecom23.597.12@telecom-digest.org>, John Bartley
<johnbartley@email.com> wrote:

>> In article <telecom23.595.5@telecom-digest.org>, Monty Solomon
>> <monty@roscom.com> wrote:

>>> A middle-level executive at Time Warner has approached several cable
>>> companies and broached the idea of restricting the ability of
>>> customers who use those company's Digital Video Recorders to record
>>> several popular Time Warner TV programs.

> On Mon, 13 Dec 2004, in comp.dcom.telecom Barry Margolin
> <barmar@alum.mit.edu> wrote:

>> Sounds like another good reason to support standalone DVRs, like
>> ReplayTV and TiVo, rather than cableco-supplied DVR services.

> Sadly, this is not an adequate solution. Unless you record a program
> off t o tape, disc or PC media, programs can be deleted through the
> capabilities of existing, standalone equipment.

> TiVo and ReplayTV have already demonstrated their ability to change
> the programming on DVRs without the consent of the user, as has DISH
> Network. Unless the user hacks the hardware and its current code to
> prevent it, the DVR manufacturer can slipstream the ability to do
> exactly what Time Warner wants into a user's DVR.

Sure, they *can* reprogram our systems. But I think these vendors
that are independent of the content providers and distributors are
less likely to do so. Yes, I know they've made some concessions to
content providers (ReplayTV removed Internet Video Sharing and
Commercial Advance from their newest DVR models, although they didn't
reprogram the older models that already had these features, and
hackers discovered how to add them back to the new models). But I
think they would be shooting themselves in the feet if they disabled
some of the basic functionality of the devices.

Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***

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