Tivo’s Red Flag
p2p news / p2pnet:- TiVo users are apparently starting to worry that Hollywood studios will, “one day reach into their set-top boxes to restrict the way they record and store movies and programs,” says the Associated Press.
And why not? The studios, not to mention the Big Four record labels and software companies, have been trying hard enough to achieve that through the likes of their Broadcast Flag.
“Among the functions included in TiVo’s latest software upgrade is the ability to allow broadcasters to erase material recorded by TiVo’s 3.6 million users after a certain date, says the story, going on:
"That ability was demonstrated recently when some TiVo customers complained on TiVo community sites that episodes of ‘The Simpsons’ and ‘King of the Hill’ they recorded were ‘red-flagged’ for deletion by the copyright holder. Some users also were upset that they were prevented from transferring these red-flagged shows to a PC via the TiVoToGo service."
But, "It’s a non-story," promises TiVo spokesman Elliot Sloan, calling the red-flag incident a ‘glitch’ that affected only a handful of customers.
Nonetheless, wonder skeptics, why would TiVo have a red flag if it didn’t plan to wave it, one day?
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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win
- Mohandas Gandhi
See:-
Associated Press – TiVo users fear recording restrictions, September 21, 2005
September 22nd, 2005 at 9:19 pm
We don’t have Tivo up here in Canada. Closest thing to it would be my cable, which I get through Shaw and requires a digital cable box. Not too long ago they upgraded, making newer boxes available that have dual tuners and a hard drive for recording, including high-def stuff. Before these became available the only way to record shows was either with a VCR or a PVR, the latter which I bought a year ago (a Toshiba) that’s I’ve been happy with since it controls the cable box just fine thanks to it’s IR blaster. However, the thought of high-def recording and dual tuners is very appealing, and has me considering purchasing a new box. Everything in one would sure be nice, and less of a hassle too, plus finally give me a reason to make the move to high-def. But this Tivo news has made me realize that this sort of thing could happen anywhere, not just with Tivo’s service. The thought that my cable company very likely can see the content I record, and has full control over it, bothers me greatly. This is why I’ve put the idea on hold for now. It’s interesting to note that just before these boxes became available I noticed that they were doing experiments with what looked like macrovision. Anything piped to the PVR would have that signature scrambling where it would alternate between being dark and jittery, and then normal. Over the course of a few weeks it was turned on and off on various channel, then eventually was turned off altogether. The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if they were considering a means to force people to upgrade to the new digital cable boxes that came out shortly after. The future is certainly looking scarier and scarier, that’s for sure.
September 22nd, 2005 at 9:49 pm
I wonder if camming a tv and patching the audio directly will eliminate the Marcovision protection. I still have an old copyguard filter that allowed me to record from one VCR to another. I wonder if it would work with my video input card. When I can get a hour or two, I will try it out.
September 22nd, 2005 at 9:53 pm
If this is the type of control they want to exert over us, then I guess it is time to use BitTorrent, LimeWire, or any other p2p. Their Digital Restrictions Management is going to push even more users to peer to peer. Competition is good
September 23rd, 2005 at 2:34 pm
I recommend anyone who wants a PVR to simply buy a hauppauge Win-TV-350 and download some free open source software for windows called GB-PVR. It’s very elegant and it runs better than some commercial solutions. THe only thing that you need is some extra hard drive space but in today’s world of cheap hard drives, it would be a much better investment than buying a Tivo. Furthermore, you can share the movie on P2P right after you finish recoding the show! Great stuff I tell ya and no broadcast flag will prevent you from recording nor will it cause the file to go bye bye…