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Losing Control of Your TV
sp00 writes "The MPAA is now trying to prevent high quality copies made from TV broadcasts. The latest anti-piracy move will prevent you from making high-quality copies of broadcast TV programs. And the new "broadcast flag" technology enables all manner of other restrictions. In the future, the Motion Picture Association of America will control your television set."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the MPAA only control motion pictures? Legally, that is.
When anger rises, think of the consequences.
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC)
Your TV will be assimilated!
Is there some sort of new development?
Or is this just space filler/excuse to whine?
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Does this include low-quality copies, like standard VHS recordings?
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
The broadcast flag could be expanded into a whole family of little flaglets, and together giving the system a much more expressive repertoire. One flag might say, "you may not time-shift this program." Another flag might tell your TiVO "you may not fast-forward or skip this program's commercials." A very special flag might disable your TV's channel changer and "off" buttons. There might even be a Mission Impossible flag that makes your digital video recorder self-destruct in five seconds (or at least erase every movie owned by Universal Studios.) Who knows what Hollywood will dream up next!
I realize this guy is sort of pushing the bullshit lines with controlling the OFF BUTTON and the MI sequence but I can actually see them banning you from timeshifting, etc. Look at some DVDs. You already can't skip some commercials on those. I can see it being that way on a rented movie but on one you purchased? That's bullshit.
HDTV was mandated by the government at YOUR expense so that these people could control YOUR choices. Make sure you thank them.
Then I want control over the price....
If I don't own the TV set outright, I shouldn't have to pay $3000 for a plasma TV. I think I should only have to pay $3.
"...the shortest distance between two points may be straight line, but it is by no means the most interesting."
how about an evil flag, so when the latest fox reality show is on, my signal quality is automagically reduced to nil.
Who'da thunk the MPAA would be the ones to institute the ominous Evil Bit?
Like streaming audio, there is always a way around that. In the age of digital cable, and MPAA controlled TVs, the frame grabber reigns supreme.
There's always going to be a way to get around it though. Look at XP's Activation, that was cracked. Even the activation in Longhorn has been cracked. No matter how strong of a wall you put up, all it takes is a big wrecking ball to bring it down.
Creating a market for tv's imported from countries that don't have the restrictions and a black market for chipping sets.
The difference between Canada and the USA is that in Canada healthcare is a right and gun ownership is a privilege.
The vast majority of these restrictions are only going to keep away casual joe from recording American Idol (which he probably won't every see again anyway). I'm sure there's always a way around any protection mechanism, like an exception to every rule.
Yea. I know.
In future Soviet Russia, your television set will control the MPAA!
Face it, the programs aren't ours, we pay satellite and cable systems for access to these programs and movies, not ownership, so these people can do what they want with their property. (It's not like this isn't justified anyway, every TV movie and music video in the world is available on the web)
High quality? TV broadcasts? This does not compute.
Come to think of it, it is impossible to make a "high quality" anything if the TV show concerned is "Dharma and Greg". I think the entire UPN network will be exempt from these restrictions too. (I'd mention the ABC network, but I didn't think it was around anymore)
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
the Motion Picture Association of America will control your television set."
;-) You know what? I don't miss it either.
At which point I won't have one.
There is something to be said for getting older and not giving a *&@# about keeping current as-far-as TV shows are concerned. I could'nt even tell you who is sleeping with who on Friends
BC
There will be a modification of some sort, whether a chip of some sort, or a simple pencil mark, to disable this. And again we will all point and augh at the time and money spent on something so worthless.
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
There are many many good reasons to stop watching TV, so many that I can't really list them all. But I know that I am finding I have less and less inclination to watch TV. All the new shows that come out are crap, and as all my old favorites end their life time, I find I watch less television.
With all the crap on TV these days, and things like this coming into play, I can only hope people will at least reduce the amount of tv they watch.
no comment
And yet, the broadcast flag is not some poor ghost created to walk the airwaves until the foul crimes done against the recording industry by the likes of Napster are burnt and purged away. No, it is instead just another step in Hollywood's ongoing project to remake both consumer electronics and desktop computers so that they are more to the industry's liking.
We won't adapt, so YOU, the consumer has to.
Hmmm. Fuck with my Tivo will you?
I don't think so pal.
Sent from your iPad.
I don't know about you but I use a "Remote Control" to control my TV I don't call someone over to do it for me
Would be nice every now and then I guess when I don't have the "Remote Control" on hand or it's lost.
There will be a hack to fix this problem if/when it comes around.
What will happen to good ol Tivo if this happens? I'm thinking it doesn't get any higher quality than a digital copy.
Guess we'll have to pay extra "taxes" or "licensing fees" or rent our TVs from now on since apparently you can't do anything with things you buy now.
When will this stop!
Der Tod ist der einzige Weg hier raus!
Because new high-quality shows are in digital format there is no additional overhead to add some type of DRM mechanism to control who can and can't reproduce the material. Of course as long as there is analog, someone can just convert the digital signal back to analog where the DRM would not be transferred thus allowing the material to be reproduced.
Someone will create a new "blackbox" not to dissimilar from a cable-descrambler nowadays to change the bit. Bingo, flag off, problem solved. :)
# fuser -v
#
Television. What's it all about? Is it good, or is it whack?
In the future, the Motion Picture Association of America will control your television set.
In Soviet Russia, your television set will control the Motion Picture Association of America!
Ha. Literally, last night I was researching the best-quality way (while reasonably priced) to record my shows.
I looked into DVD recorders, DVR's (Tivo, etc), Digital VCR's, the whole 9 yards.
I don't see what the big deal is. When I record something, it's for my own personal use; I don't make mass-copies or upload them onto the 'net. The most I might do is lend the video/dvd/etc to a friend that missed the show.
It's getting rediculous. I'm not a criminal. I don't pirate software or music (anymore). I just want to be able to record my shows while I'm at work and watch them in a clear way.
I'm not a big audio freak (so long as it soudns OK, that's good enough for me). But I demand high quality pictures.
Prevent email address forgery. Publish SPF records for y
In Soviet Russia, Television controls YOU.
Oh.. wait...
i do.
they may *control* what i record at high quality, but i control the box. Stop being an alarmist.
All your TV are belong to us. Make your time.
Dunno about your tv.. but mine has all kinds of cool moving pictures. They dance, and laugh, and shoot each other, and on Cop Rock, they even SING!
I hate spyware and spies
With TV, the only way to force people to accept unreasonable controls is to legislate... but fucking with something that virtually everyone does on a daily basis (rather than MP3s, still something the voting middle-aged and elderly populations aren't entirely au fait with) is going to score them some serious heat and scrutiny.
We can but hope, anyway...
Ph-nglui mglw'nafh Gates M'dna wgah'nagl fhtagn.
Doesn't this just create a market for a device which alters the value of the broadcast flag in an HDTV data stream?
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
For some time now, television has troubled me. Recently, after reading this article in Scientific American, I've made the leap. My television was left on the road-side, and quickly snapped up by someone in need. I, however, find myself with a lot of time on my hands to do those things I've always intended to do. Losing weight, and excercising properly have long been goals that I'm now only starting to realize. My interpersonal communications have improved remarkably in the 2 months I've been without television. So, fellow slashdotters, I implore you, throw out your TV. Read more, live more, be happier. You can do it. I did!
From teh article, i see two ways to get around this flag. We can eitehr buy TVs sold in foriegn countries. Or we can buy the newest TV available right now that doesn't have the flag installed. That'll give us about 5 years of flagless TV recording.
This message was brought to you by the death of 30 brain cells.
Don't make us track you down with your reused SIM cards. ;)
It's Outer Limits for real this time!
I will keep my old stuff for as long as it works. When I am confronted with HDTV crippleware, it's time to get rid of TV altogether. There isn't any problem MPAA can create that I can't solve with the power switch.
These MPAA people are determined to follow in the footsteps of RIAA. Crappy content, obnoxious protection, struggling for more and more control over media that has less and less content. Pretty soon they will control 100% of nothing.
First they came for the ooffshore pirate DVD factories,
and I didn't speak up,
because I wasn't an offshore DVD pirate.
Then they came for the Kazaa users,
and I didn't speak up,
because I didn't use Kazaa.
Then they came for the VHS copiers,
and I didn't speak up,
because I still used Betemax.
Then they came for me,
and I turned off the set.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
No, really : does TV worth the trouble ?
Advertising, bad shows, stupid shows, clueless shows and advertising again : they can forbid me to record that kind of trash as much as they want.
I'm just glad I've stopped watching TV 5 years ago.
Irrelevant news and morons using moderation to mod down what they disagree on. 2018 resolution: so long.
Well, see, what happened is there was all this excellent karma ammasing in the core, and then it breeched...
Dude, this is 2004 where movies and music are streamed from the internet.
Television is sooo pre-P2P, leave alone that it's isn't interactive like the internet.
Do they really have to kill a dying thing?
So sad... SAD that is...
For quite a long time there WILL always be analog video out, at least in the form of component video for high-quality.
;-)
So long as you have that, you can make a recording.
Yes they can try to put restrictions on it (like Macrovision does) but like Macrovision it will be fairly easy to circumvent. So don't go crazy yet... unless you live in the USA that is, where the DMCA would make it illegal
You divulged, albeit unwittingly, the order of the Freemasons elimination of one of their dissenting members.
Never EVER bring up TWA 800, nor the liberties lost because of it. (Most of the current administration are Freemasons)
Then I want control over the price....
... i.e. they (and HDTV) will be a complete flop, and television will be replaced by the Internet completely, once and for all.
If I don't own the TV set outright, I shouldn't have to pay $3000 for a plasma TV. I think I should only have to pay $3.
We (collectively) have complete control over the price. Do not buy an HDTV with these sorts of crippling features. I own an HDTV, which I use as a 61" computer monitor and DVD playback device. I own an HDTV (Linux PCI card) tuner which does allow digital recording. I will not purchase a device with these flags enabled.
If enough other videophiles are informed enough and smart enough to do likewise, the product will go the way of the original DIVX self-destructive DVDs
(There is a lot to be done on the content side to offer entertainment alternatives to the Corporate State's Bread and Circuses program, but Red v. Blue and other content online is already showing the way, and Blender et. al. put the tools in our hands to make our own high quality content. The rest is up to us).
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
Just stop watching TV... speak with your wallet and stop watching TV. Notify your provider in writing that you object to this limitation of the service you enjoy. Write your MP or Senator and state that you do not enjoy the fact that someone is limiting your freedom to enjoy a product which you pay for.
My point being is that the TV/MPAA industry is bound and determined to make money whatever way they can in order to both profit and to 'subsidize' 'providing' broadcast television. This typically means advertising. It is up to you to determine whether you will put up with restrictions or not. The problem is that all of us viewers allow these corporations to do what they want because its not worth 'your time'. That's your choice.. your time. These days I am chosing to not use TV anymore. I live with the lack of entertainment.. but I am finding my way with.. gasp.. reading... exercise... developing social networks for work, friends, and family.
Its amazing what you can do when you plug those 4 to 8 hours a day into something other than watching television.
Admittedly there are a lot of folks quite happy to do so... hoorah for them. They've made their choice whether they actively did so or not.
(1st sig) If this were a snappy sig, you'd be reading it right now. (2nd sig) I'm a karma whore. >Insert FUD here
Yes. Throw out your TV. Then, burn your books. Lot of bad ideas there! Shred the magazines. Take a hammer to the radio!
It is all the same.... it is all censorship. Only a truly closed mind cuts off avenues of ideas.
"Put down that book, turn off the set. You'll be fat happy and dumb in no-time"
i can't stop laughing
Whatever happened to copying for personal use? What about those of us who might record something because we're unable to glue ourselves to the TV for every program?
I thought this is why VCRs were invented in the first place. And wasn't this issue dealt with during the Sony trial back in the day?
I have not had a TV since May, 1978.
I have not missed a darn thing.
There is too much in life to enjoy without
having a TV.
How can the MPAA control the empty space where
your TV is not?
Cleara
A few years ago, this kind of action would look ridiculous. Why stop someone from copying a show when it won't rerun again for another year (or more)? But now that entire seasons worth of series (like Buffy, 24, Simpsons, the list never ends) are available, they can continue to make profits long after a show is cancelled.
They're gonna have to pry my Hauppage WinTV card from my cold dead hands before I will stop.
This is a test. This is a test of the emergency sig system. This has been only a test.
Is there any technical reason why we can't have a device that can strip out the broadcast flag as it's been transmitted from one device to another? They have things like that for Macrovision.
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
In the future, the Motion Picture Association of America will control your television set
Let's see 'em control the TV when I put a couple slugs from the 12 gauge into it.
I'm 100% convinced that it will be as effectful as robots.txt, as the NOCOPY bit on cdda's and whatever they used to waste time with before they knew that nothing like this will work.
Your friendly neighborhood public library still doesn't treat you like a criminal. Amazing as it sounds, you can walk in and ask for a book, and they'll lend it to you. All they ask is that you return it when they ask you to. That's right, they'll actually take you at your word. No deposits, DRM, FBI warnings or EULAs involved. Why not go today, and remind yourself how it feels to be treated with a little respect?
and already you're posting stories about the Evil Bit.
The closest thing I have to a TV is an NTSC monitor at work, for video capture and output monitoring. I watch the DVDs I borrow from my coworker on my computer- a 20" screen is just fine, thank you.
News flash: YOU DON'T NEED THE TV. There's plenty of OTHER things you could be doing- personally, I hate the thing and see it as an incredible waste of extremely valuable time. Gathering 'round with friends for a John Carpenter marathon is nice social thing, but watching TV alone is like going to the movies or a restaurant alone- an asocial act of mental masturbation.
I stopped watching TV for several reasons- most of it was shit, I didn't want to pay out the ass for 50 channels I don't want to get the three I do, and I REALLY HATE the advertising- specifically the difference in audio levels and overall brightness.
I don't miss TV at all. With technology like this being pushed, I miss it even less. I'll stick with software DVD playback once or twice a month, so I can watch movies and comment about how {good|bad} they are on IRC at the same time. Good use of existing hardware, excellent monetary savings (one of my machines has RCA/S inputs, so it's not like I need a TV for my old Nintendo, either...)
We'll have to just switch to listening to the radio. Surely they wouldn't mess with that...
Have you seen the Sci-Fi channel's copy of Star Trek Generations? It's so blurry you couldn't copy it if you tried.
The industry's great fear is that high-quality digital broadcasts would be scooped up by techno-geeks with digital television cards wedged in to the back of their PCs.
And it will be. You don't think "techno-geeks" will be able to tweak the firmware on the capture cards to ignore the flag?
The only thing this does is take away consumers rights to timeshift this digital content. I should be able to capture the 6'Oclock movie and watch it at midnight - not in some lossy second rate format, but exactly how it originally aired. Did the courts not already decide this?
If they dont want me watching this material, why the fuck are they broadcasting it? The push medium, the your-life-revolves-around-our-schedule school of thought within the cult of TV is ending. With all the PVRs out there, on demand programming from the cable company, etc, people are watching what they want and when they want.
The silver lining? This will probably bite them in the ass. Less people will see flagged movies/shows, which means less ratings, which means less advertising dollars, which makes the movies/shows worth less.
I bet you'll see the flag off by default almost all the time. Except guaranteed captive audiences, like live sports events.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
I don't own one :-)
So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
If you don't want the MPAA to control you tv, then don't watch their movies! I'm sure the Indie movie producers would be more than happy to provide you with high quality entertainment, without as many strings.
...that the headline didn't read "Loosing Control" as per Slashdot's usual grammatical misconceptions.
tvtorrents has been down for a few days. where can i get tv without the commericials? seriously, i'm paying up the butt for hi-speed internet.
Where the Music Matters
On an off-topic note - what Linux HDTV tuner do you use, and how open are the drivers?
The broadcast flag is old news. The FCC can control hardware, but not software.
e s. html
Thus the GNU project brings us an open source software tuner, which is not subject to regulation, and can tune/record HDTV.
Check out these HDTV screen shots:
http://www.gnu.org/software/gnuradio/hdtv-sampl
Sadly, the software controlled tuner cards, powerful processor, DRAM, wide screen monitor, good computer stereo, etc put this toy out of the reach of most geeks - for now.
The world will not get better through technology. We must seek to be better people.
Will this affect TV tuner cards? I don't have very much knowledge into these cards as I don't have one, but I think the answer is yes. But if so, what is to prevent someone from doing a screen-capture type thing after the show is displayed on the screen? What are the effects on a Windows Media Center PC (assuming that WMC is still around when and if this goes into effect =P) Anyway, as pointed out earlier, it will keep the casual viewer from recording a show, but what does the TV industry have to lose from a private copy of said show? Maybe the viewer recorded it for sentimental purposes, or for some other special reason.
Who is actually recording television anymore? With what they consider quality television, I'm surprized more people aren't doing more interesting things like taking a Craftsman cordless drill to the soles of their feet or jamming needles in their armpits.
Ascalante: Your bride is over 3,000 years old.
Kull: She told me she was 19!
Too bad they never went after the douchebags who post irrelevant quotes.
Too much TV, like anything else(that includes hitting refresh for /.) is harmful. Yeah some TV shows are crappy(don't even get me started on the reality ones). but there are show that are still good(CSI anyone?).
Why did you post there here on Slashdot?
Come on.
Please.
If you have personal problems like that, please
talk about them with your counselor. Not here.
Thank you
Mrs Clear Plastic
P.S. If you have this habit, I do have these
clear plastic pants that can help you with
your problem.
Cleara
If you've watched at least three minutes of a program, you will be prohibited from changing the channel during the next commercial. Mute, power off, and volume reduction will also be disabled. User control returns after three minutes of commercials or when released by the broadcaster.
This prevents people from stealing program content by not watching the commercials.
That would really bother me if there was actually something worth watching on T.V.
I'm sorry to ask but, don't most people who record things from TV and then trade them online just record the raw signal that the TV is given in the first place? AFAIK that is a lot easier and more reliable to re-encode than the analog signal leaving the component out on the TV set. I think that's what Microsoft's UltimateTV does as well. Furthermore, hassles of this type will probably just drive more people to obtain modified Xboxes and get all their TV shows online and forsake the "broadcast" model entirely. Forget schedules, commercials, broadcast flags, just download all the episodes and watch them at your convenience :/
People willing to trade their freedom of expression for temporary entertainment deserve neither and will lose both.
As I understand it, this is just one more flag in the ATSC (MPEG) stream, since we're mostly talking about Off Air DTV right? Unless the stream is encrypted, unlikely for off-air, you just need hardware that ignores the extra bit.
If it ever gets to the truely annoying point where you can't do anything but sit in front of the TV and watch it real time, there will be a whole slew of hacks to dissable this on your various hardware pieces.
This strikes me as something like the region code for DVDs. Annoying, but if you really care, you can get around it.
Yes, it would be nice to deal with this from the top by eliminating stupidity from policy making, but certainly not the end of the world if it happens.
My 2 cents.
When ReplayTV's show-sharing accross the Internet came out, it took about a day to move a 30-minute show over a consumer grade Internet connection, even though it just had standard resolution and no more than two channels of audio, and had already gone through the Replay unit's MPEG compression. We're talking about a gigabyte an per hour of content, and that's a lot of data to move. Besides being killed by the courts, the feature just wasn't that useful because it took just so long.
A digital TV station has an effective throughput of about 6 mbps, which is faster than the typical consumer download connection, and much faster than the typical consumer upload speed. The advantage is that the 6 mbps can be fully compressed before they send it out, so the uncompressed version is something like 18 to 24 mbps of data depending on the exact standard being used.
What the so called "Broadcast Flag" (a term I don't like either, it's really an Anti-digital-copy Flag) does is it orders the decyrpting device to shutdown its digital outputs, but it's still allowed to use analog outs to its heart's content...
Now, here's the catch, MPEG is designed to be a process that's easy on the decode side, and puts as much of the processor load as possible on the encoding side. So, your MPEG will never be as good as one the studios can afford to make, which means your 6 mbps file is going to look worse than the one on TV... and you might even end up with a bigger file with less quality than the one that was broadcast.
When it comes down to it, TiVo has always honored that rule as best they could, trying to make digital extraction out of its machines as hard as they could. That was always the "forbidden hack" on the TiVo-sponsored forums. Now, that hack's going to become illegal.
So really, they're doing nothing to close the analog hole, except for the fact that they realize that passing through the analog hole will always result in either quality loss or bandwidth bloat or both.
don't buy another TV, instead go outside, read a book, talk to people.
I know you are a troll, but I am guessing that you are on my representative's (Tom Tancredo) re-election compaign. All I can say is I am looking forward to pulling the lever for Joanna Conti.
I'll stick with low quality rips then thank you very much
Trolls dont like to be Flamebait, because they burn so well. Protect our Troll heritage!
The revolution will be televised...
Please check with the MPAA to acquire a license to view the revolution.
Quote: In the future, the Motion Picture Association of America will control your television set."
Yes, but by that time, TV will be obsolete. The internet is taking people away from TV because it's a superior format - albeit different and not directly comparable, yes.
However, 'how long can television last?' is the real question, particularly in light of the paternalistic control mechanisms the MPAA is considering.
I find it funny that people whose political views are right-of-centre often argue that social programs should be 'run like businesses', and thus privatised. However, looking at how the MPAA treats people who pay $13.50 to watch a film in a theatre - by treating them like potential criminals with their anti-piracy ads - I can't believe that running a social program 'like a business' has any merit as an argument. If the government put ads like that in theatres, they'd have their skin ripped off by an understandably furious public...but when the MPAA does it, I suppose we just have to swallow it (?).
This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it. - Dorothy Parker
I remember reading recently that there is a question of whether items recorded on an old VHS tape, like home videos, shows, etc would work on VCRs when this takes effect. They're incorporating it into everything.
Don't worry someone will find a way to hack it.
I'm so lucky I only watch porn 24/7 on my television I thought for a minute there I was going to jail for being unpatriotic or something
MoFscker
I don't have a "TV". I have "Tivo". People who get Tivo instantly change their viewing habits, bypassing all the tons of crap and commercials that they're bombarded with. It's so profound, it's not considered "television". The TV and Cable channels have such a high signal-to-noise ratio that they're not worth watching any more.
Now if this broadcast flag starts to affect Tivo, that could be a problem. But I imagine people will find a way to hack Tivos to bypass it anyway.
Have you noticed, there are so many commercials now that when you return from a commercial break, quite often the show gives you a recap of the last few scenes you viewed before the commercials? Is that crazy or what? I never noticed this until I was able to skip over the commercials.
So I wonder, when a show aires on a particular channel at a particular time, is the MPAA claiming that this program is only licensed to be viewed at that exact moment on that exact channel? Doesn't "FAIR USE" come into play for consumers?
I'm a proud voter, and I'm happy to see that more people are taking the 5 minutes required to do the same.
And as another post-er already pointed out, the failure of DivX based DVD players was a consumer shug-the-shoulders, "I wonder who would buy that," response. But those consumers did not buy that.
I'll just download South Park and Simpsons episodes. Who needs anything else?! :P
I claim first use of "Error No. 0B" - or "No. 0B error." It'll be the new ID 10T!
How can they call it high quality when all of those damn logos are plastered all over the bottom of the screen. I don't see how it benefits me as a viewer or them as a broadcaster. The only thing it does is annoy me. It gets especially bad when you have the network logo on one side and the local channel on the other side of the screen. I was watching that awful Steven King series last night and every so often during the show my local broadcaster would put up a brightly colored not even translucent logo in the bottom part of the screen that was probably a third of the width of the screen. To me that is not high quality. Calling it quality is probably a stretch too.
In Republican America phones tap you.
Some choice excerpts from the website:
If you use or install television receiving equipment to receive or record television programme services you are required by law to have a valid TV Licence.
Students:
If you're using a television set at university or college, or anything else to receive or record television programme services (such as video recorders, set-top boxes or PCs with broadcast cards) without a valid TV Licence then you could be prosecuted and fined - which could make your days at college a lot less fun than they should be.
Mockery:
There is no valid excuse for using a television and not having a TV Licence, but some people still try - sometimes with the most ridiculous stories ever heard. To read some of our favourites click here.
Can't find the excerpt right now, but it says somewhere that blind people get a discount of 50% and seniors above 75 years go free.
AND ALL THIS: even if you want to receive free broadcast channels...wow.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
Oh God. What shall I do. I only have like a fucking billion old VCRs to choose from in order to record with.
Prohibition, in any of forms applied to anything NEVER works. Joe Schmoe will be the only person effected by these actions because the fact is, there will ALWAYS be someone who figures out a way around these protection schemes. It's just adding fuel to the fire really, giving people a bigger challenge. Maybe the MPAA and the RIAA will learn this, but I doubt it ... there heads are stuck so far up their asses they don't know the difference between their colons and the sun.
how am I supposed to keep up with Girlfriends... ...oops ...did I just say that out loud?
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
It's like "What book? Never heard of it. Don't own one. Haven't since May 1978. You really should get rid of your books too"
Ok, whos gonna be the one to write a program and design something out of radio shack parts to filter out the anti-piracy bits? I dont have the time to deal with this, I'll just keep my ati 9800 pro AiW around in a spare box and a vcr. I already own more blank tapes then I have porn.
mugging people on the streets?
P2P TOLD ME SO...
Slippery slope arguments always make me suspicious. Garfinkel assumes that the use of flags to prevent high-quality recording of digital broadcasts will inevitably lead to a "in Soviet Russia, your TV watches you" scenario. Of course, if the RIAA provides an analagous case, Garfinkel may be right, and we'll have yet another battle fought between Orwellian copy protection schemes and geeks wielding magic markers. Come July 4, 2005, we'll read on Slashdot about how to build your own black box to get around the flags. The "Soviet Russia" scenario assumes we'll take this lying down, like the puppets of corporate America we are. Again, if the RIAA's efforts are any indication, I don't think that's a valid assumption.
"Den som vover mister Fodfaeste et Oieblik; den som ikke vover mister Livet." -Soren Kierkegaard
On an off-topic note - what Linux HDTV tuner do you use, and how open are the drivers?
... who knows how long before the thugs in Washington ban the technology outright.
I use a PC HDTV card. The drivers are free software (GPLed) and available online (they are v4l2 based, rather than v4l, but can be made to work with mythtv and xine-hd).
Buy 'em early and often
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
In the future, the Motion Picture Association of America will control your television set.
Jack Valenti is Vic Perrin!
Mod Karma -1: I sed bad wurds. If I cep my mouf shut, I wud be at riyses.
I remember all the flak the recording industry got when crippled CDs wouldn't play on computers, some car CD players, or even regular old portable CD players. And guess what, crippled CDs really haven't flourished. I don't see this going anywhere either once people like my Dad (who loves his Tivo with a passion) can't use it the way it's intended.
Though my one question is, they can send little flags all they want, it's still just a stream of 1's and 0's that can be grabbed before they enter the TV and redirected to another recording source.
Just like no matter how much DRM they put on MP3s, there's still nothing preventing me from taking the line out from my computer and putting it into a digital recorder.
Now when they put gov't controlled ear plugs and blinders one me, then I'll be worried.
ce n'est pas un Sig.
In the future, the Motion Picture Association of America will control your television set.
Will they keep me from just turning it off?
I don't watch TV its mostly shite.
Not being funny, I think that's a fair remark, all there is to say about it really.
I take the opposite tack: I just don't buy televisions at all. I have a mediocre television hooked to a cheap DVD player so I can watch movies, and I can use money left over from not paying for cable to buy more wine. Think of it: satellite TV for a year is two cases of drinkable wine, or one case of good wine. I also have a lot of extra time on my hands, to think about which bottle I will open tonight.
I may also be a little bit bored.
You'll be able to buy a simple device whose sole purpose is to NULL that flag in the input stream.
It'll probably retail for $9.99 on the web.
That's until a college student figures out that all it takes to disable the DRM feature is holding the SHIFT key on your remote.
I can't wait for 'the flag'...
there's no place like ~
All those over the air signal still going to be backward with analog television/SVHS/VHS recorder. Even if they put those those "bit" - I can still record with my VHS and digitize the video with those el-cheapo USB video converter.
The reason I rather buy a DVD than record over the air is the crisp video quality and digital surround sound of DVD plus the interviews and interviews and what not.
Now I can get rid of all my remotes. No need to change channels, I just watch what I'm told to watch.
Steal the satellites
Even if all of the videophiles in the nation united, it would not compare to the number of people who would buy them anyway because they just don't care.
... telling their family and friends not to buy obnoxious products will most certainly kill them dead.
... if the early adopters are informed enough, and intelligent enough, to make the right choice.
... video and audiophiles have a disproportionate impact on which consumer electronic devices succeed and which ones fail.
Wrong.
Early adopters are critical to a new product's success. If the videophiles, who are the early adopters of HDTV, do not buy the products, there is a good chance few others will.
Remember, not only do enthusiasts buy the expensive ("development-cost recouping") equipment, they are also the ones their friends and families turn to for advice on what to buy and what not to buy. Withholding their willingness to purchase will almost certainly be enough to kill obnoxious new products
This has already happened, with DAT tapes and divx DVD's. It can happen again with crippled HDTV
Don't kid yourself about the potential impact
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
please kill yourself before you sell another useless trinket. capitalism was designed for managing _useful_ resources within a society, not so you can take peoples' wealth in trade for moldy, used shower curtains.
Remember: Bureaucracy elevates conformity...Make that elevates "fatal stupidity" to the status of religion.
"Paradox, Great Honored Matre. Science must be innovative. It brings change. That's why science and bureaucracy fight a constant war."
I think the DVD industry realizes that too many obstacles between the viewer and the movie will cause widescale hacking of the firmware. As mentioned in another thread, altough DVD companies have the ability to force people to watch a commercial at the beginning of each movie, many are opting out of this temptation. The last DVDs I've watched did not have forced previews or other commercials. My bet isn't on the movie industry playing fair with the public, but miracles happen. My guess is that the advertisers who pay for product placement in the movies are upset at those that pay for product placement on the DVDs. I can't see Hollywood ever doing anything that isn't set against the consumer.
It's their content, they should be able to control it. I think they are fools if they try to keep people from copying it, since they won't be able to compete with content which will be copyable, but that's their folly and it's going to be their failed business model.
I only see a problem if they force every content provider to actually use that sort of stupidity, or if they try to keep competing content off the hardware that I paid for. I think that is a very serious risk, and one has to guard vigilantly against, because once their businesses start failing, they'll say that it's "unfair" to have to compete with free, or freely redistributable, or low-cost, and all that.
But, so far, the technology doesn't seem to let them do that. That is, if companies or individuals want to provide free content, or copyable content, or whatever, they can do that under that system with no problem.
Pretty soon the HDTV experience will be as displeasurable as the DVD experience - my power button will be disabled during the intro, we'll have "FBI" warnings that cannot be bypassed in any manner, the TV will change channels when I turn it on, and I'll have hypertension. And I will give up on TV entirely. Oh, wait, I already have. Thanks you MPAA - it will help people see the world outside of the bland "art" produced nowadays in Hollywood.
ugh. what's the point of fear-mongering like In the future, the Motion Picture Association of America will control your television set.
if i want fear, then I'll tune in to the news at 6.
What don't they get? The RIAA screwed its customers, so now its customers (and potential ones) are returning the favor. If the music industry hadn't screwed its customers over in the first place, copyright infringment would be a small problem with little import to their profitability. Instead, they made copying into a problem that they can't control - every time a Napster dies, ten Kazaa's rise to take its place.
You'd have figured the MPAA and its members would have learned from this - when you have digital media, your audience will rob you blind unless you treat them well. Copying your work is tedious but trivial - thus if you give your customers a reason to do so, they will. When people can't do what they want with their TV and its content (time-shift, copy to disc for personal use, etc.), then people will find a way around the MPAA's restrictions, and then the MPAA is stuck playing a losing game.
The movie and music companies act like foreign dictators with their own private armies and Swiss bank accounts. Don't they remember what happens to tyrants? (Here's a clue - they don't have to worry about collecting retirement benefits.) The worse the dictators treat their people, the harder it is on them when their time comes up (as it always does). What makes these people think that they are immune to this? Even worse, unlike countries with despots, I can walk away from them. So can everyone else. As the parent said, eventually the movie companies will control 100% of nothing. How are they going to pay off^H^H^H^H^H^Hmake campaign contributions to legislators to protect their (nonexistent) market without any money?
That's it. They do it and I'll boycott movies and cancel any PPV and premium channels. More time to read books anyways.
The comments suggesting that this only affects TV are also misguided. Once the above mentioned industries get their act together and get all their ducks lined up, then they will lock down the content and it won't matter if you are watching TV, downloading to your PC, or whatever. At that point they will tell you what, when, and how you get your media.
It's a battle folks. Join EFF, support Downhill Battle, write your congress critter.
Test 1 2 3 4
I quit watching TV years ago, and I feel like I haven't missed a thing. I get news and that sort of thing of the Internet. Every once in a while when I do spend a half hour watching TV at a friends house. I usually leave feeling like the time was wasted. There are so many other things to do that are more worthwhile than watching TV. Maybe if everyone quits watching, the MPAA would rethink their position. I kind of doubt it will happen though. Media and marketing has made controlling peoples behaviors almost into a science such that most people think TV is great entertainment.
Quote from the article: "it's designed to protect TV programs from you."
In Soviet Russia television programs pirate you!
Things just haven't been the same since those facists cancelled "Dukes of Hazzard."
Roving Web-Teleoperated Robot
"Come to think of it, it is impossible to make a high quality anything if the TV show concerned is Dharma and Greg."
Dharma is HOT. Are you gay or something?
See RFC 3514 for more details. The MPAA did, and learned pretty quickly from it.
What I don't get is why the MPAA (and, in similar behavior, the RIAA) thinks that things like this will somehow bring them more money. Do they really have solid research showing that people who make copies of movies from broadcast TV *instead* of buying a copy at the store are even a drop in the bucket, compared to the professionals who mass-produce bootleg DVDs and sell them for profit? And if so, why haven't we ever seen such research? (I've never seen a reputable study that shows that eliminating casual piracy would result in increased sales, and most anecdotal evidence points the other way. As far as I know. Can anyone point at contrary evidence?)
Seriously, the MPAA would get so much more bang for their buck seeking out those who actually sell bootleg copies, rather than trying to prevent Joe Random from saving a movie he watched on HBO. It's just insane. (Well, we know the real reason behind it, which is that Jack Valenti is insane. This is the guy who, in 1982 or so, claimed that the VCR was to the movie industry what the Boston Strangler was to women; and then when someone asked him about that comment last year, in light of the billions of dollars of revenue home video sales had brought in, denied that he'd ever said any such thing. And not just denying it like "I don't remember ever saying that," but more along the lines of "That's crazy, I never would have said anything like that." The guy is delusional and psychologically ossified.)
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
In Soviet Russia, your TV-set controls MPAA!
I wonder if the equipment sold in Canada will be required to honor those broacast flags?
;-)
Now it's prescription drugs tomorrow it will be TV sets...
I've just started shopping for HDTV components, and I've noticed that the specs on some of them list an HDCP DVI port...
Does anyone know whether this bears any relation to this broadcast flag stuff?
Where'd I put that Betamax again?
--
"I'm don't know exactly what an AS/400 is, but I'm pretty certain I wouldn't want one up my ass" --Lou
The MPAA can do all they like, as long as I can watch my DVD box set of Star Gate and Star Trek TNG. I could care less about restrictions placed on TV recording.
Whats A sig anyway
Otherwise you may picked up certain dangerous habits, such as thinking
The key use of the broadcast flag will be to prohibit the recording of political speeches, so that history can be re-written more easily. All of those incovenient slips of the tongue can be made to just "go away", among other things.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
There is nothing ungood with your television. Do not attempt to time-shift the picture. We are now controlling the transmission. We control the on and the off buttons. We can deluge you with a thousand channels or repeat one single commercial to crystal clarity and beyond. We can shape your thinking to anything our imagination can conceive. For the next century we will control all that you see and hear. You are about to experience the shock and awe which reaches from the deepest pockets to the outer limits.
in all honesty though, I stopped watching tv a long time ago anyway. Except for those 3 hours everyday.
As with all things we value, we become used to them over time and we become accustomed to having it.
When governments and corporations starting imposing new restrictions on the normal things in our life that we value (take for granted), then it becomes a big deal.
With that said, being obsessive over anything is just asking for pain and drama in your life.
00101010
If the MPAA wants control of my TV set they will have to get a court order to enter my house to plug it in. It's 'new', with the little plastic baggy still on the plug, unplugged for four years now and supports a flower pot. Perfect application.
And so far, no one is complaining. So sad.
Are you sure nobody is complaining? Sometimes, people don't "complain", they just silently change their purchasing/consuming habits. Haven't you seen the stories on Slashdot where people are spending time on the web or with video games, taking the time out of their television viewing?
That is even better than complaining.
DiVX, the Circuit City self-destructing DVD technology, in the end wasn't killed by geek complaints. It was killed by people who didn't buy it. (Sometimes, the "sheeple" aren't. "Sheeple" is mostly a term for feeling yourself superior anyhow, but I digress....) DVDs, IMHO, have already crossed the line of what people will tolerate, as evidenced by being forced to back down from forced previews to allowing people to skip them. Don't expect them to get any worse, or if they do, expect rapid punishment exacted on the offending studio by the market.
I'd not bet on it yet but it is a perfectly plausible outcome that by 2006 or 2007, no broadcaster will use the flag, because they can't afford the viewership loss! PVRs aren't going away over the next year. The Internet isn't going away. Video games certainly aren't going away. The optimal time for TV to pull this shit was about four years ago; now too many people have tasted the "forbidden fruit" of interactive media, especially PVRs, and many of them are already choosing to decrease their TV usage, before the TV industry implements the squeezing! (If you've got the disposable funds, buy your representatives a TiVo; that donation will probably have a greater effect then anything else you could do with the money.)
Oh, there's valid reason for concern and I still would like to see a lawsuit that labels this as unconstutitional restriction on our speech, and personally I find attempts to control viewers who aren't sharing effectively unethical. The fight should be fought... but I'm pretty sure that in this arena, we've already won. The TV industry would like to think otherwise, but they are, in the end, dispensible now. Viable alternatives exist and most of them are one-way transitions for the people who try them; the television's only choice now is between declining slowly and maintaining a real but smaller existance, or throwing a hissy fit until we starve them as a society. (No laws necessary; we can't be forced to watch TV barring a sudden UK-like tax law.)
Cause: "In the future, the Motion Picture Association of America will control your television set."
Effect: In the future, I won't watch television or own a T.V.
There's a growing sense that even if The Future comes,
most of us won't be able to afford it.
-- Lemmy
This is a small issue made into a huge issue because of the sensationalistic headline: "MPAA Controls your tv!"
What's next... "NBC is Controlling your tv... now they decide what to broadcast on their network!"
"HBO is controlling your tv! They're making rules about who they want to sell their shows to for syndication! How dare they rob my TNT and USA network experience by not allowing me to watch any show I want on any network i please!"
Pinga-less/Sir Haxx-a-not is the most obvious and pathetic troll on Slashdot. And you mods fall for him EVERY TIME he posts one of his lame-ass pseudo-comments!
Wikipedia: Whenever a new story is posted on Slashdot, comments may be added discussing it and there is often competition between Slashdotters to be the first to post such a comment. Some first posters try to make a short insightful comment to avoid being moderated down. (emphasis added)
See? YHBT. YHL. HAND.
Please, put down the pipe. I know you all love that crack, but you're seriously fucking up here.
In the long process of watching Jack Valenti putting a revolver, which only has one bullet in the cylinder, to his head and seeing which pull of the trigger is going to blow his head off, this could be the pull that does it.
As most people know, MPAA companies control most of the major networks and produce their shows.
So instead of taping shows as they come on, people will either, avoid TV shows (other than say the news and sports) all together or buy DVD sets of ones that they know are good. A few new shows will flourish, but they're going to have to be very good to survive the lack of quality after being recorded out of the TV/PVR.
Carrying this on, this means that the only product that the MPAA companies will have to sell that anybody will want to buy will be old shows like "Seinfield" and movies. Some shows may become successful by word of mouth, but the MPAA can't depend on seeing any revenue from them except by DVD sales.
As this happens, local TV stations will see a tremendous loss of advertising revenue and they will either go out of business or be forced to look for non-MPAA developed content that doesn't have the bits set.
This will be interesting because you could see an explosion of independently developed TV shows that would be more popular than MPAA developed shows. Advertisers would then start sponsoring independent shows, taking money away from the MPAA.
The MPAA's response? Probably two fold, one force advertisers that want to sponsor live events (like the Superbowl/Oscars) to pay for shows that nobody watches and, two, cancel the network affiliations of stations that show independent productions. Neither one of these options will result in increased revenue for MPAA companies.
In fact, they will probably result in the MPAA member companies being destroyed by either anti-trust legislation or lack of revenue caused by consumer outrage. Of course, one of the current MPAA companies will go rogue and disable the bits in an effort to regain the trust of the consumer, when this is successful, other MPAA companies will leave the fold in an effort to survive/avoid anti-trust lawsuits.
In any case, the MPAA is not going to be a credible force in the future.
Let's hope our new TV Overlords are more responsive to their customer's needs.
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
I say, if you don't want me copying or altering TV shows, then don't send them to me. I didn't ask for TV shows to be beamed into my house. Tough shit for them. I'll copy any damn TV show I want, 'cause it's mine once they beam it straight into my house. (In reality, I don't even have a TV antenna, never mind cable/satellite... I only use my TV to watch my DVD backups)
I lost control of my TV long ago.
I have a teenage daughter.
-- Will program for bandwidth
Bring on the DMCA lawsuits when people mod their HTDV's hardware and firmware to ignore the broadcast flag - EVERYONE DO IT so that it become civil disobiendience.
If you cannot keep politics out of your moderation remove yourself from the Mod Lottery.. NOW!
You could just, you know, not watch TV. Failing ratings due to lack of audience on every show on every channel is a pretty damn powerful message.
The one thing a lot of people don't understand about content providers is that we don't need them. At all. They are not substantial or important parts of life. So you watched that 96-hour Friends marathon. Are you a better person because of it?
Instead of bitching about it, do something that no amount of protesting bills and sending nasty E-mails will do: just don't watch. Find something else to do. They'll get the message after a while.
From variety of TV shows on Doug's Web site.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
You've been suckling at the electronic tit long enough as it is...
While were at it, lets build Clockwork Orange lidlock restraining systems into the couch. You can't start watching unless you are properly seated. There will be no sneaky getting up to pee during commercials. You'll be absolutely committed to your quality entertainment.
This story was covered by Slashdot months if not a year ago.
I use Yahoo news and news.google.com anymore because news shows up there 2 days before it does here and without the slashdot slanting of stories.
Then it dawned on me that DVD's get ripped and posted to the internet months if not years before the TV version gets Tivo'd and posted. So my question is why are they wasting all this time and money to implement a broadcast flag when it is pretty much irrelevant?
Now I am beginning to wonder what the real use of the flag is for. It isn't for copying because at this point the copies already exist. Maybe it is for tighter control over Tivo, timeshifting, skipping adverts.
'Same speed C but faster'
"In the future, the Motion Picture Association of America will control your television set"
Not if I buy it from CHINA!
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
Heck, that happens every time my wife walks into the room anyway...
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
Weren't people celebrating the 20th anniversary of the BETAMAX DECISION a little while back?
Keep your eyes to the sky.
Consumers: What happen?
Slash-Dot: Somebody set up us the Broadcast Flag.
Slash-Dot: We get SUED.
Consumers: What!
Slash-Dot: Main screen turn on.
Consumers: It's You!!
MPAA: How are you gentlemen!!
MPAA: All your TV are belong to us.
MPAA: Your rights are on the way to destruction.
Consumers: What you say!!
MPAA: Your rights have no chance to survive make your time.
MPAA: HA HA HA HA!
MPAA: Take off every "zig."
Consumers: You know what you doing.
MPAA: Move "zig."
Consumers: For great justice.
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
Since when is 720 lines HDTV considered High Quality let alone interlaced 525 line stuff? ROTFLMAO! Give me my 1600x1200 computer display - Now that is high quality!! I don't record off cable and TV anyways. It's >= 99 % junk that is not worth the investment in a $1.00 video tape.
They no longer want me to enjoy the TV that I watch, which in turn, means that I will watch less. This of course, means that I will not be bombarded with as many ads, which means that I will not spend as much on advertised products. If I were an advertising association, I'd jump in with both fists swinging- the MPAA and any other centralized entity that wants to exercise the degree of control they're talking about may very well make it just not worth the hassle.
Well, at least Microsoft isn't funding them.
You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
I look forward to the day when Jack Valenti dies.
you should have used the theme to the original one not the new one.
The MPAA already controls your TV set, by controlling the choices from which you choose when you change the channel. To be free from their control, we need competing organizations, that don't form an MPAA cartel, representing content owners who have delivery access to your TV. Creative Commons licenseholders, for example, should have an EFF lobbying group.
--
make install -not war
"There is nothing wrong with your television. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are now controlling the transmission." Yes, it's the Outerlimits. I've lost control of my TV/life :(
Can you think of a single FCC action under its Chairman, Michael Powell (nepotistic Colin Powell's son), that has benefitted consumers? Why do we let this clown keep his job?
--
make install -not war
This is ultimately a political issue. Our elected leaders either don't understand these technological issues, or else they don't care about the impacts. This is an election year, what does John Kerry think about this? What does he think about the RIAA suing teenage downloaders? What about your senator, or congressperson? I can promise you they aren't on 'our' side. Because what do we have to offer them? Only votes...There needs to be organization, a group that focuses solely on these technology-related issues. With enough supporters, politicians will be forced to take a side on these issues, and ultimately, if they see it might cost them votes, they will start to take 'our' side. As it is, though, we have senators saying they see no problem with the RIAA/Record companies hacking into and destroying data on someone's personal computer. Only when all of us who care about these issues know exactly where each candidate stands, and informs the candidate that this will influence who we vote for, only then will this trend be reversed. I'm not saying that if you're a die-hard conservative, you should vote for John Kerry, or vice versa. I'm saying that if enough people organize this movement properly, then you won't have to, because both candidates will be trying to win your vote. And what better place to start such a movement then at slashdot...
doesn't make bribery legal. It makes it unenforced. There's a HUGE fucking difference.
The fate of all this DRM really lies in the hands of innovators outside the US, because the American public isn't going to bat an eyelash about this. Fifty years ago anybody who even suggested a universal plan to so equip all televisions or radios would have faced angry public protests, boycotts, and probably accusations of being communist. Nowadays such announcements are greeted with [yawn] consumption-as-usual, by people who are mere consumers rather than citizens.
The American public today is an amorphous mass of market share, whose job is to respond to advertising and other stimuli, not to complain or initiate any meaningful action. So don't expect the masses to jump up and say, "NO, I don't want a crippled television!" Expect them to say, "Does it have SurroundSound?" and, "How much is the Big one?"
Baaaaaa, baaaaaaa... Moooooo....
Reading that gave me immediate flashbacks to the 80's show Max Headroom.
"Your having a bad day when the voices in your head put you on hold"
Copy protection is nothing. Digital TV will have nastier surprises in store. All of us are abundantly aware by now that duplicating copyrighted films is illegal, but that doesn't stop some publishers from putting up THREE warnings that the FBI, CIA, Interpol and the KGB will come and get us. With videotape and laserdisc you could always zip through those notices, but not with DVD. Set-top DVD players are semi-literate computers, which means that you can give them instructions like "over-ride all user controls" so that you must sit through it.
Digital TV may do the same thing with ads. All of a sudden your volume, mute, change channel and power-off buttons will not work -- until the ad is over, of course.
>In the future, the Motion Picture Association of America will control your television set
In Soviet Russia, television set controls Motion Picture Association of America!
after I throw my TV through the window, it won't work. If I buy a replacement, it won't be tuned to broadcast, so I won't have to worry about it. For those of you who admire the 2nd Amendment, I'm sure a 9mm round will do wonders to shut Bob Vila and the *%&#@%& Sears ad up.
Just for S+G, I'll also mail the pieces to the MPAA and ask them if they would insert the pieces into their rectum. I'll even offer to help. "This is going to hurt you more than it's going to hurt me..."
There are of course the less onerous (instead of me replacing my TV when it is propelled out of my window) solutions, such as hardware controlling the speaker inputs, etc.
Look on the bright side, at least they're not putting in the Videodrome signal yet...
Philip Sandifer's academic website
All I hear when people start talking about TV shows is emptiness and sadness.
It isn't necessarily because what they watch sucks. It is because of the bland reality they are living. Having nothing else to talk about. I'm not a snob; I won't wield the "I'M SOOOOOOO INTELLIGENT AND YOU BOOOORE ME" argument (which is what people immediately think of you when you tell them you don't watch tv). I just want to hear about something real. Do people have hobbies anymore? Do they think anymore?
I like life. I don't need to live vicariously through television. TV is all right once in a blue moon. But it is not the be-all end-all of human existence. Yet somehow, in this culture of ours, it has snuck into our top needs right under air, water, and food!
My interpretation of the broadcast flag is that GNU Radio becomes illegal in 2005, just like DeCSS.
Look for the MPAA to use the DMCA to sue anyone who disables the "anti-copy" circuit.
Or even worse than that, look for them to illegally sue anyone who purchases anything, like a soldering iron, that could be used to disable it.
Don't believe me? Look at how (1) (2) DirecTV is warping the DMCA in its own image. Sueing people for merely purchasing a smartcard reader!
Only 22,000+ people sued so far!
Watch for the MPAA to start this next, just like the RIAA and DirecTV have.First, the article implies that we will be able to make analog copies, but that isn't true, after 2005 it will be illegal for any television equipment to have analog outputs.
i ne er/f-MO-Earth_to_congress.shtml
i ne er/f_mo_the_masked_engineer-01.21.04.shtml
http://www.tvtechnology.com/features/Masked-Eng
Second, the article implies that broadcast flags will only protect high definition programming. That is not true. Broadcasters will even be able to place flags on public domain programming.
http://www.tvtechnology.com/features/Masked-Eng
It's a simple fact that in a few years, we will be unable to copy a TV show without breaking the law.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
instead having to work to overcome my desire to watch TV (Law+Order, Discovery before they became the Makeover Channel, etc.), the MPAA and broadcasters will do it for me. Thanks guys.
I guess it takes an advanced degree in stupidity to make a business plan that renders you irrelevant and sends your money elsewhere. At least I understood the Enron thugs - they were competent thieves. Apparently the people coming up with these ideas could only aspire to competency.
(MPAA)
It's mine mine mine mine mine mine mine mine mine mine mine mine mine mine mine! And you can't have any! Nyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
(/MPAA)
Buncha babies.
If we purchase the TV then do we not own it? If they control it then they own it...so technically they should repair it if it brakes...
----- Friends, l33tists, l4m3z0rs! Lend me thy keyboards.
American television is for retards by some very smart people. Start watching it regularly and your IQ will drop 10 points a month.
News channels? They are almost as bad as Xingua or Itar-Tass. Lies and propaganda. Yellow journalism.
Reality tv shows? A throw back to roman gladiator times.
Friends? mushy crap.
History Channel? Hitler would have loved this if he had one to put out loads of propaganda.
Discovery? Why do they have to compete with court tv?
MTV? porn channels are better than this one. you wont have sucky music there
Comedy central? D00d. you need a humour transplant.
overall rating? d-
So, who cares about the broadcast bit?
is Family Guy and its all over the net so they can do what they want.
... get rid of you cable or sat TV service. I personally only ever watch programs that the TiVo has set aside, I can't remember the last time I watched something as it was broadcast.
If broadcast TV becomes inconvienent as a capture mechinism for me then I'll save the money and switch media, either to on demand download from a net service or plain old DVDs that I can watch whenever I like.
Except that there is enough power in the specification that would allow them to get even more creative.
The same scripting capabilities that are employed to prevent some disks from playing in a Region 0 player (RCE) can also be used to deny access to the main feature and menus until you've let all the ads play to completion.
They can even make it so that it isn't feasible to track-skip to the feature by using scripted branching which your player must interpret properly in order to view the feature. This would make ripping an even more difficult task.
They've barely begun using their arsenal against piracy.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Some of the best TV has to offer. Mmmmmm...B33R....
-The Anonymous Bastard
Makes me glad I ditched my TV years ago. Push mediums have always been for suckers anyway. They're far too prone to abuse. Give me the Internet's pull-paradigm any day.
If the movie flops, piracy will again be blamed, even if it is a case of most people not wanting to pay more for a 2 hour "lease" on the content then they would for an indefinite "lease" on it.
No matter what the entertainment industry gets, it will not be enough for them until they control our culture (what's left of it) in its entirety.
The market simply will not bear these outrageous DVD/cable subscription/movie ticket prices any longer, and they are trying to find a scapegoat.
DVDs are going to eventually go the way of CDs, for the exact same reason - we are being made to shell out a purchase price that is at least 5-6 times over the manufacturing costs. It's greed that is killing these people, not piracy.
As to TV shows, basic cable (read: non-dish/digital) is a joke. It's not even worth having any longer. I don't even think of watching cable any longer, when I want to see something, I load it up over my xbox ftp. There's no reason for me to watch american idol 57 when my computer has 3 seasons of family guy on it.
The entertainment industry has to change or die, simple as that. How many times can consumers (we're not even customers anymore) be expected to pay out higher and higher prices for the same content? (you pay for the subscription to HBO so you can see The Sopranos, then you pay a ridiculous amount of money to see it again, ala boxset.)
...given the political climate here. In fact I'll bet the broadcast flags could be used (abused?) even MORE in Canada than the US. (I can just picture it...you have exceeded your viewing limit of foreign programming so your TV will only permit you to watch Peter Mansbridge read the news and re-runs of "The Beachcombers", "The Red Green Show" and "North of 60".)
It's a little known fact that by law ALL televisions sold in Canada sized 60 cm or over (20"+...not sure why the smaller ones are exempt) must be equipped with V-Chips (to allow blocking of content rated at a certain threshhold). By default it is set at maximum to let all content through and I don't think many consumers are even aware of the feature, much less know how to set it. Many TVs in the US include it too since although it is not required by law, it consumers percieve it as a convenient feature that hasn't impacted the cost of the TV, and as such they can sell the same model continent-wide.
Given the lack of concern over such mandates in Canada, and the fact that it is a small market compared with the US it wouldn't make economic sense to make non-crippled equipment just for Canada (it would actually cost a fair bit more since it wouldn't be volume production). Besides that there would be political pressure by the US on manufacturers not to do it and on the Canadian govenrment to legislate broadcast flags.
Digital sattelite is a good example--it existed for years in legal limbo and new legislation brought in under pressure from Canadian and American entertainment industries made American set-ups illegal--EVEN IF YOU WERE A FULLY-PAYING DIRECT TV CUSTOMER. Now if you don't want to break the law you are limited to ExpressVu or StarChoice--domestic choices subject to Canadian-content quotas and blocked from carrying most premium American programming (it is illegal in Canada to view HBO, Showtime and so on--even if you were willing to pay full subscriptions to them--because they have not been granted permission to broadcast in Canada).
HDTV might follow the same route...the gov't will drag its feet until it becomes popular to get "hacked tv's". They will be so common that industry groups and the US with bitch and moan loudly enough that new laws will be passed in Canada.
The day that happens is the day I unplug the freakin' TV. I've already ripped my Cable bill down to $12/mo and frankly don't miss it. I have a Mac.
Those days are gone. In the USA HDTV is law. Broadcasters have to broadcast it; manufacturers have to make it.
... who wants to buy a VCR if they can't record anything, or a TiVo if they can't timeshift or skip commercials?
... whenever we happen to be home to catch them ... and ignoring the medium otherwise. Viewership will, if anything, probably go down as a result. It's hard to stay interested in that ongoing saga or soap if you've missed enough episodes to lose the storyline.
True
The market chose CD over DAT and DVD over DivX, but in this case there is no competing technology. If you don't want an HDTV, eventually your only option will be no TV at all.
This is not correct.
The Internet is a competing medium, and a trickle of content is already available. Consumers can firmly chose to get their entertainment from a source other than HDTV, and from sources other than the MPAA and television stations.
Of course, one has to have content as well as a delivery mechanism, so while the Internet can wipe the floor with HDTV, the content offerings remain anemic. However, that need not be the case. We have the tools to make our own content, available for free, and some are already doing that.
If enough people follow this course, the Media Cartel could find themselves crawling back to the 'net, hat in hand, begging for some viewership again.
This all assumes people will refuse the kinds of draconian controls the MPAA and others are trying to instill in our media. This is certainly not guaranteed, but neither is it as unlikely as conventional wisdom presupposes. In any event, I believe that, even if the MPAA "wins" this battle, they will lose, in that overall spending and interest in their product will decline, much as it has for their cousin industry, the RIAA. Worse, they will take the consumer electronics industry with them
We'll go back to watching a few programs on TV
I would never have watched, much less bought on DVD, the Babylon 5 series if I hadn't been able to record it first. Those old videotapes and Divx3 CDs aren't worth anything now, but at the time they let me timeshift as needed, so I could keep up with the story without reserving a timeslot each week out of my life. Take that away, and you may keep the hard core couch potatoes glued to the set, but the rest of us will find we simply can't be bothered.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
I guess you and I have completely different ideas of what makes "good wine"... ;-) HD-cable costs me significantly more than $1000/y. :(
You and I know that, but 99% of the population are sheep. Trust me, it wont make enough of an impact for them to do anything.
They'll just come up with some increidbly unoriginal concept and make it the new fad a la "reality" (unscripted) TV.
All Your TV Belong To Us!!
Sig? No thanks, I don't smoke.
There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling the transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image; make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner party to the Target Market.
all your base are belong to us.
|plastic....or gasoline?|
Within several hours of its official specifications being published there will be so many hacks and workarounds that it will make this completely moot.
When the whole world wants it for free, the whole world can get it for free. When will you corporate big-wigs learn that if we can see it, we can save it. So screw you all and work out a reason for us to WANT to give you more money (i.e. if you're worried about people saving TV shows and not buying the series on DVD, obviously be sure to include enough extras on DVD to make it worth our money).
01100111 01100101 01110100 00100000 01101111 01110101 01110100 00100000 01101101 01101111 01110010 01100101 00101110
talk about shortsighted. it pains me to see the possibilities of tech hobbled in this and so many other ways (drm, *cough*) by monopolistic groups running protection rackets. i regularly download tv over p2p because it doesn't make my broadcast area, or is several seasons behind. as it stands right now i can download episodes of stargate being broadcast in the uk 2 seasons ahead of canada, and one season ahead of the states, in 30 meg files in about 15 minutes. yes, the quality is crappy. so, here's a potentially profitable opportunity for all, have the shows placed on p2p networks at higher speeds and quality but with advertising intact or use a system of subs allowing multiple commercial streams to be spread across a variety of programming. it's just a logical extension of the network. people who download benefit by the higher quality/speeds. advertisers benefit from a market extension, networks/production houses benefit from increased and widely varied audiences without borders as well as the profit streams of streaming. they don't even have to put much into the backend with profit sharing to the isp's who may host the content. kinda gives cable a bit of new meaning. offshore tivo anyone?
Actually, society is the Matrix. But media is the expression of society, so it's a convenient target.
All of these measures which seek to systemically control media according to corporate whims are, ultimately, nothing more than attempts to control our hard earned $$$ via our belief system.
For the time being, I'll control what I watch and when I watch it. But that's only possible because we have TiVo. When the use/possession of that becomes illegal, I will have to move on to other means I suppose. In the meantime, the unfortunately unaware masses will be continuing to feed money to these organizations, exacerbating the problem even further.
Maybe things won't get much worse than they are now (in terms of media saturation), but if things do get worse, it will get ugly. I would prefer to imagine a reformed media system where the media serve the interests of the for-profits AND of the consumer, but it's not obvious to me how that will ever happen. For profit companies seem more intent than ever on enslaving the population at large as much as possible. Does it really have to be that way?
Please mod this post only if you think others should/n't read this. I have enough ego^H^H^Hkarma. Thanks!
I used to have a nice, large television. Now, however, it is going into decline. I don't see any reason to buy a new one, since a nice portable projector can do 1280x1024 res, takes all sorts of inputs, and costs way under $2k.
I may be simple, but I think that for a person who does nothing but watch DVDs and play console games, this thing is perfect. (No, I don't get cable, and if a show is really that awesome, I will buy the DVD. Maybe. Some day. Or use my old Tuner card in a computer ;) )
So, therefore... why would I buy a TV?
WS
An operating system should be like a light switch... simple, effective, easy to use, and designed for everyone.
DIE!
This stuff is not just limited to broadcast TV (though it is even more obnoxious in broadcast TV, because it's OUR spectrum that they are using).
Check out this article which talks about changes that DirecTV is trying to implement. Here's a nice little nugget about controlling those damn Tivos:
News Corp. and Fox are striving to cushion their energetic embrace of personal video recorder technology in DirecTV's set-top boxes with limitations and standards that do not overly threaten the advertising revenue that is key to Fox's TV stations and broadcast network. They will include elimination of the 30-second skip button and place limits on the time allowed to download and store programs.
That's what you get when our wonderful FCC (the same guys that approved the broadcast flag) allowed a content producer - News Corp. (Rupert Murdoch's company, who also owns Fox), to buy a service provider. Don't you love our corporatist Bush administration?!? That sure was nice of Michael Powell's daddy, Colin Powell, to get him that job as the chairman of the FCC.
I've read a lot about this, and the reason they don't want people to have the ability to record high quality copies, and be able to post them on the Internet, is that most European Countries don't get American shows until 1-2 years later.
Even now, last season of shows like Scrubs, are being seen for the first time in Europe. Without the control over when these shows are seen be the Europeans, the MPAA loses the ability to get the higest price from advertisers.
I simply wanted to point out the MPAAs mindset behind why they wanted this. It isn't to "control your TV", it was only a way to make sure that they are getting the most return on their global investment.
I really hate Dan Patrick.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't cassette tapes before CD's? I don't every remember a push with tapes as there is now with CD's, by the MPAA. I had tons more copied tapes than I have CD's now. Also, the cost of a CD has to be nothing compared to that of a cassette! How about just bringing back 8 tracks, then you will be at the dilema of early CD recording . . . there isn't any! Rocco
The problem with piracy and such is much because of the tight control over the markets.
For example many movies or most TV-shows in US is not even available in Europe or Asia. I cannot buy the DVD over the internet because it is encrypted only for US region (ok ok it is easy to get a region free player, but still).
So what option do I have if I want to watch 24, Alias, Dark Angel, Enterprise, X-Files, Futurama or any of the other shows? Sure. I could wait about a year and hope they will show it. The only real option is to download it.
Same goes with movies. Lots and lots of them are not available here. Most Asian are not. And if they are available they are with different content or sometimes a totally different cut or with censored parts.
Or take the show Northern Exposure. Only one season is available on DVD in US and Europe. What other option is there than downloading the rest?
Actually. I buy quite a few DVDs now. Sure. There are movies on the net too. But I would certainly not buy all of them. Nor could I because they are not available here.
In 5 years streaming media sent over the internet will be the "TV" of choice for anyone under 30.
Between people putting their own content out and those operating "pirate" feeds either in places that the the United States legal system can't touch or in encrypted anonymous trading networks, hollywood will never be able to put that genie back into the bottle.
In the mean time I don't have cable and don't miss it. I refuse to pay $50 -$60 a month for crap!
Every time I am somewhere like a hotel room where I can watch cable I end up flipping through 60 channels and not finding anything I want to watch. Who wants to watch a bunch of stupid sheep's pretend lives when you can go and have a life of your own?
My kids watch video's and DVD's that we either own or have rented and they are happy. They watch about 30 minutes of video a night, none of it broadcast. They watch way less then any of their friends. As a result they have time for ballet, gymnastics, swim team, trick jumprope classes, T-ball, scouts, church groups, sleep overs, visits to the liberary, computers, train spotting, ice skating, riding bikes, bowling, and doing their homework, reading stories to dad.
Every wrong attempt discarded is a step forward - T. Edison
The FCC decision about broadcast flag is that import/use/ownership (or whatever) of non-flag-compliant equipment will be considered an FCC offense. However, I never found what it does mean, if broadcasting or EM emissions aren't involved. What are the penalties supposed to be? What's the planned mechanism of enforcement? Isn't it another kind of nearly undetectable pseudo-crime that's going to happen in every other house?
I can tell the future... the broadcast flag will be (mis)used in exactly the same manner as the "fcc" bit in DVDs. The bit that disables the remote while the FCC warning is on screen is already improperly applied to what seems like hours of f***ing previews and other worthless crap on more than just Disney DVDs.
(Incidentally, the previews are a complete waste of space and time as they hold very little meaning years after those movies have been released. How many times do people need to be forced to watch previews for Planet of the Apes?)
http://www.swingmusic.net/Big_Band_Era_Recording_B an_Of_1942.html
New York - From today on there will be no recording of music, classical or jazz, in this country by union musicians. Prexy Petrillo has not backed down by his claim that recording was ruining the jobs of 60 percent of the AFM membership and that he meant to do something about it. As a result only Soundies and Hollywood are exempted from the "no mechanical reproduction of any kind" order.
Petrillo has shifted his position as to the sale of records. He had previously told the companies that they could record for home and Army use, but when it was pointed out to him that the companies would be violating the law if they tried to regulate who bought their records, Petrillo made the edict a complete stoppage.
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
I think what we are seeing with the MPAA/RIAA is the death throes of a dying beast. The only reason we've tolerated their control in the past was that the average person couldn't create decent movies and music. And if they did, distribution was impossible without corporate help.
But very soon technology is going to leap frog right over these dinosaurs, just as the highway system did to the railroads.
I envision 10 years from now, studios run by unknowns employing unknown actors the create movies in the same style that gollum was created in LOTR. Think about it, you could create computer 'puppets' that look and sound like Humphrey Bogart, the original cast of Star Trek or whomever. They will be acting in computer created sets. This might still be expensive now, but if current trends continue I see this being within our reach very soon. I think the studios have foreseen this and it scares the hell out of them, that is why they are being so ruthless now. But in the long run the future will sweep them away like a tidal wave and our children will read about the 'Big Studio Era' in their history books.
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better." - Unknown
So shouldn't it be "loosing" control of your TV in the headlines?
They don't seem to have a problem with copying. Hell I remember seeing Debbie Does Dallas when I was 9 or 10 that way (man was that gross to a 9 year old me!). I couldn't imagine why anyone would want to copy it, much less watch it. Back to the topic, the porn industry just accepts copying and as a consequence puts out a lot of shit (sounds like the RIAA and MPAA to me), knowing they'll make it up in volume.
I guess the movie, tv and music studios need to find a new/better model.
We could stop all this bullsh*t tomorrow if we just took direct positive action and stopped buying those products that restrict our basic rights.
Throughout the thousands of years of human culture, we have shared music, dance and stories within small tribal communities and huge world-spanning empires. Now all that will stop purely because of one thing... money.
Culturally, we are entering into a dark age of human-kind. Globalisation means that our cultural roots become diluted and entertainment is enjoyed only by those that can afford it - those that make that entertainment can only do so because it is profitable meaning that entertainers deemed to be for a minority audience are stifled and ignored by the big corporations that control the media of entertainment.
It's happening now - Hollywood movies have become formulaic, music has become manufactured and plastic, television crammed to the brim with cheap, reality TV programs.
One day, this will all change for the better. As the corporations impose more and more restrictions on the general masses, more people will become disillusioned and there will be a breaking point.
How I hope that one day we become organised enough as "consumers" to take direct positive action. Just imagine if the entire human race, for just 24 hours, didn't go to the cinema... didn't buy a CD or a DVD... turned the televisions off. Imagine the fear that would create in the likes of Disney, Sony & the other media corporations. They would have to listen to us...
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
"In the future the Motion Picture Association of America will control your television set."
In the future, the Motion Picture Association
of America can kiss my ass
The MPAA should worry more about the loss of TV viewership than people making copies of their programs. The way it is going now no one will want to make copies of the programs.
;-)
Which brings up another question! Are the people in Hollywood now so inbred that they can no longer determine what the public likes. There were so surprised by the loss of viewership that they question the figures provided by the Nielson rating company. They still have no idea why there are fewer viewers this year.
Even the latest Star Trek series "Enterprise" is suffering under there heavy hands. They are losing viewers and keep retooling the show...making it worse every time they tweak it. Fixing it would be SO easy yet no one in Hollywood seems to know how to fix either problem!
It is SO easy to fix I would work on a contingency basis, if they ratings don't go up, you don't pay me. Anyone out there in LALA land want to make the best invest you have made in years?
Its funny to see the MPAA wasting money on anti-piracy on television I myself of the Tivo loving group would be in a uproar to the fact that they want to control T.V recording. They must be in league with advertisers on this one.
Digital television is a bitstream. The "broadcast flag" is one bit in that bitstream. A program to flip one single bit in a bitstream shouldn't be a difficult task for any competent programmer. (Yes, there's a checksum to consider, but it's still pretty darned easy).
Wasn't there a thread last week about hacking consumer devices??
In capitalist america, your remote controls you!
Everytime the RIAA or MPAA comes up with another hardware scheme of protecting their content, determined hackers always circumvent it in short order. So far they've failed to protect CDs, DVDs, even satellite signals. They're not likely to succeed for long with this new idea, either. You get a digital tuner with the new technology, flash the firmware with hacked ROM and do what you want, per usual.
I just bought one 2 minutes ago upon seeing your post.
Maybe they'll pull a DirecTV and sue Lik-Kang and try and get my address. There's no way I'm going to settle in court if they try to sue me.
There's nothing I like better than signing up for a stand up fight that I believe in.............
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
While in the UK, the BBC has great plans to put all of its past and present programming online for free via a file sharing net. Crazy world.
My television "set" only had one TV in the box! Bastards!
*shakes fist*
its the kernel isnt it?
why not get GNU Software foundation
to stop them from selling the compilers
the applications , basically stop
them from selling anything other than their kernelb
You know you've been surfing /. too long when you see the word "losing" and think it's a typo.
---- Just another spud server.
They want you to see them so they can collect advertising revenue. If the advertisters knew you weren't going to see the shows at all, they'd yank their ad money.
So, I wonder what it would take to build a box that detected the broadcast flag, and if present, blocked the program? Or at least notified you so you could turn the channel? If enough people refused to watch flagged broadcasts, they'd stop. It wouldn't even have to be a majority of watchers. It'd just have to be enough that the media could get ahold of it and spin it.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
the beeb has started to suck big time over the last few years:
#1: over reliance on ideas that prove popular. docusoaps. house makeover. garden makeover. crappy one off dramas. long running dramas. Comedies starring people famous in other comedies, no matter how bad the new show is. Horizon is now an excersize in nice camera angles and talking about the personalities of the scientists than talking about any theories they have.
#2: new digital channels
they suck (apart from about 10% of BBC4), they eat money and have no viewers. Crikey, they interrupted a film last night on BBC3 (the only way that channel gets *any* viewers is to put on films that should be on the main channels) with their crappy 60 second 'news' which is celeb obsessed. I mean for 60 secs of unimportant news, couldn't it wait until after the film?
#3: BBC website. Eats money and most of it has nothing to do with the beeb. it in fact stifles creativity in the private market as they have money to burn.
#4: because of #2 & #3, it's repeat central on BBC2. excellent, another repeat of 'Porridge'? rather than trying out some some stuff?
really its getting to the stage that im going to scrap tv. i already stopped paying for sky as its full of rubbish. there is nothing I make time to watch.
This is our right.
If the stations fail to provide for the satisfaction of the communities in which they have been granted a temporary and terminable monopoly on the use of our limited broadcast spectrum, then it is our right and our duty to terminate their broadcast licenses and allow them to be sought by alternatives who might better serve and satisfy needs and wishes of the community.
Make no mistake.
Our power is mighty.
For we are The People.
Yea.. mod me down or something. Everyone who blasts TV or say "I have not had TV since Jesus was walking the earth" is not getting what I get.
TV shows are fun to watch. They have some great series on right now, including CSI, Law and Order, and.. my GOD.. WRESTLING.
Those that missed Babylon-5.. I am sorry you did. Its out there in DVD land, go see it.
There are good programs.. and I kinda sit on the History Channel. That is one great TV.
See the TechTV and watch all the cool gadgets?
In the end, The broadcast flag will be annoying. I doubt that they will force it on the citizens at the date they say.. there will be ANOTHER delay and then another.
They put this Digital thing out and when I go camping with my 5 inch black and white.. HOW CAN I SEE MY SHOWS?
I can program myself out of a Hello World Contest!!
Jerry Doyle, the actor who played Security Chief Michael Garibaldi on Babylon 5, said that the first season was filmed for about $950,000 an episode -- he figured it was about $19 million for the whole season.
With B5 doing extremely well in DVD boxset form (Doyle commented that 350,000 boxsets at about $80 apiece would bring in $21 million) he remarked that they could effectively film a season and throw it in a box set and it'll eventually make money.
Obviously, that has some pitfalls -- I'm not going to shell out $75 to $100 for a season of a show I haven't watched any of -- but it does lend credence to what you're saying.
Another example would be Red Vs. Blue. Sure, the episodes are free for download in a low-res form; if you donate money, you can get access to high-res versions of the episodes; at the end of the season, they sell a whole season on DVD, and the best part is, if you basically donate the amount the DVD costs over the course of the season, you get it for free!
Leaving aside the fact that Paramount would bury them in lawyers for basically doing fanfic episodes in the vein of Star Trek: the Original Series, Starship Exeter would be another good example of something that might be entertaining, at $8 - $10 a DVD for two episodes, to pick up once in a while. (I'm not sure how they're making money doing basically fanfic episodes in the vein of Star Trek: the Original Series; I assume it's simply for the fun of it.)
I haven't had cable for over 4 years, and it hasn't hampered my ability to socialize with the world; I get my news from Google News and the local paper; friends will record stuff and loan it to me once in a while (I watched Battlestar Galactica and the SciFi Dune miniseries this way) and if you're good at listening, you can get people to tell you what happened on that show you used to watch. (Oral storytelling takes on a new life...?) I'm thinking of signing up for NetFlix and watching TV shows on DVD that way, at least enough to know whether or not I want to buy the box set.
If the MPAA or the networks or whoever want to try to force me to watch shows their way, on their schedule, they will fail. In fact, I'd say they've already failed, not just with me, but with the demographic that's typically the most lucrative for them as well.
Jay (=
People in Japan are really taken advantage of. If they want to buy episodes, they are forced to buy 1 or 2 episode DVDs. But since digital recording is prevelant, most wait for people who supply raw rips of the shows (anime in this case), download them, and since they speak the language, can store a very clean episode on their PC. This April, the changes mentioned in the article will be taking effect so it will be impossible to download recorded shows since they will be in encrypted format. What some fansub groups are doing now are putting together all their unused cycles to try to figure out if the encryption can be broken through distributed processing. More information can be garnered here and here.
IIRC, this is a dupe of an article from several months ago...
My friendly neighborhood public librarys (all of them) do treat the patrons as criminals. They have armed security guards patroling the stacks. That started right after 9/11, prior to that there was already an armed sheriff's deputy stationed outside the library door. I guess they thought Osama was hiding in the kiddie reading room or something. As far as FBI warnings, there are in fact some notices of federal copyright law, posted above the photocopiers. In any case, the library experience is sure ruined for me, and I only go there now when the g/f wants to check out a book.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece
Pretty sick considering how young PBS is.
Also fun to hear NPR brought to you by GE....
Most of the young males these days no longer watch TV. They play computer games instead. AD supported broadcast TV is dead, it just does not realize it yet. Commercials breaks are used to go to the john or flip channels or skipped via VCR or TiVO/ReplayTV. Tivo I think recently reported that most of its viewers skipped commercials except when watching the news. Well I find it amusing because when I have the news on I am usually only listening to the news and not even watching the screen. At that time its usually just background noise while I work or play on my computer.
Once all of our jobs are outsourced, we won't be able to afford a television that accepts high def signals.. much less afford cable or sat.
I'm not concerned.
There's nothing good on TV anymore anyway.
"My gf is actually pretty pissed off that I don't have cable"
I hope she does good oral and anal, because otherwise, no girl is worth this kind of bullshit. You've really got to stand up for yourself with chicks, or they'll walk all over you.
Treat them like crap, and they come begging. And they say guys are screwed up.
Their going to get their way eventually. Time to go back to local stage plays and wandering minstrels. Give it up people, move along, there's nothing more to see here.
Steve's Computer Service, Hobbs, NM
If libraries did not exist, and you suggested them today, people would think you were a "communist" and you'd be called a "thief".
Sorry, big media corps. Get stuffed.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
"There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from.. The MPAA"
These people must be very dumb.
The signal comes through set top boxes (satellite, cable) or a VCR connected to an aerial, so this tv modification won't stop anything.
SCIREV.NET - fanfics,reviews & more
I already watch all the movies I please on my nice clear LCD computer screen.
All your TVs are belong to us!
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FM Clan
Then they're going to have to pay me to watch it!
If it's not Consolidated Lint, it's just fuzz!
Ever heard Weird Al Yankovic's "I Can't Watch This"? That sums it up nicely.
You bring up a good point, cable has become more and more expensive. As far as i have seen the main advantage to the big upgrade in our fiberoptic lines over the past few years (subsidised by the government) has been to peddle a more advanced version of the TV guide, or that channel with the scrolling boxes....
JESUS CHRIST, i can get buy using narrowband dialup and occasionally turning on the TV when a plane hits a building.
I showed my family what was accomplished monthly with the purchase of digital cable, and 5 dedicated IP's from pacbell (essentially almost 120-140 bucks a month on those alone). When you sepparate your self from the DAILY viewing of FRIENDS or spending 5-10 hours online playing Ever Quest, you finally realise you had all the time in the world to do something rewarding.
I shut down my cable for 6 months, bought a new snowboard, saved money for lift tickets and had a blast this winter, plus i stayed in shape.
People wonder where their money goes...wonder why the've doubled over the legitimate leans on their houses...
CABLE=$50-$70
INTERNET=$30-$70
PHONE=$20-$50
CELL=$30-$100
HOUSE=$1000-$4000
CAR=$100-$300
---TOTAL---
$1230 - $4590
America wonders where their money goes....they've got it tied up in so many 1 to 12 year contracts you could make a shit load of money running a financing business....ohhh wait i already am.
above numbers are my liberal middle class estimates. %rase_flame_shield
You can't video movies shown on Sky Box Office in the UK because they have Macrovision. Worse, my DVD recorder won't even fire up and just displays a copyright message on the front display. I'm sure the recorder can be hacked in some way though.
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
In a windows enviornment, this kind of control would be easy. In a linux env, i really really really doubt they can figure out a way to keep me from digitally describing the movement of pixels on my screen. ^.^
Turn it off!!
;-)
It how has got to a point that watching T.V. is no longer a pleasure.
With Sky, the main thing that pisses me off is that they synchronize the ad breaks across all channels.
My solution is to hit the mute button as soon as they start!
They are a little less annoying when you can't hear them
but its still 57 channels of crap!
__
Sigs are like arse-holes, everybody has one
Your argument is that "the only party benefitted by the supression, is the MPAA. Thus, it's a blatantly corrupt law." As a counter-example, consider a regulation prohibiting someone from using a cell phone on his own property that happens to be next door to a radio telescope. Isn't "the only party benefitted by the supression." the astonomers operating the telescope? Does that mean this is also "a blatantly corrupt law"?
I don't think we can judge a law based soley on who benefits from the law. We need to dig deeper.
With the examples you give, the regulations serve to prevent you from polluting the air I need (emissions controls on cars) or interfering with my electronic equipment (frequency and power on a cordless phone). This is supposed to prevent people from damaging the property of others.
In the case of the broadcast flag, the regulation attempts to prevent you from selling copies of a movie to other people. This is supposed to prevent you from selling other people's property and thereby damaging them by preventing them from deriving full value from their property. 'Course, this is only a valid argument if you accept the idea of intellectual property (and even then, there's damage to the fair use concept).
If you want to argue against intellectual property, do so.
I use an HDTV tuner card for off-the-air HDTV, and a Hauppauge 350 card (in the same computer) for cable/analog TV.
It is a little tricky getting the drivers to live together, but I found a handy howto on getting it done (sorry, I don't have the link handy, but check out the mythtv forums, pcHDTV forums, and ivtv driver lists for details.
Far easier, if you have more than one computer, is to have your HDTV tuner card in one and your hauppauge card in a second. Mythtv allows you to use one seamless interface for multiple backend recorders, giving you the best of all possible worlds with a lot less manual hacking than is required if you try to combine all of the hardware into one box (this was ultimately my preferred solution, though you CAN make the hardware all work together with a little blood and sweat).
It is a bit of work getting all of this working seamlessly, but having control of your own hardware (rather than giving such control to the MPAA or another third party) makes it well worth the time.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
Live in the land of the free. Hang on there's something wrong with that statement.
Saying Apple is better than MS is like saying Botulism is better than rabies.
You slahbots keep going about how greedy and evil the MPAA/RIAA/Microsft/etc are. Did you stop to think that maybe the greedy and selfish people are YOU? Seems like all you want to do is come up with excuses to download songs illegally for free, and even if they were to do everything you required inorder for you to buy, you still would download the stuff for free.
Another example of greed is those who have downloaded thousands of albums, and stuff their harddrives full of warze. Wouldn't be surprised if a majority of them are leechers, which is pretty selfish behavoir.
... then you can copy it. Period.
Anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying or selling you a copy protection scheme. (Usually both)
When big media tries to control what you do with your own things, return the favor.