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FCC Says TiVo Owners Can Share Shows
Ec|ipse writes "Last week TiVo received alot of heat from MPAA and NFL for a proposal regarding sharing of recorded shows with users, see previous story.
Today it looks like TiVo has received approval." From the Reuters story as carried by Yahoo!: "TiVo, maker of popular digital television recording devices, on Wednesday received approval for technology that would permit users to send copies of digital broadcast shows over the Internet to a few friends."
Three words....
There is a GOD!
The government has a defect: it's potentially democratic. Corporations have no defect: they're pure tyrannies. -Chomsky
now about this RIAA mob...
This will last a few days untill the waves of lobbyists show up and the FCC and demand a better return on investment.
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I'll be more impressed if they can be uploaded freely as a standard file without any of this password nonsense, but this is still much, much, much better than caving to the football lobby.
At least until the corporations lobby and buy a change of decision from the FCC.
While this is a win for fair use rights (although it could sanely be argued it goes beyond fair use, I'm not going to be the one doing the arguing), it goes without saying that the MPAA and friends will not take this sitting down.
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Anybody remember the ReplayTV 4500 and 5000 series? They both allowed show sharing. It was a major selling point for ReplayTV, in fact. They were sued by Disney and a few other broadcasters to stop show sharing (as well as an automatic commercial skip feature). There was even a limit on the number of times you could send a show (five times). Does this ruling mean that TiVo cannot be sued and that ReplayTV can reintroduce the feature?
Legit bittorrent downloads? Sounds cool, but I wonder how long it'll last (TV shows to DVD is a lucrative market, and I doubt studios like the idea of competing with downloads). There's bound to be some limitations (I'm at work and too lazy/busy to read the whole article just yet), but still, I just can't believe this is happening. How did this get through?
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I am always skeptical of how this will play out in the long run, but this looks like it could have a significant impact in returning fair-use rights to consumers. ... I would love to know how this might act as a precedent for computer-based sharing methods.
You know that this will be appealed to the powers-that-be who will smack-down the FCC, yet again. It's the kind of news that gives you hope, just before your cynicism of the system is reinforced.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Let's just remember that the Supreme Court sided with Sony on the famous Betamax case that allowed VCRs/VRTs in the first place.
Also, if there wasn't some type of DRM here they wouldn't have gotten certified.
But if they hadn't granted some type of certification they would have run afoul of the Betamax ruling...
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Is there even ONE NFL game worth the bandwidth?
As we've seen with copy protected CDs, fair use rights don't always mean freedom for the customer. Apparently, the recording industry is permitted to make CDs that are "copyproof" despite fair use clauses in copyright law. The rationale is that the customer cannot be prosecuted for making personal copies but the producer does not have to do anything to enable that, and can apparently stop it too. In this case, I didn't see anything in the article that said the NFL or other content producers had to go along with this, it only said the FCC gave TiVO the OK on the technology. I expect to see lots of obstruction efforts on the part of media companies and would be surprised if this gets resolved anytime soon. In the mean time, legitimate customers will be inconvenienced and pirates will continue as usual.
I've been chewing on this for a while..
I know it's legal for me to tape a TV show from the air onto VHS, DVD, or TiVo myself. I suspect it's probably legal for me to, say, loan the VHS tape to a friend so he/she can watch it as well. And now, obviously TiVo owners can send each other episodes they recorded.
How is this all different than downloading a TV episode of a p2p network? I think I remember hearing of people getting DMCA notices for doing exactly that.
Anyone know where the line is in this case?
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Read The Fucking Article.
The Federal Communications Commission voted to certify digital protections on TiVoToGo, which is not yet available but would enable a user to record and send a digital broadcast television show to up to nine others who have been registered on that person's service and has been given a key to see it.
How did the parent get modded up as interesting??
There's one big point that a lot of people seem to be missing:
The fact that TiVo even had to ask the FCC in the first place.
The assumption being that the FCC has some say over whether or not your hardware has the capability to send bits over the wire. Note that it's not whether or not you can send the bits over the wire, but your hardware. The first is behavior potentially regulated by the Constitution, the second is simple innovation.
Yes, the FCC was nice. But it's crazy that TiVo had to ask in the first place. Don't forget that.
-jdm
The FCC also ruled that Bono could say "fuck" on TV. A few weeks after Ms. Jackson exposed her tit, the FCC changed its mind.
The FCC WILL change its mind once networks start throwing their weight around. Heck, even the movie and music industries will get involved with this one. No copyright holder likes sharing without explict and paid permission.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
"As long as we accept computers making LEGAL DECISIONS for us, then we will never get our fair use rights back."
The reason people haven't complained about these laws against petty crimes is because traditionally it was impossible or impractical to enforce them perfectly. How the hell do you stop people from taping songs off the radio or lending VHS tapes of shows they recorded off the air or driving a few mph over the speed limit. Well now with computers it's possible to build recorders that refuse to record off the air or a computer for the car that prints out a speeding ticket every time you go over the speed limit even by 1 mph.
There's an old saying: The best way to repeal an unpopular law is to enforce it strictly.
I'm sure all you Tivo lovers in the US are aware that we don't get it here in Canada, but one glaring omission is starrring me right in the eyes. If I take any TV and just plug it into a wall outlet and fire it up, I'll get free TV. Granted, it's not cable, but it's free. If I Tivo'd these shows, shouldn't I be able to distribut them to anyone else who's just bought a TV and plugged it in also? How would anybody lose money from this? Wouldn't I just be propogating the show itself and getting it to more users on their behalf? A D M
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I don't see how this will really work. All the NFL would have to do is enable the broadcast flag, and TiVo, (I'm assuming they would be compliant) wouldn't allow transfer because of the Broadcast Flag. The industry would simply say, "Sure, implement all the sharing technology you want...as long as it's Broadcast Flag aware."
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