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Is The Public Stuck With The Broadcast Flag?
peeping_Thomist writes "The only company that sells HDTV tuner cards for Linux has run out of cards to sell, and they are now missing deadlines for new getting new cards. Linux users who want to view and record HDTV face an uphill battle. Meanwhile, the dreaded July 1, 2005 deadline for manufacturing DRM-free HDTV tuners is fast approaching. MythTV supports HDTV tuner cards, but so far no one has made a move to, as the EFF puts it, "buy, build, and sell fully-capable, non-flag-compliant HDTV receivers" prior to the July 1 deadline. The current combination of MythTV and pcHDTV (assuming pcHDTV cards become available again) may, as the EFF says, be "great for geeks," but it is a far cry from the TIVO-esque simplicity a mass market demands. Unless someone can get bring a DRM-free hdtv recorder to market before the deadline, it seems the general public will have no chance to avoid the broadcast flag."
-- Bob
1^2=1; (-1)^2=1; 1^2=(-1)^2; 1=-1; 1=0.
Why act like this is the end of the world? Just stop 'consuming' the 'product' if you do not like the 'terms' the 'product' is offering.
In short - screw 'em. They make their money from advertisers and if the advertisers don't get eyeballs, they can't make money.
I'm not planning on buying any HDTV gear until I hear what way the broadcast flag useage is trending. And if PBS is using the broadcast flag, my donations will go away there also.
Yeah, great, you are preaching to the choir and you are posting to Slashdot. Way to look like you are practicing what you preach...
People don't want to go outside. They don't want to be active. They certainly don't want to care about the broadcast flag.
People aren't going to know that the broadcast flag infringes on their rights because they don't know their rights and they don't care to know them. They want to sit down on their couch as soon as they come home and let the cable TV wash over them.
Thinking, being active, and life without TV is something that most people could not handle. Talking about religion? No way! That's no PC. Talking about politics? You mean talking about who is going to be voted off Survivor right? Because voting isn't important to people.
This is the wrong way to get around this problem. I say a boycott after the deadline would be far more effective. If nobody purchased a tv tuner after the deadline, that would speak volumes. It would have be a very organized protest, but with enough attention, it could work.
At first filesharing and music swapping was for geeks. No one outside of geekdom knew much about it. Look at it now, AOL users are doing it (HA!). The general public has gone from seeing it as a small group of p1r8t3s stealing music, to some sort of Robin Hood analogy fighting the RIAA.
I can't see HDTV DRM being much different. Tivo modifications are not uncommon, I even saw a few how-to books for it at B&N last week. Eventually consumers will clue in and WANT to record HDTV, legally, like they do now with NTSC and a VCR.
The only difference with HDTV is that it is almost being forced out to consumers where Mp3's, DVD's and CD's were slowly introduced and adapted. Even my friends who are usually early adopters haven't said a damned thing about getting an HDTV card, decoder, or HDTV-ready TV. There has been very little chatter about this from the tech media. Yet, the broadcasters, electronic makers,and the government have already started tossing around legislation for HDTV. The point is that DRM is being forced on consumers, so is HDTV.
You have to trick consumers into buying what you want them to buy and the current HDTV and DRM crowds are not being that subtle. Consumers will be revolting ('well mostly they're just rude') as soon as this crap starts to complicate what used to be a simple task.
How about that technologies like these let people spend less time watching TV and pick out those few shows that _are_ worth watching without being force to adapt their lives to the networks schedules?
PVR technology is a good thing for both people who watch a lot of TV and those who only watch a little.
The public always has a choice. People can refuse to buy a sub-standard product. Industry greed drives this silliness, let them kill themselves.
So... when the FCC declares analog broadcast waves dead, and every digital receiver legally manufactured has a broadcast flag, where's the choice then?
Sure, *I'll* be exercising the choice not to watch, as I already do, and perhaps you will as well. But for the millions who can't do without the real opiate of the masses....
Tweet, tweet.
How about keeping your opinions about what I do with my spare time to yourself? Or at least, don't be so superior about your decision not to watch it.
TV is a form of entertainment, no more or less a waste of time than watching movies, playing video games, reading or perusing the intraweb-- which all have their ratio of good-stuff-to-crap. If I want a way to record the Sopranos, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Strangers with Candy, Larry Sanders, King of The Hill, The Office etc. so I can watch them when I feel like it, then please stay out of it. Believe it or not, I can watch a couple hours of TV a day and still have time to ride my bike and hang out with friends.
my password is private, but unchanged.
I can't. She's watching TV.