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Preparing for the Broadcast Flag?

Posted by Cliff on from the fight-for-your-right-to-timeshift dept.

Couch Potato asks: "I'm worried that, come next July, the FCC mandated broadcast flag will soon take away all sorts of fair use rights I have long enjoyed. Given that there are only a few months left to make purchasing decisions, how best can one prepare for the advent of the broadcast flag?" "I'm somewhat aware of projects like Myth TV, but it's not all that I want. Specifically, I want to make sure that I can record DVDs or similar files of any program I want off of cable, sattelite or broadcast TV, flag or not and without any other encumbering restrictions (such as the Macrovision DRM for DVDs) and without worry that someday they'll change something so that my old drivers and hardware are suddenly obsolete and useless when faced with updates to the formats. Note that this makes closed-source-only drivers an issue, because assuming the hardware can still be adapted to whatever they change on us, open-sources drivers can be modified and closed-source ones probably won't be, whether for legal or practical considerations. So then, what can someone with a modest budget do to make sure that their constitutional fair use rights don't succumb to planned obsolecense, like the VCR has?"

3 of 735 comments (clear)

  1. Move by Quasar1999 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I hate to say it, but if it bothers you that much that you have to circumvent laws/rules placed by your government, or government approved commitee, I suggest you move to a country where your rights won't be squished. Or, sit on your ass and suck it up...

    --

    ---
    Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
  2. Re:Write Some Letters by The+Angry+Mick · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Yeah, but now we won't be able to record and present any video evidence of his, or any other congress critter's bad behavior to the poor sods convinced they're listening to the new, improved, Son of God.

    Not that they'd listen anyway . . .

    --

    I'm not tense. I'm just terribly, terribly, alert.

  3. Quotations out of context by westlake · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    This reminds me of the famous quote

    Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892-1984) U-Boat Commander in World War One. Resisted the Nazi takeover of the churches. Freed from Dachau by U.S. troops in 1945 after surviving eight years in the concentration camps. Martin Niemöller

    I detest the trivialization of quotations from men of this stature. The broadcast flag sets limits on the recording and redistribution of high definition television broadcasts. Nothing more.