Preparing for the Broadcast Flag?

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?"

Comments

Move

[Quasar1999]

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...

Re:Move

[Dana P'Simer]

That is just plain stupid. The US is a Representative Democracy and there for the best route is to spend some time making your views known to your congressmen and senetors. Not move out of the country.

As for countries where your rights aren't going to be squished, I hope you don't mean any of the european countries. They are mostly Socialist run states and Socialism does not ever foster freedom.

It'ts not Next July, it's THIS july

[Anonymous Coward]

how thick is that?

You people make me laugh

[alienw]

Stop being such a group of crybaby whiners. Constitutional right? Last I checked, the broadcast flag stuff still lets you videotape a low-res version. And there is absolutely nothing in the constitution that says "thou shalt have a right to record copyrighted HDTV programs in their full high-definition glory". If you want high definition recordings, buy the DVD. Movies cost money to make, you know, and TV resolution is good enough for "time shifting" (or whatever other euphemism people come up with for "taping broadcast TV").

Re:Write Some Letters

[yellowstone]

Last I heard, you could get blasted on booze but go to jail for pot unless you were president ...

Oh, c'mon. When are you people gonna give this up? I mean, Clinton isn't even in office any more!

Re:Write Some Letters

[The Angry Mick]

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 . . .

Quotations out of context

[westlake]

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.