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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?"
How to best prepare.
Stock up on:
Canned Food
Water
Yacht Batteries
Guns
Ammunition
Follow these simple steps:
maybe I should break down and get one of those newfangled video to LP recorders...
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
My plans involve an underground bunker, stocked with old books and DVD's that will be stored in perfectly dark conditions to preserve them for as long as possible. Upon these DVD's are recordings of the great television shows and movies.
Upon the day of the broadcast flag, I will be taking my family into the bunker along with a supply of food, air, and other needs to last 100 years.
When my great-grandchildren emerge into the world after society collapses, all the old books (which were deemed illegal during the Copyright Stealing Prevention act of 2050) are burned and all eyeballs gouged out during the Copyright Memory Prevention Act of 2075, when humanity has children born without R/M/AA approved Eyeball Extractors coming to remove their ocular sockets to be installed with DCMA III approved cybereyes (which shut down if it appears the looker is attempitng to actually remember what they see to replay it in their mind later, which of course is a copyright violation), then my great-grandchildren will be able to use these books and DVD's as barter.
Hm - I wonder how much food they'll be able to buy with a copy of "Cryptonomicon". Maybe I should get another copy....
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
I was going to write a letter, but decided to watch last night's "Must See TV" for 8 hours instead. I just hope my brain is broadcast flag enabled so I can remember all this fine programming later!
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
If you don't like it, move to another forum.
If I could only write, I'd write my congressman, if he could only read.
-- Pogo
"We'll need 2000 crickets, 4 cans of Easy Cheese, and the fluid from 18 glowsticks for this plan to work...." - ph0n1c
Candy's dandy but bribes are quicker.
English is easier said than done.
When smuggling tuner cards through an airport beware the tuner card sensing, uh, tuner-dogs!
Worse, when smuggling them cards by sea beware the navy seals and their specially trained tuner-tuna.
OK, I did that.
After I made love to your wife, my wife got rather annoyed with me. And she really got pissed when I kept at it after our first child was born.
I ended up having to move to Canada, and I already knew there was pr0n on the internets before I started, so where, precisely, was the win here?
Wow, and I thought he only owned the 'Bing!
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
I keep hearing people say as long as you're able to see/hear/smell it you're able to record it!
Last night my girfriend made the most wonderfull smelling muffins so I decided to record the smell using my camcorder. When I tried to replay the smell all I could smell was a dusty TV. Do you think the FCC has allready placed a broadcast flag for smells in camcorders?!!
That's good....I have to do a presentation for my science class in 20 mintutes. That could be helpful to know... ;)