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

Meh....

[Capt James McCarthy]

I probably get flamed for this, but I really don't care enough about television to have an opinion about the issue. Will/has it spread out to other forms of "media rights?" I believe so, but then again, the music industry can join televsion in the toilet for all I care. I won't miss it.......at least, I don't think so.......Hmmm, life without television or music, who would raise our kids???

Re:Producers should not be enslaved to the Consume

[WH]

Who let you out from under the bridge?

I'm ready: I don't give a crap

[metamatic]

So long as the broadcast flag only applies to HDTV, I don't give a crap, because I've already decided I have zero interest in HDTV. And yes, I've seen it.

There's no point having the shows in high resolution if they're still packed full of ads, have ugly station logos in the corner, and are mostly crap. There are maybe three stations I'd care to watch in HD, and it would pump the cost of cable or satellite to over $50 a month to get those stations in HD plus the handful of other channels I watch, so I'm not interested.

Movies I watch on DVD.

Re:Write Some Letters

[yellowstone]

Ahhh... but grasshoppah... that toothead boozehound pot smoker G. W. Bush IS in office. ;P

Gasp! You mean our president was something of a partier 30 years ago?! Shocking!

Oh, wait. That's been widely known for more than 5 years. It's not shocking at all. It's really funny, in a pathetically sad kind of way, the way the Bush-haters cling to this story, and at the same time give Clinton's "I tried it but I didn't inhale story" a pass.

Re:Write Some Letters

[eno2001]

I didn't give Clinton a pass. I want equal time. Put both the jackasses up as examples of supremely stupid judgement. It's just that Bush is worse because he wouldn't admit it.

Re:Write Some Letters

[cayenne8]

"I didn't give Clinton a pass. I want equal time. Put both the jackasses up as examples of supremely stupid judgement. It's just that Bush is worse because he wouldn't admit it."

You know...if we don't allow anyone who got high a few times at least in High School or College...the pool to pick from for elected representatives is going to get too small to pick from.

I dunno anyone who never partied in their younger days....and they're all Doctors, Lawyers, or successful businessmen these days. This may strike some as weird, but, drugs are for younger people. Once you get older and have to be responsible in the 'real world'...possibly responsible for your own kids, you don't have the time to do that crap anymore. I view it pretty much as a right of passage...something just about every kid does IMHO, and something you shouldn't hold against them later in life...