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Death By DMCA

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the law-to-the-head-ed-grubberman dept.

Dino writes "There's a good article in the IEEE Spectrum, titled 'Death by DMCA', which talks about how whole classes of devices were eliminated, and how others won't even see the light of day as a result of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. One example is ReplayTV's TiVo-like devices which featured sharing capabilities, along with automatic ad skipping; the company was sued to bankruptcy, and the reincarnated device supported neither sharing nor ad skipping."

2 of 414 comments (clear)

  1. Re:more proof the RIAA/MPAA are insane by modecx · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    How do they do it? They integrate their ads into the content of the network, and they will work with advertising services that specialize in interesting and unique ads.

    Think of the Superbowl. Nearly as many people watch the game with the hope that they can catch a tiny moment of funny as the people that watch the game itself!

    Maybe that weird ass Buger King will make an appearance on one of the lawyer shows, or the CSI people will use Mr. Clean products to clean up pools of blood. Make it good, and people will watch. Too bad that's quite contrary to what they think what people want to watch.

    --
    Constitutional rights may be respected, repealed, or modified; but they must never be ignored.
  2. ad skipping by epine · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Ad skipping remains perfectly legal. No one is forced to own a television in the first place. I don't see the point in getting all hung up over removing the mind control substance from a meal that was never very nutricious in the first place. Once a month I go to my local video store, rent five movies for a week for $10. I can barely *find* five movies a month worth watching. With some help from my pickiest friends I have another five movies on deck.

    http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/gaza_strip/
    http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10005064-darwins_n ightmare/
    http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/syriana/
    http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/enron_the_smartest _guys_in_the_room/
    http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mondovino/

    Seems to be a common theme here: some of these might be a little depressing. There's the problem. Most people who moan about skipping the ads aren't prepared to go all the way.