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Microsoft Patent Monetizes Your TV Remote
theodp writes "Microsoft, reports GeekWire, is seeking a patent on monetizing the buttons of your TV remote. In its application for a patent on 'Control-based Content Pricing,' Microsoft explains how one can jack up the cable bill of those who dare fast-forward past a diaper commercial or replay a sports highlight. From the patent application: 'If a user initiates a navigation control input to advance past (e.g., skip over) an advertisement, the cost of a requested on-demand movie may be increased. Similarly, if a user initiates a replay of a sporting event, the user may be charged for the replay control input and for each subsequent view control input.'"
I skipped this article.
When the foot seeks the place of the head, the line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.
and you realy expect people dont find ways to steal media content from the web?
Does the patent cover giving the customer a refund if she pushes the "off" button?
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
In fact, I do not have a TV and dropped that waste of time about 8 years ago. Never missed it since then.
With the amount of stupidity that idiot box pours out these days, that sheer amorality of this patent does not surprise me. The source does not either.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Now where have I heard this idea before... Ah, right!
Though to be fair, the patent seems to have come first (Filing date: Mar 19, 2004, Issue date: Nov 22, 2011, WTF.) Great minds think alike?
...that my TV is receive-only. No pay-TV, no on-demand, just unencrypted broadcasts. If you can't deliver that, I will just stop watching. Your move.
Dont they realize that some would choose to be without the tv all together rather than having to pay more and more for less.
Well maybe it's just me who have ditched the cable tv and just have an antenna. The shows I want to see aren't aired in my country anyway.
After a month or two it is really not hard to live without. I don't even miss it anymore just wonder why it was that I was willing to pay so much money for it.
If they get the patent they can charge so much for the license that none of the media companies will buy it.
bah.
Considering a number of large television providers use Microsoft Mediaroom (which requires Microsoft certified set-top boxes, most of which are PVR capable) today, there is already a large platform this patent could be deployed to. But I guess it's a sign of the times - upfront subscriptions are slowly disappearing, with pay-per-use content (such as Video on Demand) and Micro-transactions taking over. Who knows, maybe we will see an overall reduction in subscription costs with patents like this, but probably not any time soon. I don't know if the average broadcast television subscriber is ready to be nickel-and-dimed for skipping a commercial yet.
I find it amusing that people would wast money making applications that have never really been thought about.
We are constantly moving toward more competitive media platforms, why would anyone use a service that forced them to pay to skip ads, and then why would any company want to advertise to a (hence) low consumer base. I even think there would be considerable (more than normal) anger at any advert that you knew you could not skip. People DO NOT like taking a step backwards. If you hadn't noticed, its goes against our very nature.
I know I wouldn't want the name of my company on a remote that consumers will hate more and more every time they touch it.
But hey its only fair I guess that the general public get to grow to hate M$ as much as us computer geeks. But maybe I'm wrong, I never thought anybody would be willing to pay for Xbox live for something the competitors give away free.
I think what we need to get out of this is that this is for a patent application. 1) It needs to be approved (though it probably will). 2) This does not mean they can make every remote already out there do this. What its probably intended to accomplish is give Microsoft a way to profit if TV/movie producers decide that they want to cause these charges to occur. Then Microsoft can say 'hey, we already thought of that, pay us money'.
This is so pathetic... Both the idea and the patent system itself.
..download content without the copyright owner's permission (so-called "piracy").
stay out of my TV and Remote!!!
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
I still can't get the last thing I saw on tv out of mind. It was such a blinding confusion of color and screeching sound that I'm now permanently blind from it. Can the Queen save God?
Although we still have a cable box, the only reason the TV is even used is for the local news so we'll be dropping that soon. Hell I don't watch it and haven't really missed it in the last 10 years because there's nothing intligent on and I'd rather read a good book.
Mod me up/Mod me down: I wont frown as I've no crown
are they going to charge me twice and if they do, is Microsoft going to sue them for patient infringement?
They've stolen this idea from episode two of Black Mirror. Trust Microsoft to take a scary dystopian idea and try to make it come true.
Anyone else thinking of the second episode of Black Mirror? Hey Microsoft, let me give you a hint: that story was intended as a joke or dystopia, not an ideal to strive for.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Charging developers more if they use another DB product than MSSQL and so on ...
Soon subscription + pay per use DLC like video games?
Are they trying to kill TV or what?
I don't even own a TV any more -- my computer is my media center. I became addicted to PVR technology in the US when I had DirecTV with TiVO.
When I moved back to Canada, torrents took the place of the TiVO. I'd become addicted to the idea of watching shows when I want to, instead of on some arbitrary schedule. I expected I'd watch more TV seeing as I could watch it whenever I want, but instead what happened is I started watching less -- a lot less.
For some reason, once I broke the mentality of "slave to a schedule", I soon broke the "slave to a series" mentality as well. I still download all kinds of TV series and archive them, but to be honest, I doubt I watch 2 hours of what I download per week. The rest is just archived for that inevitable some-day retirement when I expect to have time to waste time on something as unimportant as series TV.
So pay extra for skipping ads? *LMAO*
Ah well, I guess it's like an atomic weapon. Just because it can be built doesn't mean it's legal to use or would be tolerated by the public.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
I wonder if, someday, I'll hear about a media or tech company doing something that doesn't make me even happier I'm a pirate.
I explicitly release the above into the public domain.
I'd like to see them try to put DRM and content monetizing opportunities on to my VCR. Irritatingly there is a sucker born every minute and I can see idiots be totally fine with this scenario in the not too distant future.
I will not count myself among their number; I'd rather read a book and abandon TV altogether than pay twice to watch the same sports play or skip a tampon advert.
Think about it this way: If anyone does try to implement this type of thing, they have to pay Micro$oft for the Patent.
Now, if they don't wish to put such a financial burden on a system such as this, (thus increasing its cost, and reducing its appeal to the end user), they'd opt to leave such a feature out.
Active DISCOURAGEMENT of a Bad Idea by Patenting it, so they can actually DENY it to folks, and the right to Sue if anyone actually Infringes!
Big Oil has been doing this for years, tho: Buying up high fuel efficiency ideas, patenting them, and Denying them to anyone, and suing them into the ground if they try to bypass their patent.
Not that I'm For such a "feature" on any system I'd subscribe to. This would be a decent way to head such a heinous money-grab off at the pass!
Maybe "Uncle Bills' Kids" aren't as bad as we all thought...
That, or I'm simply seeing a possibility that others are far more likely to Implement than avoid...
In THAT case, say Hello to rampant 'Product Placement' as revenue! After all, I don't see ANYONE wanting a system like this anywhere near their wallet!
...in the three-way who-can-be-most-evil tennis match between Apple, Microsoft, and Google.
If this ever happens, I'm cancelling cable and throwing up an antenna or simply dropping TV all together.
So if you replay the advertisement instead of skipping it, you should be charged less for the movie. Yay!
This isn't from The Onion!?!
One thing advertisers don't seem to understand is that I actually like catching a new ad when I watch TV at a friend's place. Many of them are very artistic, cute, and funny.
But even a good joke told 5-6 times per day wears thin.
It's the broadcast time that is the majority of the expense for most advertisements, not the creation of the content. Stop torturing people with the same joke 50-60 times per week for a month at a time, and maybe they'll stop skipping over the ads. Show a new ad each day, or at least once a week.
But stop trying to hammer your "message" into us by repeating yourself ad-nauseum at full volume dozens of times per week. All you're doing is pissing off people and forcing them to use torrents and PVRs to escape your tripe.
Modern advertising is as annoying and effective as a two or three year old yelling "Mommie, mommie, mommie, can we..." over and over for three hours straight, trying to wear down their parents.
It's my money in the end. I'm not going to spend it on your products or give it to you just because you nag like a child. In fact, I'm likely to use your competitor's product because they're not insulting my intelligence and harassing me.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
I'd pay for the DSN channel in addition to my regular ones, and switch to it during the commercials. And leave it to Dogbert to handle Microsoft or whoever the content provider of the advertized channel is.
As Apple is kicking themselves that they didn't think of this first. Soon to be announce an Apple TV patent that more intuitively charges you for thinking about skipping a commercial.
jsut athnoer menagiensls ltitle psrhae for you to dcoede. Why do we wtsae our tmie dnoig tihs?
just get a dish and don't hook it to the phone line.
Both dish and directv don't force you to hook there boxes to the internet or the phone line any more.
So this means they're going to give me the option to pay a little extra and automatically skip commercials right? Right...?
Even more abuse, and expense, from cable companies? Why do people put up with up?
You can watch practically anything on the internet. Not to mention services like netflix, hulu, or amazon, for about $8 a month. I have heard of people paying $190 a month for comcast.
Also, I think there are ways to get HDTV from broadcast signals.
...to Microsoft's evil??? (Or Apple's, or Google's, etc.)
Maybe this will catch some flack, but what if they just tracked how many people fast forwarded through what content?. Then you can sell that data back to the content providers. That seems a little less punitive and depending on the spin you give it, almost a value to the consumer.
I wonder if they plan use this to charge people for skipping Windows 8?
No... I'm going to give you the same answer to this type of garbage that I alway's have:
READ your TOS - as far as I can tell, and that some laywer friends of mine can tell, and unless there is something specifically stating this in YOUR TOS, You are NOT liable for 'skipping advertising of any kind' when you sign your agreement with your local broadcasting company.
The advert's are nothing more than a nuisance to most people, and do absolutely nothing except provide for 'snack/bathroom break' time during the show. As far as 'advertisers/distributors /producers' aiming to make thier money back by violating your eyeballs, tough luck, they didn't pay directly for that privelege.
Sometimes people just have to learn and adapt to change, it is one of the requirements of being a living thing.
People actually pay for movies on demand WITH advertisement in them?
...we'll start getting "Drive by Rewinds"
A bunch of geeks high on red-bull and cheesy puffs in a 4x4 armed to the teeth with universal remote controls.
Driving the suburbs, Sega beats blaring from their iPhones, aiming their remo's at the houses pressing the rewind button.
Costing the poor householder $$$ in MS rewind fees...
Laters Sol "Have you found the secrets of the universe? Asked Zebade "I'm sure I left them here somewhere"
+1 "Capitalism"
The best thing about UDP jokes is I don't care if you get them or not
Linux user since 1991.
Or just don't watch sports, it's a total waste of time.
As if posting on slashdot is more productive.
It comes down to this: If hitting the forward and back buttons are going to start costing me money, I'll find a way to view content where that doesn't apply. The content providers don't yet understand, even after all these years, that they're competing with free. They have to do better than expect revenue for skipping past inappropriate commercials before we will agree to use their service.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
I used to work for Directv satellite and we had printouts of the percentage of commercials on every channel, with ESPN coming in as the highest rate of commercials topping just over 80% commercials to around 20% content ratio. These were all part of "talking points" for corporate and VIP customers mainly.
I personally got fed up with spam tv, We don't like spam in our inbox, we don't like junkmail at our home mailbox. So why should we put up with spam everywhere?
Around 1998 I had had enough with spam and cut pay tv all together and went 100% pirate. Since 1998 I started with newsgroups and was working at an ISP that had an employees only FTP server filled with tons of movies and tv shows.
Then went with torrents and still using newsgroups
I got an older laptop I installed XBMC on it, I installed the http://icefilms.info/ plugin on it, as well as few other plugins which is what I use now.
1998 - 2012 so far I have enjoyed spam free television/movies. There is no way in hell I would ever go back to anything with commercials...Noone should put up with spam tv anymore, the only way to stop it is for everyone to "block" it and remove themself from the spam. As companies see this occurring they will have to change their entire market strategy or I would hope so.
Fuck Spam and any hardware that facilitates it.
My friend had an annyoing teenage neighbor who kept shooting paintballs at his house. Rather than call the cops, he figured out how to use his remote on the kid's TV, and switched it to the Playboy Channel the instant his mom walked in.
"That's either incredibly asinine or the most brilliant troll I've ever read. Not sure which." -Anonymous Coward
"FUCK YOU, Microsoft". Any other response indicates a fatal lack of resolve against bullshit like this.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
The US constitution gives Congress the power to grant patents to "promote science and the useful arts". How do patents like this promote either? Note that "business" is not an art-that falls under interstate commerce regulation (clearly not mentioned in the section describing justification for patents).
I, for one, would love to see the courts start throwing out abuses of the law happening all over the place that don't meet a plain reading of the constitution as it was understood by the rgular voters who ratified it in the first place.
science is a religion
Can I just patent "screwing over my customers in increasingly rediculous ways"?
Obligatory SMBC comic: http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2490#comic This is what will happen when you allow viewers to skip ads ;)
That the universities are putting out a lot of crap grads who can't tell the difference between if and else. That and it may well explain why ComSci as a discipline never recovered from the .com to .gone event. It's all Microsoft's fault!
What amazes me is how OLD is this idea. People have been making jokes about TVs that refuse or chare you for muteing or skiping ads or turning it off since forever. It's exactly the kind of dystopic future that is often deemed unrealistic and exagerated fantasy of luddites and hippies. Anf snd now we have the patent for it...
But... the future refused to change.
When I first read this I thought it was dreadful, but what if it was used smartly. What if the cable companies introduced a lower tier of service, where it costs less for the base subscription, and you're charged for every commercial you skip, up to a price a little higher than the next tier service? They could grab a larger percentage of people who think that cable isn't worth it at current prices, while showing investors and advertisers a model with less risk. The micro transactions could give the consumer a feeling of value and choice over when to skip commercials.
...the Central Services jingle, and then look around for Harry Tuttle to come to our rescue.
Sounds like that's the plan. You no longer own your own life, you merely rent it from large corporations.
Would shut off the TV for one day a year.
First flying spaghetti holiday Feb. 1st no TV day.
Bite me many thanks
You are saying that 10Mbit is the top tier? Man that's ridiculous. I take it your government not appreciate the advantages to their economy as a whole that decent, universally affordable high speed internet access brings.
I myself am preparing a patent that registers a windows product sold by stomping on an enema bag filled with vodka , grapefruit juice and tuna fish to give Stevie a washing out while media player streams " If You Like Tuna Colonics? Hits Stevies prostate like shooting up Viagra.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUEvRyemKSg
"You could sell the right to watch the movie for 1 Euro, and then you could rent out the pause button at 1 penny per second"
-- Cory Doctorow in 2011 at 28C3 speaking on the ideas prevalent during the dawn of the "information economy" in 1996 (and being confused about currency). There is probably better evidence / existing patents out there.
This is why I will never pay for cable. It's all on the pirate bay anyway :D
& etc.
"etc." means "et cetera". Using "&" before it means you don't know its meaning. Stop using it.
"And et cetera." Bite my shiny metal ass. We are using a dead language, ffs.
Wow, you learn something new every day. I had no idea that English was dead.
Will Netcraft confirm it? Is English dying? Film at 11.
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
As the content to advertising ratio keeps getting worse, it makes me want to spend even less time in front of the tube.
There are many things I wouldn't be fully aware of, if my quality entertainment were not augmented by informative but yet entertaining advertisement. How can you not pay attention, while women in white pants enjoy horse back riding on the beach, while couples finally find a solution to his little problem, and house wifes discover new products, that create the clean world they deserve?
But of course they wouldn't have to show that many commercials if it weren't for all those freeloaders that don't pay any attention during the commercial breaks and instead go to the bathroom, the fridge, or even talk loudly to other people over the commercial. I'm glad someone is finally doing something about those freeloaders.
asking kids and the mentally challenged viewers is a great way to determine pricing. You know what I've done with cable? Not pay for it for the past 5+ years. It's always been full of trash, there's only like 5 shows I watch regularly, and I do so at my local gym or internet thanks to hulu and other great streaming services. Cable used to cost over $160/mo. + $55 internet. Waste of money and I'll be damned if I pay for a service and get ads on it.
Seems appropriate here.
Et cetera is a Latin expression that means "and other things", or "and so forth". It is taken directly from the Latin expression which literally means "and the rest (of such things)" and is a loan-translation of the Greek " " (kai ta hetera; "and the other things". The more usual Greek form is " ": "and the remainder"). Et means "and"; ctera means "the rest".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Et_cetera
"Et cetra" is latin hence the dead language.
Thank you, and I'll admit my mistake. There's a redundant "and" in what I wrote. It's a fair cop. Mix a (should be) dead language up with a living language, and !@#$ happens.
I really enjoy hanging out with you people.
"Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit
Awesome!
Now that it's patented, nobody will be able to do this.
At least Microsoft is the patent holder. Since when do they have anything to do with television? We only have to worry if Verizon gets the rights to that patent.
Get a library card...
Well instead you could write 'and the rest' instead of 'et cetera' etc.
Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
Well instead you could write 'and the rest' instead of 'et cetera' etc.
Damn, you people are funny at times. :-)
"Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit
If the ads are more interesting than the movie, you may need to look into your taste in movies ...