Burn your TIVO!

I caught a segment on Marketplace on NPR last night which talked about a few of the features that TiVo plans to release. The first appears to be restricting the use of Fast Forward to skip passed commercials. In fact, as Marketplace reported it, the TiVo feature will show some sort of advertisements of its own when you hit Fast Forward! The other change for TiVo appears to be that certain Pay Per View events will have a maximum storage lifetime. You will be able to save the event for only a certain period of time on your TiVo device. These, among other things, I found reported on PVRblog. Although I always like the idea of TiVo I, was always put off by the subscription charge, and now I'm sort of glad I didn't succumb because of how TiVo has been chipping away at its features. What I find more alarming is how our Fair Use rights are being whittled away chip by chip without us being able to put up a fight. Although I understand the entertainment industry's concern, they have to remember that we are their customer. Without us, they will not exist. They need to find new ways of generating revenue without annoying us. And without lawsuits against innovators like TiVo. Since I built a homegrown PVR from ATI's incredible All-In-Wonder products years ago, the TiVo problem doesn't nececessarily effect me, save for the thought that legislation will soon make All-In-Wonder a thing of the past too.

(2004-11-18 12:26:48.0) Comments [3] // Permalink

Nigel:       Is this a joke? 
David:       ...this is the...
Nigel:       Excuse me, is this a joke? 
Jeanine:     A joke???