What good is a TiVo if recorded programs are weighed down by significant restrictions preventing consumers from watching saved content?
Both ReplayTV and TiVo have agreed to significant replay restrictions on recorded content, thanks to the lawyers in Hollywood. A story in the San Jose Mercury News discusses the agreement. Snippet:
The makers of TiVo and ReplayTV digital video recorders have agreed to limit how long consumers can keep pay-for-view movies stored on future versions of the VCR-like devices.
The new technology also will allow Hollywood movie studios and broadcasters to regulate how often movies purchased through pay-for-view services can be watched. Digital video recorders that recognize these new copy restrictions will begin appearing in the spring of 2005. But it could be years before entertainment companies begin to take advantage of the technology, according to ReplayTV President Bernie Sepaniak.
Read the full story here.
Geek News Central predicts the demise of these DVR companies within two years.
TiVo, what are you thinking? You were finally on the right track, as this article in this month's Business 2.0 magazine explained. First you took off the ability for users to skip through commercials, now you're agreeing to restrictions limiting the one thing consumers purchase your appliance for - to "time shift" and be able to watch programming on their schedule.
Hollywood (much like the RIAA) forgets that honest consumers had none of these restrictions back in the days of cassette tapes and VCRs. And they seemed to be able to make a decent profit back then, didn't they?
Sigh, and I wanted a TiVo Series 2. Makes me reconsider...
-aB
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