TiVo OS Update Adds Content Protection 615
generic-man writes "According to PVRBlog, TiVo's new operating system update enables content protection flags on a per-show basis. On some programs, notably syndicated shows, a red flag appears to indicate that the copyright holder has requested that TiVo devices not save a program past a certain date and that the program may not be copied to a PC using TiVo to Go. TiVo users were told to expect this style of flag only on pay-per-view and video on demand programming, and as such are upset that TiVo has restricted the capabilities of the receivers they bought and subscribed to use. The TiVo Community boards have some screen shots and firsthand accounts."
welcome! (Score:3, Insightful)
- MPAA, RIAA, Disney, M$ and associates
Evil bit (Score:1, Insightful)
Wrong (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, good... (Score:5, Insightful)
That's fine for us ... (Score:5, Insightful)
In the past, Tivo employees have been very helpful in helping users work around these types of issues - they don't really care if you record the show, install larger hard drives, pull video off to your computer, as long as they get their subscription fee.
Hopefully a workaround comes out and makes it to the forums.
And still nobody will care (Score:5, Insightful)
Then there is the minority, who are not media consumers, who remain unaffected by this.
Before the tinfoil hatters come out, and blame the ??AA or the Government, think: when was the last time you watched one of those old Star Trek episodes you taped 15 years ago "in case you ever wanted to watch them again"?
Re:That's fine for us ... (Score:3, Insightful)
It's a bug. It's also a feature! Reconsiderations? (Score:5, Insightful)
As a TIVO owner, I have to insist that TIVO needs to remove this technology because content flags that require a time frame within which to watch the show defeats the purpose of my purchasing a TIVO in the first place. I'm their customer because I could timeshift on my terms. NOT theirs. Not Fox's. Not NBC's.
I also want the ability to transfer it to another medium. If I lose that, TIVO loses me as a customer and no amount of lifetime memberships and HDTV versions of TIVO at a discounted rate will prevent me from leaving.
If TIVO does not remove this feature, I will reconsider remaining a TIVO Customer, and both TIVO and all the content providers lose a "captive" audience member.
Ha-Ha (Score:4, Insightful)
And this is supposed to be so much better than taping? The time shifting abilities of PRV's are great when watching live shows, but really the only people for whom the PVR experience is "revolutionary" are folks too stupid to program their VCR's to begin with.
This and digital cable continue to be examples of consumers choosing wiz-bang technology simply because it's new and not because it's better. Few users have the TV's or proper audio equipment to enjoy "the digital difference" but they all lap it up because of all the stations they can't get otherwise, few of them seem to think about how much more difficult exercising fair use rights becomes because of the converter boxes needed for digital cable.
Re:Driving Sales! (Score:2, Insightful)
And those companies will only allow it if there is "content protection".
It makes perfect sense if you think about their business model and who their real intended customer is.
Re:That's fine for us ... (Score:3, Insightful)
It's a decision I made ages ago, and I highly recommend doing the same for anyone who does computer'ish work for a living.
IIT'S FRAUD -- Demand refunds (Score:3, Insightful)
How would you like it if you took your car in for factory service and they downloaded an update to the car's computer that restricted your speeds to 55mph because of pressure from your state highway patrol?
Don't tell me that because there was some fine print in some d@mn license agreement that you've already agreed to this ahead of time. I sincerely doubt that the TiVo license agreement clearly states: We absoutely will reduce the functionality of your purchased and owned equipment in the near future without your consent to appease the broadcasting and content creation industries.
You bought the box for what it would do at the time of purchase, and have a right to continue to expect it to perform to at least those levels in the future!
Re:That's fine for us ... (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:MythTV Doesn't Do HDTV (Score:2, Insightful)
It takes a fast PC to be able to decode in real time (2.0 ghz or so is recommended), but just recording HDTV off-the-air or from firewire doesn't take any more than recording normal TV.
For the price of a 2ghz PC (how cheap are they, now, $300-$400 for a cheapo?), you can get an HDTV mythbox. Use firewire to record and you don't need a capture card. Use an nvidia card or external converter ($100-$200, maybe?) and you can plug an HDTV right in. Bingo. Add a remote control if you're feeling saucy.
Re:It's a bug. It's also a feature! Reconsideratio (Score:2, Insightful)
But this is simply poor engineering... something I've never said about TiVo before. I understand that if I buy a Pay Per View movie for a buck, I'm not supposed to be able to watch it over and over forever... for that I have to buy the $20 DVD. So, why don't they just charge me per view? I should be able to keep it as long as I want as long as I haven't watched it. Then, after I watch it, it could be deleted, or stay on the hard drive and charge me another buck if I watch it again.
That's pay-per-view!
Re:That's fine for us ... (Score:5, Insightful)
If they had kept the boxes and let you have one as a rental that business model might be valid and the idea that you received some "service" for your monthly fee might have some validity.
But they sold them, and through the crippled nature of their product and the monthly fee they are trying to maintain ownership and control over you and your box, which unfortunately for them they SOLD you.
You can't maintain control over things you sold. If you want to maintain control, don't sell it.
That is now over since they have tipped their hand, first by sending you ads and taking up part of the guide data that YOU ARE PAYING FOR. Now by limiting what you can do with items you have stored in your box, which you own.
I think it's about over for the current Tivo business model.
They should just start being honest, give the boxes out as a rental and then they can control them.
Once sold they lose the ability to control them and I can see the handwriting on the wall, internet accessable guide servers will soon abound and Tivo has no more revenue from people who own those boxes- their current customers.
That is completely fair.
The free market can't work... (Score:5, Insightful)
The most insidious thing about DRM-enabled devices is their ability to change the deal long after you've made your purchase decision.
No doubt there is a legal fiction that you agreed to some fine print somewhere that says, in effect, "I know I'm buying a pig in a poke."
We need a "truth-in-DRM" law. If there were a conspicuous sticker saying "Warning: this device may not actually record the programs you want to record. There is no way for you to know in advance which programs you can or can't record. The fact that you can record your favorite programs now does not mean you will be able to record them in the future," then purchasers would know what they were buying and the free marker could operate.
Re:That's fine for us ... (Score:2, Insightful)
Couple that with the fact that any instructions out there are for older distros of Linux that won't work properly with anything recent and you've got a recipe for head banging. Couple that with really poor remote control software support and it's hard to see MythTV as anything but the Emperor's New Clothes.
It took me days to get no-where with MythTV, and only a few hours to get SageTV and Windows going... and yes I'm posting as AC because round here if you do anything with Windows when you could have use Linux you're a pariah.
Re:And if you don't kneejerk... (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't want to invest $1,000 in a HD-Tivo, only to later find out that programs I record are forced to expire beyond my control. Not to mention the commercials it records automatically, popups on the screen offering more advertising, etc..
What's next? Disable 30 second skip (yes, they are getting pressure to do this)?
No thanks, my MythTV box works great, and will never be forced to obey a company's decision before mine.
Re:Different Account of it over on PVRBlog (Score:4, Insightful)
Who Cares About You? (Score:5, Insightful)
TiVo website blame macrovision and even go so far as to say "Please do not contact TiVo Customer Support regarding copy protection related issues" is a total cop-out.
I think every TiVo owner should precisely be contacting Customer Support about this. Jam up the telephone lines. How else is the company every going to know how their customers truly feel.
Old saying: If you don't take care of the customer, someone else will.
update: I just wanted to reiterate that yes, this was the result of a mistake on the part of the station providing syndicated shows.
Don't consider this an update -- consider a warning! Your local stations already have this switch in place, and all they need to do is flip it now!
Re:That's fine for us ... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:That's fine for us ... (Score:5, Insightful)
What do you back up 500GB hard drives onto? 125 DVD-Rs for $150?
What kind of logic? (Score:2, Insightful)
So if you purchase your cable modem from your cable provider, you shouldn't have to pay for monthly cable service? It is, after all, your cable modem. You should not have to pay to keep using something that you already own.
If you purchased your cell phone from a cell phone provider, you shouldn't have to pay for monthly service. After all, you own the cell phone.. and now they want more of your money just so you can use it?
Oh wait... in both of those examples, you use the company's resources in order to use the product that you own. Kind of like how you pay Tivo to use their guide service that they maintain and operate.
By the way, you can use Tivo without the guide. It just becomes an expensive digital VCR. But a Tivo without a subscription is still far more useful than a cable modem without a subscription.
Re:BUG!!!! (Score:3, Insightful)
Egad, I can see it now: "With our innovative new filter, not only will your shows look clearer, they'll last longer!" Except I won't be laughing at that ad.
Re:MythTV (Score:3, Insightful)
You miss the point (Score:4, Insightful)
He's saying that they are selling boxes and then expect you cannot modify the boxes in any way you see fit.
It's like cell-phone companies (to use your example) locking a phone to one service - users have figured out how to unlock many phones, or activate features the carriers do not want you do have.
In the case of a cable modem, you bought it and can modfy how it does routing as you see fit. Yes you have to pay a monthly service to get a connection through it, but you can still modify the box.
Re:That's fine for us ... (Score:4, Insightful)
But I guarantee that the moment TiVo becomes the "screw the customer, we represent the illogical corporate interests of content providers" company this article implies, all TiVo hacking gloves will come off and their will be a highly successful port of MythTV or FreeVo for the actual TiVo hardware. TiVo knows this. If something like this hits the streets, TiVo is screwed. They don't want this (obviously), so they are highly motivated to balance the interests of their customers and content providers.
BTW- The examples cited in the article are mistakes. Nobody really intended to restrict access to a syndicated rerun, for crying out loud. The restrictions were only supposed to apply to OnDemand and Pay-Per-View content. Somewhere, sombody/something screwed up. The actual circumstances were unintended, but boy did it fire up a lot of TiVo owners! I hope TiVo responds to this in some fashion...
Re:What kind of logic? (Score:2, Insightful)
So if you purchase your cable modem from your cable provider, you shouldn't have to pay for monthly cable service?
Not quite... more like if you own your cable modem, your are free to tell your current provider to take a hike and hook up with a different provider.
If someone were to setup a free provider, you would be within your right to switch to them - though I already know this isn't going to happen, I'm just continuing with your point.
Meaning that if someone out there DOES set up free TiVo guides, you are within your rights to use it.
Obligatory IANAL.
Re:I don't think you get it... (Score:3, Insightful)
A friend who deletes your programs from your TiVo when he feels like it. I have a feeling you haven't tried MythTV lately though. All the features you mentioned (and many more than TiVo has) are in MythTV today. My wife has absolutely no problems using it and any married guy will tell you the wife-acceptance-factor is one of the primary selling points of any consumer electronics device.
Re:What kind of logic? (Score:5, Insightful)
So if you purchase your cable modem from your cable provider, you shouldn't have to pay for monthly cable service? It is, after all, your cable modem. You should not have to pay to keep using something that you already own.
You're muddying the waters here. There are two items being sold a Tivo and a subscription, just like a cable modem and a subscription to cable internet. Your analogy breaks, however, because if I buy a cable modem I can do whatever I want to it, and the cable company cannot. They can't come over and fill the USB port with glue and they can't remotely turn that USB port off.
The problem is, in addition to changing their service, they are remotely disabling features in the hardware box they sold you. They are stopping you from using a specialty computer you bought by remotely turning off functionality. That is called hacking most of the time.
The second problem is that if you sell a service, especially when you sell a lifetime subscription to that service, it is unethical and probably illegal to remove parts of that service from customers who have already paid.
Of course as soon as Tivo started to introduce this DRM crap and tech-savvy user should have known this crap was coming. When a company starts introducing anti-features that make things harder for their customers (because they want to get an account with big cable company and sell bulk) then they have sold you out. That is one of the main reasons I did not buy a Tivo. The interface was nicer and the guide was easier to use than the EyeTV unit/old computer solution I did go with, but I can still record, store on my hard drive, burn to DVD, or transfer over the network anything I want. I archive my favorite shows to DVD, just like I used to save some on VCR tapes. I bought my hardware and while software updates from the vendor may be useful, I won't install any that remove functionality.
As for a subscription, I get my guide information from TitanTV. It is free (banner ad supported) and if I ever need to I can go with a competing service.
you can use Tivo without the guide.
The question is not whether you can use the Tivo without the guide. The question is can you use the Tivo without the guide and store any program you record indefinitely or will it automatically delete via this DRM software they just loaded onto your bought and paid for machine, without your consent?
Re:Ha-Ha (Score:5, Insightful)
You can't be serious. So here's your solution:
And here's the Tivo/PVR/DVR/whatever solution:
Yeah, definitely for people too stupid to program their VCRs. I own a Tivo and I can say, it's got it's share of problems. I think it's idiotic that I need to pay 13 bucks a month just so it can know when a TV show is on. I already bought the damn box. But to say the idea/technology behind Tivo is useless - well I'd have to disagree with that.
Now, if you wanted to make the point that TV isn't that great to spend the money on a device that records it, well you might be on to something there. But man, I love sitting down when I get home from work and having new episodes of shows I actually want to watch there waiting for me.
Re:That's fine for us ... (Score:3, Insightful)
There is no force involved. They're doing exactly what they said they do (tracking use so that their service can learn what to recommend to you, etc). You're certainly not forced to use a commercial product and its companion subscription service. Where does the force come in? Did some armed TiVo goons drag you to Best Buy and make you procure one of their devices? Here's an idea: stop using it if you are only now deciding to think through the nature of the service they've been providing (and how they do it). Sheesh.
Re:I don't see the point -- obviously!! (Score:3, Insightful)
You clearly don't understand copyright holders. If they could, they'd charge you for each time you view their program!
When movies were shown in theaters, you had to buy a ticket anew for each viewing. (I won't tell you how many tickets I bought to the original Star Wars, but George Lucas is a rich man as a result.)
The first pre-recorded movies cost in the $80 range 20 years ago (make that equivalent to $150) now, because of the argument that you could view them until the tape wore out. Finally someone realized that lower markups on greater volumes = higher profits overall. But while the technology was to force a pay-per-view existed in a few thousand theaters, it still wasn't feasible in tens of millions of homes.
Technology marches forward. Napster now rents you music on a monthly subscription. Quit paying and all that music disappears no matter how much you paid them along the way. The content providers see the light at the end of the tunnel of true pay-per-use.
Of course, the next step on that road means you can't be saving recordings you've made for free and having unlimited viewing opportunities for them afterwards. That's the step you are seeing here for the first time in the mass market.
And this is a Big Deal because this is not a simple do-not-record flag. With it's expiration date it has become a vast expansion into limiting how and what you can timeshift. They have already put in place the framework to limit your viewing to a specific time. If you accept this, then how much harder is it to say you are limited to not only the specific short period of time, but also a limited number of viewings during that time? How does it feel to know that a person with a simple Betamax in 1977 had more freedom to timeshift and share recordings than you do with the latest TiVo?
That's why they care, and that's why they hope this one step at a time will keep your outrage at their admittedly harsh measures and denial of Fair Use low enough that eventually they'll get everything they want. And then look at how much you start paying them!
Re:I don't think you get it... (Score:4, Insightful)
What's wrong with wanting an appliance to be easy to use?
It has nothing to do with pretty buttons, and everything to do with having an intuitive user interface. My six year old daughter figured it out in no time flat, and she barely even knows how to read.
TiVo is also trivial to set up. Before I bought my TiVo, I spent a couple months studying my options for building a MythTV or similar box, and finally concluded that I didn't have the spare time or the patience to build one.
I wanted a box that I could just plug and have it work. TiVo came within 99% of meeting this goal. Nothing else that I have seen even comes close. I will worry about the DRM capabilities when a broadcaster or studio actually intentionally uses it.
Re:I don't think you get it... (Score:3, Insightful)
The car analogy is COMPLETELY wrong. COMPLETELY. If you want to use that analogy, it would be more like this: "Well, this car doesn't have a V6 engine or great acceleration, but it does have excellent reliablity scores, terrific safety features, automatic speed adjusting cruise control, built in low tire pressure gauges, built in GPS navigation with voice prompting, and it gets 40mpg!", to which the car salesmen replies "but this one has a V8 and a towing package and a DVD player in the back seat!", to which the wife replies "how does any of that help him get to work, save any money, time being lost, or frustration having to fix the damn thing?"
The TiVo is great because it JUST WORKS. If I didn't know better I would think it's an Apple product. It has an interface that is simple yet elegant, and it does exactly what it is supposed to do (until this out content protection system came on line, that's a whole different story).
Re:You miss the point (Score:5, Insightful)
And the phone carriers aren't supposed to have an issue with that?
Since this is the slow class . . .
First. I buy a cellphone. Not rent, lease, or recieve as part of service, but buy. Purchase. Exchange money for. Not a subsidised purchase, an outright sale. Am I clear enough?
Second, my service agreement with the carrier expires, lapses, ceases to be in effect, and I decide to shop around for new service.
Now, I find another carrier with service compatible with the instrument that I own, you know, hold title to, legally possess. I decide to use this new carrier's service with my instrument. Is my old carrier supposed to have an issue with that? Maybe, but I don't care. It's my instrument. If they try to prevent me from using my instrument with another carrier, then perhaps they need to be investigated under the RICO act (in US). Get it? Or do I need to "dumb it down a shade"?
Re:What kind of logic? (Score:2, Insightful)
Without a subscription, you have a large, ugly paperweight.
And my cable company provides me with listings for free, why should I pay monthly for listings? TiVo is not charging you for the listings, that's a ruse. They're charging you to make money and pretending it's the listings. There are plenty of other ways for a box to get listings, but TiVo won't let you use anything but their service.
Now they turn around and use this "service" to further cripple the functionality you paid for.
I agree with the parent/grandparent who pointed out: either rent something or sell something. There can be no in between.
Re:That's fine for us ... (Score:2, Insightful)
Isn't that the point? I don't mind paying their monthly subscription (although my TiVo and my parents TiVos all have lifetime subscriptions.) The TiVo is -extremely- useful, and worth the $10/$12/mo... I think TiVo is the best thing to happen to TV since HBO. I've seen so many more of my favorite shows that I was never around to watch and so many shows that I never would have thought to watch, or shows that I'd love to watch but didn't realize they were even on.
If they had kept the boxes and let you have one as a rental that business model might be valid and the idea that you received some "service" for your monthly fee might have some validity.
It's not like you're buying a $400 gaming console.. The base TiVo is only $99 everywhere I've looked.. Now that's not 'cheap' by a lot of people's standards, but for what you're getting? I think it's reasonable..
But they sold them, and through the crippled nature of their product and the monthly fee they are trying to maintain ownership and control over you and your box, which unfortunately for them they SOLD you.
I really don't see this as really -crippling-.. So far it looks like TiVo is flagging things to limit the time you can save them, and cut the ability to transfer them to a PC.. well.. first off, how long do you need to save stuff on there? (granted this varies greatly from person to person, I had a couple things on my TiVo for months at one point, but I didn't NEED them.) And you can't transfer them to a PC?
You can't maintain control over things you sold. If you want to maintain control, don't sell it.
They're not maintaining control over what they sold (the TiVo), they're maintaining control over their SERVICE (the Guide, software, software updates, etc.) In fact, I don't recall the last time I've seen a company so supportive of their users hacking their product and doing whatever they want with it... Even when it means some loss of revenue (buy a cheap TiVo, buy a cheap large HDD, get more recording time than a high end TiVo.) I think TiVo as a company has been VERY cool about the use of their product, and VERY supportive. Don't see xbox hacking forums on microsoft.com right?
I think it's about over for the current Tivo business model.
That's your opinion, but I, and many, many, MANY other TiVo owners aren't going anywhere anytime soon...
They should just start being honest, give the boxes out as a rental and then they can control them.
Already covered this, and if they did that, no more TiVo modding community or anything like that.. some people do a -lot- more with their TiVos than plug 'em in and use 'em out of the box.
Once sold they lose the ability to control them and I can see the handwriting on the wall, internet accessable guide servers will soon abound and Tivo has no more revenue from people who own those boxes- their current customers.
They never tried to keep control of the hardware. As for internet accessable guide servers, I'm sure there will be a way to point to them, and I don't think we'll hear about TiVo bitching about the people who do modify their boxes to do this.. However, TiVo will still have 'revenue from people who own those boxes' via monthly subscription fee, granted some people may stop subscribing, but they've already paid, and I'm sure the money TiVo makes off of their monthly fees more than makes up for the traffic that 1 customer uses to access the guide and content downloads.. I don't think they're nearly as doomed as you would like to make them out to be.
Re:That's fine for us ... (Score:2, Insightful)
obviously you backup a 500GB drive directly onto millions and millions of 5.25" disks. duh?
a second fucking hard drive, retard.
Re:You miss the point (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem is that they used it.
Re:I don't think you get it... (Score:3, Insightful)
Timeshifting is legal. There are no expiration restrictions on time shifting. Tivo is blocking legal access to material I have a right to use.
Re:That's fine for us ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Do you have a source for this remote control click log? Also just because it's doing these two things at once, doesn't mean they don't store the data anonymously..
Re:That's fine for us ... (Score:2, Insightful)
If my parents were local I would certainly help, but having spent *hours* on the phone with my tech-challenged dad I encouraged him to get a built PC with a service plan when it was time to upgrade. I love my dad to death, but those tech calls were torture.
Re:That's fine for us ... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Wrong (Score:3, Insightful)
They said that they may keep the software up to date and add new features. They never said they would delete existing features. It is a manipulation that I would say is against the terms of service. I buy it to timeshift everything, including PPV. Then, I agree to a ToS that specifies that they can continue to improve my box. Is it somehow my fault when they violate their ToS and remove functionality? I'm sure they have things in there protecting them if they add and remove features from their subscription service. But I don't think there is anything in their EULA specifying that future firmware releases will reduce functionality over the device as purchased.
Re:That's fine for us ... (Score:5, Insightful)
I didn't address it because it didn't seem necessary (as in, that part seems like a flagrant troll). TiVo is very clear about what they collect, how they collect it, and how to turn that behavior off it you want them to. [tivo.com]
I don't consider it spying because I'm telling them to do it! In fact, I'm paying them to do it. I like what they do with the information they collect, and if I didn't I could still use their scheduling and guide service without them collecting any data at all. They have no problem with that - though they point out that some of what they can do for you becomes less useful if your unit doesn't get to leverage their database as well.
Of course, no, I don't have anything to hide anyway. But if I didn't want them to know that our household seems to watch an insufferable and odd mix of geeky tech stuff, geeky scifi stuff, and geeky outdoorsy stuff (yes, there is such a thing), I could prevent them from knowing that. Yes, if they decided to actually lie about what they're doing, they might still find out what I'm watching. But... so what? It's not like I can use TiVo to stalk Jodi Foster or post death threats on Jihaddi web sites. Yes, it might be embarassing to some to be caught only getting all of their news from Oprah, or from O'Reilly, or from Howard Stern - but, what - that's going to be shocking to someone? If you're using TiVo to control your cable box and record racier stuff off of HBO, well - happily the Taliban won't come and cut out your eyes (though someone from PBS may send you a scolding letter, or something).
here comes the pay-per-view box (Score:3, Insightful)
How long until that red flag is accompanied by a nice big shiny "$" that will allow you to pay a TDB amount to let you keep the program a little longer?
I'm not a copyright lawyer, but doesn't it allow you to keep something you bought, in this case in the form of TiVo hardware and subscription? This has to be a violation of fair-use consumer rights, right, those don't exist anymore. This is like going to a kid Potter fan and saying Rowling called, she wants her book back or to one of those people you saw waiting in line for Star Wars III and saying Lucas called, he wants his toy light saber back and you're not getting a refund. Copyright law says once you own something you can keep it for as long as you want, give it away or resell it or even burn shoot or blow it up, anything other than making and selling copies for profit and showing it at a public performance. There may be some clause in the TiVo EULA that might allow this "upgrade".
This sounds too much like the Broadcast Flag and as last I checked it was thrown out by the courts.
Re:The free market can't work... (Score:3, Insightful)
it simply ceased to exist a long time ago.
in a free market, chinese companies would be able to sell you a device to bypass the HDCP restrictions on your TV.
a European company would be able to sell you a ppc box to install Mac OS on.
a Canadian company could sell you a modified Tivo to record and transfer video into and out of it and to enable all features.
an Indian company could sell you a region free DVD player legally, in let's say Circuit City stores.
a Russian Company could sell you a playstation3 or xbox360 modified to allow you to actually have access to the chips inside the box.
a Brazilian company would be legally allowed to sell you a monitor that would enable you to play high definition video and audio without the OS crippling the output.
and the list goes on and on.
that free market died.. a few days after it was born, when they found out that in a free market, customers got a fair deal and that they couldn't milk and control the customers and products after the sale.
we are in a quagmire in these modern times.
we have to fight for every little right that we had just, relatively, a while ago.
we had property rights and we liked it that way.
we had honest commerce and we liked it.
Re:What kind of logic? (Score:2, Insightful)
Part of that agreement is to allow them to update you machine (which includes service). Some updates you will like, others you won't. The scope of what they can legally do is going to be pretty wide (since they wrote the contract). They could probably delete all you shows 5 minutes after they air, legally.
The question of whether or not it is SMART is very different. All this means is that a open source all-in-one package will come out that much faster, presuming that the legislature doesn't make it illegal.
I was a VERY early tivo series 1 adopter. More and more it looks like my next PVR will have to be open source. When my current tivo dies, or when they cripple it too much, I will move on to another device and miss the friendly tivo sounds. I will curse them much like I do many other companies that had an amazing brand and then flushed it down the toilet.