Big Ugly Dishes Grab Primetime Shows Early 173
ActualClient writes: "According to an article on CNET certain tech-savvy satellite TV customers are able to receive their TV shows days before they are actually aired. This has been going on for a while, the TV networks paying little attention, but now these people are taking it a step further and distributing these episodes online. Recently, season finale episodes for NBC's 'Frasier' and Fox's 'The Simpsons' were distributed along with the last-ever episode of UPN's 'Star-Trek: Voyager,' all viewed hours before they were aired locally. There is no end to what people will pirate(and I personally don't mind that one bit)."
2004 election results (Score:1)
Voyager episodes (Score:1)
irc.dal.net
#startrek-central
voyager_7x25-finale-endgame_part_1_fe-pre-air-stc- .avi- .avi
voyager_7x26-finale-endgame_part_2_fe-pre-air-stc
(Both DivX's) They exist, and for all non-US Star Trek fans (like myself) I suggest you downloaded them now.
Yes, this 'piracy' exists, and you can use it....
Anonymous because I don't want a channel hating me...
so whats the problem? (Score:1)
Re:2004 election results (Score:1)
You're a trolling idiot... (Score:1)
And before you try to call my bluff, I work at a television station and have experience with both C-band, Ku-band, and both Paramount's and WB's chosen digital services.
Re:Voyager episodes (Score:1)
Eurgh, no ta
Its a much better quality MPEG
Re:Yeah..big dishes! (Score:1)
You don't even need a Big Ugly Dish (Score:4)
Unfortunate (Score:4)
My understanding from this FAQ is that the networks were already moving slowly to moving towards obscuring these backhaul signals. Regardless of the debate whether this is moral or legal, if this becomes more prevalent, the networks and their affiliates will simply speed up the process of changing their equipment so that these backhauls can't simply be sniffed from the air by someone who has a BUD. End of the distribution problem.
And cheaper for them for two other related reasons. By simply updating their upload/download method, they won't have to pursue this matter in the courts. This saves them legal fees. This may not concern them as much being rather large corps in the first place. But it also would allow them to avoid losing in court, which may set a legal precedant (although of little consequence since most stuff is going digital anyways and is already covered under the DMCA).
While this makes an interesting story, all those that participate in this are simply accelerating their own demise. Yes, plain signals will always be around for those folks with BUDs, but no one will care because it won't be NBC or some made for mass consumption network.
And in other news ... (Score:5)
There's a story in YRO about something that looks really heinous but actually isn't so bad when you read the actual article.
There's a story about some pointless factional war between two microfactions of the open-software-free-source community.
There's a story about somebody who wrote something being pissed off about people using the Internet to copy it, with 200 slashdotters chanting "if I can see it, I can copy it".
There's a story about some corporation collecting marketing data and making copies of it for its corporate buddies and 300 slashdotters posting "that's my information, they shouldn't copy it unless I say so".
And there's an important story by Jon Katz, first in a new series, but I won't spoil the surprise by telling you about that one.
And finally, some troll named ThiotimolineDude keeps posting goatsex links way before the articles even come up. Forget first post -- he's going for -147'th post.
Definitely not new (Score:2)
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Re:Yeah..big dishes! (Score:1)
Re:Not Piracy (Score:1)
Not Piracy (Score:5)
Too much or too little time? (Score:2)
Yep...I don't have the 30 seconds to set my VCR to tape Frasier, but I have the hour it takes to pull it down off the net (after I find it!!!)
I'm happy I had bigger concerns in college!
Re:And? (Score:1)
No one has an obligation to look at ads. You can not look at them in the newspaper, you can not look at them on billboards, you can not look at them on tv. There's no ethical or legal dilemma wrt that. If a web site thinks that it can stay in business because they assume that a certain number of advertisers will pay money for a _chance_ that people will see their ads, more power to them. But I don't have to make it my problem.
I hate ads, I don't look at ads, and I really don't care if people have business models that assume that this is not the case. It's just not my problem. Indeed, if people would start treating advertising like toxic waste, maybe we could get rid of some of it. I've never heard anyone say that it actually improves society or that is is absolutely necessary.
Re:Punchline? (Score:2)
I was in a cinema at the weekend watching Mummy Returns when the sound died, and people pretty much sat at waited for about 5 minutes while it was sorted without complaint.
So it's all relative, as Einstein said.
Does anyone want to try this? (Score:1)
Flashbacks (Score:5)
Whats kewler is that living in Canadia I get to see many programs before they're broadcast in the US. Unfortunately this also means I get the same Rosie O'Donnell show from two Provinces and two States all at staggered times (if anything would make someone impact-test their TV...)
Even more kewl is (and getting back to the topic) is that it's legal to view unpaid US satellite TV here, just not Canadian stuff. Presumably it's the same the other way round but most USAians haven't been turned on to the glory that is "North of 60", "Wind at my Back", "The City", or "This Hour Has 22 Minutes" but instead get by on "The Red Green Show" on PBS or Mike Bullard on Comedy Central.
Make friends with folks up North, we'll send you tapes of your favorite shows in advance in return for cheap gas & handguns (oh, keep the latter, it makes your TV news more exciting, we just get car accidents.)
(Allow pause before rabid nationialist-zealots begin required anti-any-country-but-USA rants)
In Grenada (Score:1)
Old news (Score:1)
I used to have B5 watching parties a week before the episodes aired locally. I'd record them in the morning on SVHS, then play them back over dinner with friends at 8pm.
As for open mikes, that's also been something going on for decades. Some announcers know about this, and some don't. Some even will talk to the sat viewers during breaks (such as the old ESPN Formula 1 hosts, and some other car-racing hosts).
So What? Comercials suck and they are booring! (Score:1)
where are the satellites in the US? (Score:1)
Sat mags from the uk include dozens of sets of coordinates for free-to-air analog and *digital* too. (free digital satellite, not a concept too many Americans would ever believe.)
But where are these resources in the US? I haven't found anything I could point at from Boston worth the investment in a receiver.
Re:There is no end to what people will pirate (Score:1)
I'm so confused - how was that offtopic? Did you actually read the post before clicking on the little box? Are you maybe moderating the wrong article by mistake?
It's things like this that lead to "shaken moderator syndrome". The urge to discipline is just too strong in me, I guess :) Anger at poor moderation leads to hate, and hate leads to very vindictive meta-moderation (I hope).
...and I had even worked in AYBABTU, too. Damnit.
Caution: contents may be quarrelsome and meticulous!
Re:Not Piracy (Score:2)
Hmmm, user #106880 makes an ad hominem attack against user #1046. And you seem to think he or she's a cheetah, or maybe a leopard. Now I really have seen everything.
Caution: contents may be quarrelsome and meticulous!
Re:So What's the Point Again? (Score:2)
On a related note, in my stint as moderator for rec.toys.transformers.moderated [toys.trans....moderated], I witnessed a related phenomenon when certain episodes (and in the case of Beast Machines, an entire season) were broadcast in Canada weeks or months before they made it to the U.S. Some Canadian fans digitized the episodes and put them up on websites [tfarchive.com] and FreeDiskSpace folders within a couple days of their broadcast--meaning we American fans with high speed access got to watch them months ahead of schedule.
For that matter, I hear something similar happened with the Buffy season finale last year.
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Re:Didn't I submit this 8 hours ago?! (Score:1)
Or maybe he didn't condone piracy in his article, thus making it not worth the editors' time?
Could be, could be ...
News? (Score:1)
I've done this about 10 years ago.
It wasn't anything majorly specal.
By the way... it wasn't an hour in advance.. but a week. Occasionally the satlight feed would have a problem and they'd refeed the next day. This way they'd have a day in advance to get the video to the local tv stations.
For weekly shows you get to watch all of next weeks shows. Occasionally you get a whole months worth of video in one night.. That is for sereous nocternal TV watching only.
Just having a satlight dish isn't enough. You need to be awake when the feed is done. This is becouse it's late at night and worse.. they will hop so you can not set a vcr and expect to catch the show in the same place every time. They'll leave a note in the traditional location and tell you where to go. You should set up like 5 to 10 min in advance.
We made an event of it. Everyone surrounded the larg TV in the living room.. I retreated to my bedroom to avoid the noisy group and watched on my own TV.
It was all good and fun.
Then the group would watch the same shows on cable and make bets with the poor saps who didn't know about the sat dish.
I feel sorry for the guys who didn't know...
Not much... They should visit me more often and find out thies things.
The advantage of the sat disk was watching news feeds before they went live. Some idiot messed that up by informing an advocacy organisation about one mans comments pre broudcast. This was effectively a private conversation we got to easedrop on and the poor sap got sued. Hack it wasn't even inflamitory it was his honnest opinion.
After that all news people were quiet when the sat feed turnned on. Then they'd flip the feed off so the reporters could talk and really be off camra.
I liked all the comments like "the food sucks here" and "I don't want to go home".
"They were asking us to leave again" "No we hid our equipment and they left us alone"
Stuff people hear about 10 years later I got live as it happend. Trivia..
Then... blat.. no more...
But I liked watching TV shows a week in advance that isn't being shown here and watching imbargoed news items.. items only one state will see..
I got a very diffrent view of the campaign to elect Bill Clintion. A lot of news storys that were limited to one state where Clintion made prommises local to that state that people in other stats wouldn't be happy to hear.
I figured it was fine.. they were broudcasting and didn't bother to encode. Not enough people could view the signal for them to care.
This however.. gee thanks.. By the time I get a satlight dish again everything will be unaccessable to me.
Re:The Rest Of The World (Score:1)
Re:Punchline? (Score:1)
:)
-Chris
(err... s/uses/used/...)
...More Powerful than Otto Preminger...
Re:time shifting...? (Score:1)
Re:So What's the Point Again? (Score:1)
Re:The Rest Of The World (Score:2)
Now Fox, does have a few decent shows, but generally they seem to air the dregs of the television shows out there that everyone else other than WB isn't too desperate to air. WB gets the leftovers.
Re:The Rest Of The World (Score:2)
I will agree that Ally McBeal is a good show and Malcolm is currently the funniest show on TV, but I found Boston Public, the few times I watched it, to be painfully trite, overbearingly preachy and gratuitously smutty, as opposed to Ally McBeal, which can be pretty smutty, too, but also can be very clever and has good music.
I actually thought the X-Files season ender was the two best episodes this season (and better than most of last season too). Certainly better than that painfully tedious 3 part cliffhanger from last year. But, in general these days, the show's about on par with daytime soaps.
Re:The Rest Of The World (Score:1)
Re:The Rest Of The World (Score:2)
That's not the only reason. I don't care about watching extremely-low-quality camera rips on my monitor instead of getting the whole experience in a movie theatre.
It's different for TV shows.
So-called pirated versions of episodes have the advantage of (1) not being dubbed by terribly untalented people who don't get 4 out of 5 Simpsons gags and (2) being available hours after the show airs in the US (instead of one or two years).
Re:The Rest Of The World (Score:2)
There is only the dubbed version because, according to the TV stations, "most people prefer it that way". So, if you're not most people, you're out of the game.
Re:2004 election results (Score:2)
Copyright for some, not for others (Score:1)
But when it comes to material copyrighted by someone they do like (e.g., pretty much any GPLed software), they scream like stuck pigs when there's even a suggestion that it has been pirated.
Clearly, consistency is overrated...
Re:Encryption (Score:1)
encrypted
and not encrypted
the technology, hardware, everything is there. the networks simply dont care. maybe they'll encrypt the last episode of seinfeld or something, but for the vast majority of shows, it doesnt really matter. think about it, are you going to lose a paying customer? not everyone has access to these, if anything itll create more buzz about a huge upcoming episode.
Fun w/game shows (Score:5)
Survivor (Score:1)
Invicta{HOG}
Re:The Rest Of The World (Score:1)
i used to be able to get from 5:30 - midnight only watching simpsons, frasier and seinfeld...
and thne i realized that i was wasting every 5:30 to midnight and got rid of my tv ...
tagline
Re:Not Piracy (Score:1)
Re:2004 election results (Score:1)
1)California doesn't use the electric chair. Last I heard it was the gas chamber (possibly moving to leathal injection... i think).
2)The executions take place at San Quentin State Prision, which is approxamately 20 minutes due north of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Steve
Re:Encryption (Score:2)
And that's all they'll do now, start encrypting the rest of the 'free' stuff available to the big dishes. Someone will say 'we'll just unencrypt it' - probably, you'll probably be done after the show's aired.
Re:And? (Score:1)
I disagree...what is the marginal cost to the studio of you (or one more person) receiving the feed? $0. Unlike snail mail, where it costs $X per person for each person to receive a copy of mail, everyone can receive the sat feed at the same time for one price.
darn (Score:2)
Anyone ever pick up that "Videodrome" show or anyhing like it?
Beauty of the timeshift (Score:1)
I'll pay money to the first person who can stream a recorded show off a PVR [slip.net], over the Internet. From home to work would be a nice demo. How often have you wanted to do that?
Right to Listen? (Score:2)
If the sat operators really don't want me to listen, they should go stick their signal on a cable somewhere and stop bombarding my body with EMF. Or they could try encryption, but two can play at that game :) [DMCA notwithstanding?]
As for "piracy", unauthorized copying has nothing to do with the brutal acts on the high seas. We don't know -- maybe RF emissions are brutal acts and broadcasters are real pirates. Some people think so, although there's no scientific proof of harm. But absence of proof is not proof of absence. It's tough to prove a negative.
"piracy" is ok? Yeah, sure. (Score:1)
"There is no end to what people will pirate(and I personally don't mind that one bit)"
So I guess that's why we see all these stories about real or imagined GPL violations, (which I wouldn't be surprised to find out were posted as the poster's XMMS plays some napster'd Britney Spears MP3.)
You can't have your cake and eat it too* folks, at least not without being hypocrites.
*unless it's a quantum cake.
Re:Not Piracy (Score:2)
The seas are *not* high. They are not under the influence of illegal drugs. The seas are however *very wavy* and I suggest that is what you call them.
Re:The Rest Of The World (Score:1)
now if only... (Score:4)
If only I could get early dibs on the lottery results, NASDAQ tips, and the latest mention of Nix releases
Project Megiddo [antioffline.com] a year and we still waiting
Punchline? (Score:1)
Spin (Score:2)
"Spin by Brian Springer is a one-hour documentary which details the events of 1992 through the satellite backhauls. Backhauls provide unpackaged and uncensored news feeds which viewers do not see in the final edition. One interesting aspect of Spin is that it provided a glimpse into the actual Presidential election during the year of 1992, and
a context in which to consider the election of 2000."
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Re:So What's the Point Again? (Score:1)
And that's only if a person knows where to go to specifically find it, which isn't easy.
We're not talking millions of people here. We're talking maybe a couple hundred, at the most, on a good day, with the capabilites, know-how, luck, and communication channels to distribute something like that OR obtain something like that from a distributor. It's a short time window.
This is why nobody is too worried about this as a "problem", and why it's all a bit silly.
--Primis.
So What's the Point Again? (Score:5)
Big dish owners have always had access to feeds and alternates and such. This is something especially useful when it comes to finding things like sports broadcasts you can't find otherwise (and hey if they're feeds they're commercial-free!).
But when it comes to pre-recorded Tv shows, it's a few hours, people, almost always 24 hours max. Not the end of the world.
-- Primis
Re:Encryption (Score:1)
I hear the MPAA has a great encryption scheme. Er, wait, maybe not.
Oh wait, the RIAA has an even better encryption scheme! Err..
I think ROT13 would be their best bet.
Re:The Rest Of The World (Score:2)
But what if in your country, all TV station only show dubbed versions? You can always get them from an "unofficial" source, but while you're at it, why not also profit from the improved "earlyness" of said unofficial source...
Oh, and as far as subbed versions are concerned: they are no problem, as you still have the original sound. And as an added benefit, you get to see in realtime where the translator screwed up, and how.
What about the news? (Score:2)
A Billion For Boris, anyone?
Re:2004 election results (Score:1)
Quick patent this (Score:1)
This patent describes a method for the reception of satellite feeds and the subsequent transfer of the video information contained in the broadcast into a digital medium suitable for display and distribution using standard computer hardware. This patent also covers the creation of 'channels' dedicated to informing computer users in the 'channel' of the location and availability of said converted broadcasts. Additionally, the users of these 'channels' are further enabled trade converted broadcasts among themselves. The creation of an online database is part of this patent. The database will contain a list of all of the currently available titles and the URLs of these titles. This database will be copyright the patent holder.
C Band ... (Score:2)
CBS and ABC started using VideoCypher technology (not VC-II, VC-I I think, if memory serves me) to encrypt their direct feeds, but wild feeds from affiliates were too infrequent and the scrambling technology was too expensive to worry about them.
The things I have seen:
-
Sam Donaldson eating a sandwich and swearing at his director during news stories when anchoring a report from Amsterdam.
-
Dan Rather's (rather heroic) struggle to stay on the air from China during the Tiananmen Square uprising.
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Mary Alice Williams (used to co-anchor on CNN) dancing on her desk during a Christmas party.
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Live cameras from MTV's Spring Break, and various VJ's in unglamorous moments.
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What Larry King does during commercials.
The programs that were available were all randomly scheduled, and none of the high dollar advertizing supported big network programs were broadcast using unencrypted C band.-
I used to catch next week's Star Trek episodes on Telstar 1 at 3:00 PM on Sundays.
-
You could watch all of the weekly episodes of a game show, all at once. Anyone for two and a half hours of Wheel of Fortune?
-
Infomercials have always been transmitted in the clear
... Joy.
-
Locker room sports broadcasts could be a riot if the cameras were left live.
NBC went to Ku band to prevent its feeds from being intercepted (so C banders added dual feedhorns to grab signals from Ku birds.)If a studio is transmitting Frasier or Friends in the clear I would have to ask what happened to the networks' glorious encryption technology and covert transmission practices? As they realized twenty years ago, the airwaves are public. Do they need reminded that if they want to keep something private then they had better use encryption?
Re:The Rest Of The World (Score:1)
Re:And in other news ... (Score:2)
In case some of you young'uns didn't catch the reference, here's a link [mac.com]. Thiotimoline to the Stars!
Taco's corollary to Clarke's Law [lsi.usp.br]: any sufficiently convoluted Slashdot topic is indistinguishable from science fiction (or will at least provide good context for some hyperlinks).
Re:If it's BROADCASTED, how is dist. copies piracy (Score:1)
I've done that before (Score:1)
I still watch these shows fron time to time but I've never thought of selling them or makin a proffit off it, sounds like fun though.
Re:And? (Score:2)
--
Re:And? (Score:2)
--
Re:And? (Score:2)
TV shows I tune into by my own free will.. Same with web pages.
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This is news? (Score:1)
hc
Re:So What's the Point Again? (Score:1)
Well, you might try reading the whole story paragraph, since it explains this. It's no longer just big dish owner, and their friends, getting these broadcasts. Now they show up on the internet, and millions of people can get them.
The Rest Of The World (Score:5)
Sky in the UK is basically Fox + 6 months, and I guess it must be the same elsewhere too. I already know how cool it is to have seen the lastest movie (on holiday in the US) a few months before anyone else, so I figure there's going to be a greater demand for the latest Ally McBeal episode too.
This happened with Star Wars: Episode 1 - I knew loads of people who'd seen it before it was released because it didn't come out until the middle of the summer here. People like to think they're in some sort of exclusive preview club.
Now, if only BT would hurry up and unbundle the local loop so's I can get DSL....
WWF (Score:2)
--
andy j.
Get it here.. (Score:2)
For other tv-episodes check out alt.binaries.multimedia groups
This isn't new (Score:2)
The reason being the cameras were regularly left on as the programme was being bounced around the world to other networks in other countries.
Someone had a big ugly dish and rather than watch the broadcast via thier own provider including adverts, they watched the live feed from the UK.. and saw the joke..
This isn't really news (Score:2)
Then, we flipped around to some other birds and found the Spice Channel, after which I've never been seen a gear-shift lever the same way again.
Interesting content, sidetracked by porn: Sounds like the Net we know and love.
--
Motion-capture cartooning (Score:2)
Very few cartoons are broadcast live; it's a terrible strain on the animators' wrists
Here's how to take the strain off animators' wrists (i.e. make it even possible to do live animation): motion capture cartooning [google.com]. Essentially, it involves motion-capturing actors (who now have the freedom to gesture at the same time that they're voice-acting), moving skeletal models to match the actors' movements, and rendering the result non-photorealistically [google.com].
¹Not everybody watches The Simpsons (Score:2)
congratulations, you are stupid (unless you were being soooo sarcastic that i didn't pick up on it). What the origional poster was refering to was the simpsons episode where they showed the exact same thing you described.
Does not having seen every episode of The Simpsons make a fellow stupid? If so, is being stupid all that bad? Not everybody has seven wires running into their head (think "Trip Like I Do" video), one from each major network (PBS Fox CBS WB NBC UPN ABC). I picked up the motion-capture concept not from The Simpsons but from a show on Discovery or TLC or something.
get on efnet, download the episode and see. s12e9.
Where do I start? I have never downloaded movies from an IRC network and have only a dial-up connection to the Internet (dial-up is currently limited to 50 kbit/s); therefore, I am a newbie and am likely to be shunned as a l4m3r. I chose dial-up because I move around a lot; not everybody can afford point-to-point connections such as cable or DSL running into each location in each city where they may connect to the Internet, as $50/mo times number of locations really adds up.
Re:The Rest Of The World (Score:2)
Because of the speed of the internet, fansubs of shows in Japan are now becoming available while the show is still in-season. In the extreme case, Inu Yasha episode 24 subtitled was posted on Usenet the day after 25 was broadcast (FWIW, 25 was delayed a week because of a baseball game).
Of course I don't have time to watch very many of these videos since I'm so busy downloading (384K DSL) and uncompressing them and burning them to CD-R. :-) Usenet alone has enough stuff on it that I have no need for IRC trading, and it's more a bandwidth-efficient distribution method anyhow.
P.S. I can proudly say that I still have not seen Star Wars Episode I.
Re:Yeah..big dishes! (Score:2)
You Really Don't Mind It? (Score:2)
There is no end to what people will pirate(and I personally don't mind that one bit).
Just give me a few days now to setup pirateslashdot.org, which does nothing but pass-thru /. and replace your ads with mine.
While I'm at it, I think I'll go get me a screwdriver and make me some "VA Lenux" boxes.
All about push vs. pull (Score:5)
Us techo-geeks want to pull the content in a manner we see fit, when we see fit. This enables us to digitize it, make copies of it, strip out commercials, etc.
Pushing it, corporate America is in control. Pulling it, we are in control. That's what the issue is about.
Big deal... (Score:5)
--
jambo
system.admin.without.a.clue
Re:The Rest Of The World (Score:2)
If it's BROADCASTED, how is dist. copies piracy? (Score:3)
Huh? What are you smoking? How can you call something piracy when it's given away free to anyone who wants it?
Perhaps you are unfamiliar with what the word BROADCAST means as applied to television. It means programs are transmitted from an antenna to anyone interested in buying a device capable of reception. It is not point to point. It is not subscriber based. Receivers are not tracked nor counted nor registered. Anyone is welcome to listen in. It's a give away.
It is not possible to pirate things freely given away.
So some satellite owners got a hold of the BROADCAST early and distributed copies. That's supposed to be "piracy"? Did the east coast PIRATE the Voyager finale because they saw it three hours before I did in Los Angeles? Get a life!
Either keep it private, charge fees, and keep the program safely SHOVED UP YOUR ASS in the beforetime or boradcast it and shut the fuck up about piracy.
Re:2004 election results (Score:2)
Gee, some people..
Easy solution... more live TV. (Score:5)
Implications for 2004 (Score:2)
Between this and the ridiculous concept of secure electronic voting, some people will know who won the 2004 presidential election the day before the polls. Then they will know whom to cast a vote for--the winner.
Ewige Blumenkraft!
Ronald Reagan (Score:2)
Someone was watching the live feed and taped it, it's been making the rounds on "presidential blooper" tapes for years.
Yeah..big dishes! (Score:5)
As someone else has replied, many, many stations still use giant satellite dishes. Plus, they are a lot of fun. We used it for several experiments, including hooking up a giant antenna to the side of the 40-footer and bouncing signals off of the moon about two years ago.
Plus, nothing as impressive as turning a corner and seeing that monster. Scares the people who shouldn't be out there. :)
Re:Unfortunate (Score:2)
Which is sad, cause I always loved watching Tom Brokaw bitching at his producers on those "not-for-broadcast" feeds. Not to mention getting next week's Trek episodes the Sunday before (although they always seemed remarkably similar to this week's episodes) with only half as many commercials.
Unfortunately, our BUD sits unused on a twenty-foot pole in our backyard. We got DirecTV.
Re:You Really Don't Mind It? (Score:2)
While that reader might not mind, I would expect VA to mind.
And? (Score:3)
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm about to watch the results of the 2004 election...
Re:And? (Score:2)
What is the big deal? Check the final paragraph of the CNET story. The "wildfeeds" are broadcast without commercials. The reason the networks broadcast the shows a couple of days early is to allow the local station to stripe in their own commercials.
I tried this.. (Score:5)
Encryption (Score:2)
This is a cool thing, but the networks can pull the plug on it any time they like.
time shifting...? (Score:5)
Isn't time-shifting of a program considered legitimate under Fair Use?
Is there actually anything that says which direction it has to be shifted in...?
Point of diminishing returns? (Score:3)
I just can't see how this is useful. It takes so much trouble to get a rip, you reach a point of diminishing returns in your efforts.
Incidentally, what if the Aricebo telescope was used for TVrips and sent them out over seti@home? That might actually make the program useful...