[geeks] Professional. Do Not Attempt.

[Phil Stracchino]

Jeff Cole wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 28, 2005 at 10:07:58AM -0500, Michael Parson wrote:
>>Those of us that have stuck with the series1 TiVos are, so far, immune
>>to the latest bits of evil that TiVo has succumbed to.  They can be had
>>for fairly cheap on e-bay, etc.
> 
> Could someone elaborate on what exactly has transpired? I've been
> planning on buying a TiVo for awhile, but if there's going to be a
> problem with the fair use of the programs I record, I'd like to know.

It has to do with broadcast-flag support in recent versions of TivoOS --
the broadcast flag being part of the mechanism of Hollywood's end-run
around the SCOTUS Betamax decision that said "If you have the right to
watch it, you have the right to record it for your own use."  The
broadcast flag basically allows the broadcaster to tell your Tivo to
automatically delete the recording of a flagged show after some
specified interval or, I believe, not to record certain shows at all.


-- 
 Phil Stracchino       phil.stracchino at speakeasy.net
    Renaissance Man, Unix generalist, Perl hacker
 Mobile: 603-216-7037         Landline: 603-886-3518