I am not an illegal downloader. I have strong feelings about taking someone's music or any creative work (movies) I don't pay for. But last night I went to record a TV show episode on a non premium commercial station. My relatively new DVD-R would not record it. The screen flashed "copy protected". I did some research and found out that all of the new DVD-R's in the US are required to be sold with software that reads new copy protections from digital TV. Hence the rush to switch the whole country over to digital. And that many non premium channels and networks (Fox, FX, USA, even ESPN) are copy protecting their content, and more are planning to. They are even introducing protection for TIVO and DVR's which limits the amount of times and how long after a show was produced that you can watch the program. I understand premium channels like HBO and Showtime which run commercial free programs and first run movies protecting program. They operate on a much more limited revenue stream. I also would have no problem with copy protection that limited the number of copies. But this leaves me with a few questions:
1) What purpose does a DVD-R have if you can't copy any TV programs? Even some old VHS tapes have protection. They should be required to warn before you by that the new DVD-R you just bought that it is essentially worthless.
2) With ESPN copy protecting, how will you be able to relive old sports memories if they don't market the DVD's? A vast majority of sports events aren't available on DVD and yet ESPN plans to copy protect everything.
3) When the government mandated digital it mandated the purchase of DVD's of TV programs if you want to save certain episodes. Essentially what this means is the government gave the entertainment and additional revenue stream while requiring you to pay for watching the commercials that pay for their shows. Is that a great deal or what? Not only do I have to pay to watch commercials on cable to get digital signal, but I can't record it. I have to buy it, in some cases ridiculously priced boxed sets when I only want an episode or two. Such a great deal.
Mods, I hope this last one isn't considered political, I'm certainly not blaming any one party, politician, or group for it. And I don't want the discussion to go that way.
1) What purpose does a DVD-R have if you can't copy any TV programs? Even some old VHS tapes have protection. They should be required to warn before you by that the new DVD-R you just bought that it is essentially worthless.
2) With ESPN copy protecting, how will you be able to relive old sports memories if they don't market the DVD's? A vast majority of sports events aren't available on DVD and yet ESPN plans to copy protect everything.
3) When the government mandated digital it mandated the purchase of DVD's of TV programs if you want to save certain episodes. Essentially what this means is the government gave the entertainment and additional revenue stream while requiring you to pay for watching the commercials that pay for their shows. Is that a great deal or what? Not only do I have to pay to watch commercials on cable to get digital signal, but I can't record it. I have to buy it, in some cases ridiculously priced boxed sets when I only want an episode or two. Such a great deal.
Mods, I hope this last one isn't considered political, I'm certainly not blaming any one party, politician, or group for it. And I don't want the discussion to go that way.
