[mythtv-users] Please spend the time to write or call your representatives

Mark H mrhegstrom at gmail.com
Thu Dec 22 13:24:32 EST 2005


This is in response to a thread on knoppmyth.  Thought I'd share my thoughts
about the new analog hole bill and the future of DVR's:

   As the old hardware dies off (VCR's, current DVR's) then it will be
illegal to record anything.    From what I heard from an interview with the
guys at EFF,  almost anything that is created is automatically assumed to be
under copyright unless they specifically state that it is not.
   There will be no more fair use at all.   It will be illegal to time shift
(skip commercials) which is the main source of their complaint.   If this
happens I forsee everthything will be pay-per-record/on-demand.  You pay
your cable company for the right to receive the channel and view its content
(shows),  you will pay again to be able to record it/re-watch it and it will
still have all commercial content. No time shifting other than pause.   On
top of that the content will auto-expire after a certain # of days unless
you pay again.    This is where we are headed everyone.
   They have already forced people to remove sites that contain song
lyrics.  Whats next? Blogging/fansites about what happened on a particular
show or posting favorite lyrics from a song?
   Realisticaly its not if but when this crap or a beginning stepping stone
type law will pass.   There are too many politicians now that only see the
almighty $ and don't give a rats ass about you and I.
   People are always dissing the EFF, but for you and I that work all day
and dont have the time to keep calling and writing congressmen they are our
only line of defense.   They need to be supported and we need to spend the
time to call and write our politicians or were done.    I always get a
stupid form letter back with a bunch of generic words and phrases, but
atleast let them know where one person stands.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-users/attachments/20051222/5dbb8351/attachment.htm


More information about the mythtv-users mailing list