[mythtv-users] Time Warner & Firewire

Brad Templeton brad+myth at templetons.com
Thu May 19 20:15:08 UTC 2005


On Thu, May 19, 2005 at 02:23:16PM -0500, Lane Schwartz wrote:
> Given those limitations, what options are available to the Myth
> community and developers to either (1) work around those limitations,
> (2) work with the media industry to find an acceptable compromise
> mechanism, or (3) change the status quo via litigation or legislation
> 
> Here are my observations so far based on the discussion we've had so far. 
> 
> It seems that option 1 is a long shot. Someone might eventually be

Correct.  It is more likely that many users will "work around" the
5C restrictions by having somebody skilled get a digital copy of the
show, and grab it with bittorrent or similar.  This is technically a
copyright violation, though it's a different question from a moral
standpoint if it's wrong to get a copy of a program you paid for.
(Ie. you pay for HBO but can't record it due to DRM, you get
a show elsewhere, watch and delete.  Is that immoral?)

> Based on this discussion, it seems that option 2 is also a long shot.
> If we follow the path that Mark outlined earlier, then at best we end
> up with a system where Myth can record and play back content from
> protected sources; ability to fast forward, rewind, mark commercials,
> and further innovate are unlikely. And all this assumes that

I suspect, actually that the "most popular" features as defined by
the people building the equipment could be possible.  In particular OSD
is likely to be possible in some form.  I really doubt you would see
transcode.  Commercial skip _could_ be possible because the tools might
give you a cleartext low-res version of a show from which this could be
done (in fact it would be faster in certain ways).  However, commercial
skip requires seek, which is not possible unless they specifically act
to enable it.

However, the big issue is you wouldn't be able to do what they didn't
specifically enable, so MythTV could never do more than the box you
get from the cable company or other blessed, locked boxes.


> 
> Which brings me back to option 3 and my question from many posts back.
> Are there legal options we could pursue? Obviously there is always the
> political path - trying to get Congress to change things for the
> better. But I also think that's somewhat unlikely to happen.

Yes, several have asked if having industry cartels define DRM standards
and blocking anybody else from making media players unless they sign on
to the cartels rules might violate antitrust.  Quite possibly, though this
is expensive to follow through on.


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