[mythtv-users] FIOS copy protecting national Fox channels

[Gary Buhrmaster]

On Thu, Jul 16, 2015 at 3:53 PM, Kirk Bocek <t004 at kbocek.com> wrote:
.....
> In all seriousness, how about a letter writing campaign on the CCI=Copy
> Freely issue. I know it'll make me *feel* better. I've been bummed for a few
> days reading this thread.

Reality check time.

You should do it if you think it will make you feel better, but be
aware of the reality that it is 100% in a content providers rights,
or a distribution provider, to request/require the content to be
marked with copy protection.  Few people have cancelled their
TV contract because ShowTime is marked copy-once for instance,
and (in this case) Fox has long argued that some of its (especially)
sports content may be as valuable as HBO.  And companies only
consider changes if it will impact their bottom line.  So unless you
are really willing to write to cancel your cable contract over this, no
one is really going to care.  And, while numbers do matter, even if
100% of the MythTV users in your letter writing campaign decided
to agree to terminate their TV service in every cable provider, it
would still be noise in the churn rates for the cable providers.  In
other words, you just do not count (big enough) to invoke change.
Sure, you might get a letter in return talking about how you are
a valued customer, and they would like the opportunity to keep
you as a customer, they are really unlikely to actually change
anything with your letter of cancellation.

And you still have the analogue hole solution (the HD-PVR)
which specifies that your content freedom has a known price.
It is (about) $200 CAPEX and $15/mo OPEX.