[mythtv-users] CCI Copy Freely Letter Campaign

[Mike Perkins]

On 20/07/15 13:24, Simon Hobson wrote:
> Mike Perkins <mikep at randomtraveller.org.uk> wrote:
>
>>> Ditto, I'm in the UK - though what happens "over there" tends to get imported sooner or later :-(
>>>
>> In this case, in the UK, we are already well past that point.
>>
>> Here, there is no alternative of a cable card for any of the service suppliers (BT Vision, Virgin Media and Sky. There are probably others). You get one of their Set Top Boxes and you are stuck with that.
>
> Except that we do have a "quite good" service without having to pay for one of those - from what I read, it seems that large proportions of our US friends get "very little" without paying for cable or similar.
> Unless you like watching sports of course, where the pay operators have outbid the FTA ones.
>
> But then I read this :
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/20/why_whittingdale_kicked_bbc_subscriptions_down_the_road/
>
> Been kicked down the road for now, but I guess CA (conditional access, aka restriction management) will come along sooner or later.
>
True. Most set-top boxes come with a slot for a subscription card, after all. 
(Simple DVB-T adaptors don't, in my experience.)

It all depends on how long the 'basic' Freeview service lasts - in which case 
they had better think about a name change.

This 'quite good' service you speak of - I am sick and tired of having new and 
possibly interesting series or serials aired on one of the free-to-air channels, 
only to find out that, after the first season, the rights have been bought out 
by Sky.

In a system similar to that used by drug peddlars they let someone else find out 
if the program would make them money then lock it up behind their expensive 
portal. No thanks, Mr Murdoch!

-- 

Mike Perkins