[mythtv-users] Their Baaaacccckkk!

[Ray Benjamin]

I think being a pain to the real consumer is the real goal. These 
guys want to control your schedule. They want to insure that they can 
provide a certain audience at a given time to watch a given 
commercial. I did some work for Nielsen, the company that measures 
who watches what when. Most of the broadcasting/commercial/marketing 
economy is built around the idea that TV stations can deliver an 
audience. If people can fast forward through commercials, then the 
whole world will have to change. It will have a major effect on our 
economy and that of many other countries.

CEOs and Politicians fear change. They will do almost anything to 
prevent it. What they fear even more than generic change is any kind 
of change that will upset the economy. That fear isn't restricted to 
one side of the aisle or the other, it's spans the whole political 
spectrum. That's why we all have to stand up and shout about this issue.

At 04:24 PM 2/10/2006, you wrote:
>The problem with the broadcast flag and all other DRM measures is that
>it is, quite simply, bad security. Those of us who do security for a
>living (computer security in the case of a lot of us on this list) know
>that the best security measures are those that cause a minimum amount of
>inconvenience to legitimate users while creating the greatest barriers
>to unauthorized users. DRM is exactly the opposite. The people who make
>a lot of money selling pirated copies of movies, TV shows, and software,
>will be able to find ways around DRM. DRM will interfere mostly with
>legitimate users trying to make fair use of content they have legally
>paid for. DRM is just plain bad security. It also costs them sales. I
>would never buy a song from the Apple music store, for instance, because
>they give it to me in a way that I can't use it in my home music system.
>It's worthless to me, so they have lost a lot of sales.
>
>I know I am preaching to the choir with this audience, but the reason I
>say this is that this is a better argument to make with people who are
>not already convinced, than the usual ones I hear about evil greedy
>money-grubbing corporations, information wants to be free, and so forth.
>You aren't going to convince anyone (including your congresscritter)
>with that kind of argument. Much better to simply point out that these
>measures won't stop the real crooks but will be a pain for the
>legitimate consumer.
>
>--Greg
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>mythtv-users mailing list
>mythtv-users at mythtv.org
>http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users