[mythtv-users] The Death of MythTV in the US?

[Michael T. Dean]

On 03/31/2008 09:33 AM, jedi wrote:
> On Sat, Mar 29, 2008 at 01:08:14PM -0400, Billy Macdonald wrote:
>   
>> On Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 7:02 PM, Steve Peters - Priority Electronics wrote:
>>     
>>>  Anyone know why the cable companies even care? What does time warner care if
>>>  you have a copy of an HBO TV Show? NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, etc don't seem to
>>>  care, cause if they did, I'm sure they would have ranted enough to have some
>>>  type of encryption created with the digital OTA broadcasts and then have
>>>  only certified TV's able to decrypt those stations.
>>>       
>> The cable companies don't care if you have copies.  They care that
>> people don't steal their cable.  The way cable is distributed, it's
>> easy to steal the cable feed and view the analog, clearQAM channels.
>> By encrypting them all it makes it so that you have to have a box and
>> therefor cannot steal cable.
>     People have been hacking cable boxes since the 70's. Now we're
> not talking sophisticates or "hackers" here. Meat packers have been
> doing it.
>
>     So, the idea that cable companies get some sort of protection out
> of the STB is enough to make an experienced user die of laughter.

In the '70's there was no DMCA.  The protection isn't in the tech, it's
in the legislation (and may get even worse in the future).

Mike