Little To Fear From Broadcast Flags

[John Corn]

NEW YORK - Like recording what you see on TV? Enjoy the rights you have now, for within the next few years they may be restricted.

That's the message coming from consumer rights advocates who are railing against the possibility that new government rules expected any day now may curb how we watch and record TV.

http://www.forbes.com/2003/10/31/cx_ah_1031tentech.html?partner=yahoo&referrer=

 

[Stargazer]

This will cause some people to find alternative means to record the shows then share them on the internet. This may make things even worse for people if they have to get the stuff downloaded from the internet vs. recording it on their own because they may end up downloading even more content than what they were after in the first place hurting the networks as a result. Consumers would do this because they would be upset about how the networks prevented them from recording the shows they wanted to keep for later.

 

[Cyclone]

I still think that it is funny, that "flagged"content will be down-rezzed to 480p instead of 720p or 1080i if your equipment isn't using the encrypt connectors.

Now I would expect a 480p copy of a program to be a much smaller download and therefore much more portable. Sure its not full HDTV, but even watching HDTV over a S-Video connector is still much better than watching SDTV.