pvrblog.com — Despite the fact that it is legal to record free TV broadcasts on your VCR, DVD recorder, and Tivo, there are rumblings at NBC that they might sue Tivo for allowing those same episodes to be recorded on portable devices, namely the newest iPod and Sony's PSP.
Nov 27, 2005 View in Crawl 4
buckdog05Nov 28, 2005
What bull s**t. I am disliking NBC more every day. The don't make the new Surface episodes available anywhere for sale, yet they send people letters telling them to stop downloading them from Bittorrent. What gives?
bootesNov 28, 2005
GE owns NBC.
mermNov 28, 2005
In the technological age in which we live there are only two ways of maintaining profitability over the way that media is distributed.1. Innovate new ways to deliver your media that meet the demands and interests of the changing market. (This is a socially "evolving"/aggressive/progressive approach.)2. Impose your distribution model on the market using lawsuits. (This is a socially defensive/preservation approach. Seeking to preserve/conserve old models.)Most companies choose the second option because it's cheaper in the short term.Interesting to apply this same mentality to politics and religion, these principals are at play everywhere. But that's off topic...
bernardrothNov 28, 2005
If they do have a lawsuit, it will be a step closer towards digital fair-use laws.
wilf_brimNov 28, 2005
Is there anyway that we can get the FCC to grow a pair? Probably not, as the politicos that control them are owned by the RIAA and MPAA, but we can dream. The OTA brodcasters are really running all over us. In this area we are having one hell of a time getting decent HD signals. The broadcasters are too cheap to install decent equipment, and at the same time are trying to exhort money from the cable company to carry their HD signal. The cable company is, by law, required to carry their signal and no other from that network. And they refuse to grant any waivers for HD satellite signals from providers (say in NYC) who provide HD signals. So we are screwed.
swift2Nov 28, 2005
Hey, they're in fourth place. Their cable news channel has microscopic ratings. Their solution? Make a big fuss about people watching their shows in a non-approved way. Sue your way back to the Cosby/Seinfeld days of glory. Yeah, that's the ticket. Oh, and their website? It's stuck in the most proprietary standards for their video. I have a Mac, but I can watch the newsclips on CNN, ABC, CBS, Yahoo -- but even though I have Windows Media 9, Flash, Java, all the rest, if I click on a news video at MSNBC, it tells me, helpfully, that I need their OS. Further proof they've lost their minds over at NBC. Want to watch Letterman? You'll have to buy special NBC goggles.
jimxugleNov 28, 2005
Anybody who knows anything about fair-use is that it's the definition of Grey-area. My Ruling: Let them have their shows on their iPod/PSP if they want to. you aren't loosing any money. and if you were going to charge for the "privilege" of watching your content which you're broadcasting for FREE over the Air, then you deserve a frontal lobotomy.
johnnysoftwareNov 30, 2005
Heavens, NBC has bigger problems than that - their entire channel is a dead zone!After reading about this possible lawsuit, I reviewed NBC's entire programming schedule for this week using <a class="user" href="http://tv.yahoo.com/">http://tv.yahoo.com/</a> and it took under 5 minutes to find out that they have no big reason to even turn on their channel!!Here is the result of NBC announcing they "may" sue TiVo (which I own) over its iPod (which I own) and Sony PSP (which I shall never own). I went to my TiVo, and I deleted every NBC show except for "Surface".Here is what that means. Each week, I was watching up to 3 NBC shows. Now, I am watching only one NBC show. And weeks that it is in repeats and during summer reruns - I am watching zero NBC shows.Word to TV ad time bookers in marketing departments: you might want to put your ads on ABC, CBS, WB, or FOX.Reasons: (a) personally, most of the shows I watch and other people I know watch are NOT ON NBC, (b) NBC's shows are lame - look at the series they have in their schedule - "Surface" is not a dull show but most of their shows are, (c) tons of quality series on the other networks. The vast majority of shows by a landslide that I had season passes for were on NBC's competitors - not NBC, (d) contrary to popular belief TiVo owners go glimpse every commercial even if they fast forward and personally I do stop on one if it looks interesting. (e) NBC just pissed off the most afluent product-buyers out there and what little value ad spots had before, it has just gone down.Companies who want to do ads should bypass NBC completely. Seriously, you want people to watch your ads and you want the people who your ads reach to be potentially interested in buying your product, right? Well, talk to TiVo and see if they and you would like to support a business case where users can subscribe to ads for product types they are interested in: Music players (subcategories: portable MP3, home theater, headphones, computer applications), Cars (sports, luxery, hybrid), Medicine (depression, arthritis, acid reflux), Computers and Software (Macintosh, MS-Windows, Linux, other), etc.Cut out the middleman - especially _weak_ audience-drawing ones like NBC! Go right for the jugular!! Let the hungry consumer communicate what *he* has an appetite for - and allow him to have it. Work with TiVo to let their well-to-do consumers get it. Because NBC, by having a weak fall season and trying to sue companies that could be enhacing marketing's effectiveness & appeal, do not get it.Look at ABC, they get it. They offer some shows to go directly to a computer, and from their to an iPod. People will go for watching the free show, with ads, if they can. If they wind up missing it though, rather than making them lose the story thread of the series and lose interest, ABC has figured out how to keep them interested - and keep them *watching*.Stick a fork in NBC - it's done.
johnnysoftwareNov 30, 2005
If this rumor about a new TV-watching Mac is true - <a class="user" href="http://digg.com/apple/New_Mac_Mini_to_Take_Center_Stage_in_Your_Living_Room">http://digg.com/apple/New_Mac_Mini_to_Take_Center_Stage_in_Your_Living_Room</a> , then by the time anything comes of NBC's rumor of a lawsuit comes to possible fruition, the case will already be moot.Computers have had television-input as an optional peripheral for over a decade. Apple bundling it does not introduce anything new. It will just bring the cost, footprint, and complexity way down.NBC is being suckered by lawyers saying they can make revenue. NBC's management should be talking to companies with engineers inventing ways to create revenue by making things of value - not taking them away.They should be sending out new business development managers to talk to tech companies and brainstorm - not lawyers to pow-wow about making war parties. Look at what happened to Sony. And look at what is going on with Apple.The reason for Sony stumbling in the market is as clear as Apple's success - one company did it wrong - the other company did it right.Lawsuits like this aren't right.
ycauseicanDec 9, 2005
I'm getting truly annoyed by rights management taken to extreme. Just because someones coming up with a good idea, other people sue.I can still record to DVD, strip it, encode it and transfer it.What about not broadcasting it in the first place? That would prevent anyone copying it!!
zbeastJul 7, 2006
This is all about the "ghosting" of TV shows. At one time I use to have stacks of tapes of seasons of TV shows. These days people don't record shows they just record them to there tivo and watch them a fewtimes and let them fade away. This will bit people in the future when you find that one you don't have a recording of a given show, two when you find that show is not available on DVD and never will be released.
diggjiushiwaMar 13, 2009
New try! DVD to iPod Converter:<a class="user" href="http://www.convertdvdtoipod.org/" rel="nofollow">http://www.convertdvdtoipod.org/</a>