Tuesday, November 16, 2004
No no, gadget
Some more Mactastic information, this time about y'all's beloved TiVos: Lookit
Now, as I wrote to my Congressmen, just how exactly does Congress expect to enforce the part about not skipping over commercials? By spyware? Well, my man Pete's already voted against that in the Internet Spyware Prevention Act, so I'm guessing that's not an option. The only other option I can think of, then, is that police task forces will have to be formed, and they'll go out to each and every day to each and every household to see that people aren't fast-forwarding past the previews on videos or DVD, or aren't skipping them when they record on their TiVos. (Wonder if that would fall under Homeland Security? I'm sure they could get a grant for it or something.) Either way, those are gross violations of privacy, not to mention expensive to enforce.
Your choice, folks.
Now, as I wrote to my Congressmen, just how exactly does Congress expect to enforce the part about not skipping over commercials? By spyware? Well, my man Pete's already voted against that in the Internet Spyware Prevention Act, so I'm guessing that's not an option. The only other option I can think of, then, is that police task forces will have to be formed, and they'll go out to each and every day to each and every household to see that people aren't fast-forwarding past the previews on videos or DVD, or aren't skipping them when they record on their TiVos. (Wonder if that would fall under Homeland Security? I'm sure they could get a grant for it or something.) Either way, those are gross violations of privacy, not to mention expensive to enforce.
Your choice, folks.
Read the bill. You will still be able to fast-forward through the commercials, but not write software that will mute or delete them. the “excerpt” that pesky used has been edited to exclude that fact. The “nanny” software that allows you to ignore the “bad” parts of the movies was spearheaded by such right wing extremists as.... tipper gore. All of it is an invasion of privacy indeed- and that’s why it’s SO nice that most of the Tivo and DVR systems are Linux, and eminently hackable.