How The Content Industry Is Trying To Prevent TiVo From Innovating

Overhype

from the innovation-not-allowed dept

It’s an innovation that TiVo should have done years ago, and which others have already hacked their TiVo to do, or setup other systems which allowed it, but now that TiVo wants to let users transfer what they record to other devices, the content industry is freaking out. Among those complaining is the NFL, who is worried that someone will use this system to send a copy of a game to an area where TV coverage is “blacked out.” As TiVo points out, it would take 144 hours to transfer a game at this point. That’s a bit misleading, of course, as bandwidth is getting faster, but the system TiVo is designing seems clearly set up to limit unauthorized copying. If someone actually goes through the trouble of getting a football game in a “blacked out” zone, does it really matter that much? For the most part, what TiVo is doing would allow more people to view the commercials that help the TV industry make money. Of course, the end result, like everything the entertainment industry tries to block, is that people will continue to hack their way to do this anyway, and the entertainment industry will have even less control. Once again, with their short-term thinking they’re shooting their own businesses in the foot.