At 11:05 PM 1/25/96, Sten Drescher wrote:

their own. But do you really think that MTV will use a V-Code? (It could be amusing if they did - 10 minutes of blank screen, then 2 minutes of commercials when someone cranks all of their settings to Full Filter.)

One way to kill the V-chip dead is to announce hacks to the V-chip box that will do the _reverse_ of this: block commercials (advertisements, for any non-American readers) but pass programs. (Before anyone points out that such boxes have been built, based on volume levels, spectral content, etc., sure. What I'm speculating about is a subversive campaign to get the meme out there that the V-chip can be used as a filter of commercials.) Even if it is not done, fear of the possibility of this will kill the proposal. --Tim Boycott espionage-enabled software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."