BBC hijacks TiVo recorders
Tim May
tcmay at got.net
Sat Jun 1 15:52:49 PDT 2002
On Saturday, June 1, 2002, at 03:08 PM, jet wrote:
>> They were even more surprised to find that they won't be allowed to
>> delete the programme for one week, and that more sponsored recordings
>> are on the way.
>> ...
>> <http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/25436.html>
>
> However, the show didn't take up any user space, but was stored in
> reserved system space that's kept around for use during software
> upgrades and whatnot.
If TiVO works the same basic way my UltimateTV (Sony/DirectTV) works,
having "Bubba and Ram Dass," or whatever, always in my list of recorded
shows for a week would be a massive annoyance.
You said you worked for TiVo, as I recall. I suggest you point out to
your corporate bosses the Law of Unintended Consequences. I foresee
growing irritation, hacks to permanently interfere with TIVo's spam
recordings, the "Bubba and Doss" show being unfavorably smeared by angry
TiVO customers, and even a grass roots campaign to monkeywrench TiVO in
general.
By the way, so far my Ultimate TV hasn't tried any such Big Brother
tricks on me. Though they may have their own corporate clowns looking
for revenue enhancement. Downloaded ads that play before every recorded
show can be viewed. Schemes to disable fast-forwarding through
commercials.
--Tim May
"The whole of the Bill [of Rights] is a declaration of the right of the
people at large or considered as individuals... It establishes some
rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no
majority has a right to deprive them of." -- Albert Gallatin of the New
York Historical Society, October 7, 1789
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