Don't buy that TiVo yet

TiVohas agreed to media use restrictions dictated by broadcasters. So don't but that TiVo yet. The notion that I would want broadcasters to control my use of a device I specifically purchased to take personal control of when and how I consume broadcast media is absurd.
Thank god for the DIY or no-brand Taiwanese/Chinese alternatives to this kind of commercial control.

Max Ochoa, associate general counsel of San Jose-based TiVo, said consumers won't be ambushed by the copy restrictions.

That's just spin. Of course this is an ambush on your freedom to act in any way you want with products you have purchased and put in the privacy of your home.
It is also a reminder why we shouldn't trust the new model of purchasing everything on a service basis. Unless "Don't be evil" becomes law for companies offering such services, we're much better of by moving intelligence and storage to the edges where it can't be controlled.
This by the way is the point of Steve Mann's book Cyborg and the ideology behind his wearable computing and sousveillance projects. Wearable tech is the ultimate edge network. Mann's book quite brilliantly explains how fairer, democracy minded, technology depends on the edge.

Posted by Claus at September 10, 2004 10:55 AM | TrackBack (0)