<nettime> Fast forward as theft

[Felix Stalder <felix@openflows.org>]

Fast forward as theft

By Scott Bradner
Network World, 05/13/02
http://www.nwfusion.com/columnists/2002/0513bradner.html


This is yet another column about the copyright industry. It might seem like
I'm fixated on the topic and maybe that's somewhat the case, but it's
because I fear copyright holders want to turn the Internet into something
that is legally limited to providing the services they think are OK.

There were two triggers for my revisiting the topic:

*	First, in an interview with Cableworld magazine, Jamie Kellner, the
head of ad-supported television for Turner Broadcasting (the folks that
bring you CNN), said that skipping ads on a recorded TV show was theft.

*	Second, The Mercury News in San Jose reported that a judge in Los
Angeles ordered SonicBlue, the maker of ReplayTV, to develop software
within the next 60 days to "record every click from every customer's remote
control." In particular the judge wants to have a record of which shows
individual users copy, store and view; what commercials they skip; and
which programs they send to other users.

In the Cableworld interview, Kellner said skipping ads is theft because,
"Your contract with the network when you get the show is you're going to
watch the spots. Otherwise you couldn't get the show on an ad-supported
basis. Any time you skip a commercial . . . you're actually stealing the
programming."

He does have a point, but it's a point rendered invalid by the real world.
A world in which CNN replays the same, often mind-numbingly stupid ad twice
an hour for months at a time. Is it in anyone's benefit, particularly
Dell's, if I am forced to watch that weird Dell dude recite the same dumb
dialogue 100 times? In my case it would guarantee that I would never buy a
Dell product - to do otherwise would be supporting mental torture. It is
possible to create ads that people want to see, though that might be hard
to tell while watching CNN.

There are already DVDs sold where the DVD player doesn't let you skip the
10-minute ad at the start of the movie. If Kellner had his way, you
wouldn't even be able to mute the sound on commercials you hate. I wonder
if he reads all the ads in the Sunday paper, just to be consistent.

Separately, the implication of the judge's order in the SonicBlue case is
that the Kellners of the world might be able to check to see that you are
following their rules. Because there is no technical reason for a device
such as ReplayTV to send any reports to the manufacturer, the judge is
ordering a vendor to spy on its customers and modify its products to make
that possible. Not a good precedent at all.

What's next - real-time reports to Microsoft when your company uses a
non-Microsoft product? I believe in a balance between the rights of
copyright holders and the rest of the world. These two incidents indicate
to me that there is currently an increasing tilt away from the users.

Disclaimer: Harvard is made up of users and some tilters, but the above is
my view.

--------------------++-----
Les faits sont faits.
http://felix.openflows.org


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