False Positives
“Don’t Trust, Don’t Store” variation on Trusted Computing (Trusted Transmission)?
Posted under Digital Rights & Wrongs, on Thursday, September 15th, 2005;Boing Boing reported that TiVo won’t save certain shows or allow moving them, and the refuted claim by Tivo that “noise” could cause a TiVo to block recording. (trust me instances of standard TV shows being affected by new copy protection restrictions likely are “false positives.”, now stay still!) Also : TiVo DRM scare, and kottke:TiVo hates its customers
Cory pointed out that since 1984’s Betamax decision, Americans have had the right to record TV shows even if the rightsholder doesn’t like the idea, which makes what Tivo is doing very troubling. (New slogan : “Digital Rights Managment is Property Theft!” ). and he has talked about how you can Build your own PVR and get a TV that you really 0wn! (also: Low-Budget TiVo Substitute) - which is a great business opportunity.
But I have another question: Could Tivo be doing copy protecting by default?
What I’m thinking is that the failure of a checksum (caused by the analog noise) meant the device assumed something was wrong (”Help, Help, I’m being attacked!”) and therefore did not store/record it “just in case”.
A new kind of “Don’t Trust, Don’t Store” variation on Trusted Computing (Trusted Transmission)?
The PVR Blog has more on More on TiVo’s Red Flagged Recordings, and there’s the Links DRM
Sept 17th Update
Looks like TiVo’s “accidental” no-save locks applied to more programming. Cory comments :Perhaps there’s more of that pesky “noise” creeping into the TiVo signals
See also
November 28th, 2005 at
[…] An alternative to the current options of commercial supported, embedded product presentation, or pay for view. Still to be determined is if TiVo can work with advertiser’s without pissing off their viewership or broadcasters. (Something they have not always managed well, see “Don’t Trust, Don’t Store” variation on Trusted Computing (Trusted Transmission)?) […]