Saw the bad news on Zap2It Labs via Slashdot: Zap2It Labs Discontinuing Free TV Guide Service

For several years we have offered a free TV listings service to hobbyists for their own personal, noncommercial use. In October of 2004 we posted here an open letter saying the future of Zap2it Labs was at risk because of certain growing misuses of the Zap2it Labs data. Unfortunately this misuse has continued and grown. These misuses, combined with other business factors have led to the decision to discontinue Zap2it Labs effective September 1, 2007.

We thank those users who have honored the terms of the agreement, and we suggest you consider the many TV listings options offered by the commercial licensees of TMS TV listings data.

discuss the Zap2it Labs free tv guide data closing in our forum.

It'll be interesting to see what comes to replace this market need for guide data for Mythtv and other free PVR/HTPC software.

UPDATE: Discussion of what this means for GBPVR in the GBPVR forum. There's a lot of smart people in the byopvr/HTPC community, I'm sure we can figure out *something* to keep the free PVR software train rolling.

PVRwire asks: Are there problems with the October 2006 Rollup for Windows MCE 2005?

"A few days ago I wrote about a new update available from Microsoft, the October 2006 Update Rollup for MCE, and it seems like there may be some issues with the patch. Some readers left comments for the post and there seems to be problems related to the update.

Chris was having trouble with what appears to be a DRM issue and Mike seemed to be having a slew of issues, including network cutouts, video decoding problems and stability issues. I myself have also had an issue with my MCE which required me to start rebuilding it last night, however I can not confirm that it is due directly to this patch."

TiVo's Series 3 Macrovision"self-destruct button" destructs

"
The Macrovision DRM in the new TiVo Series3 recorders is so broken that just having the wrong piece of equipment attached to your TV can cause it to register some shows as un-savable to your VCR, DVD recorder, etc. TiVo characterizes this as a glitch, but that's not the whole story.

By including Macrovision with its products, TiVo is designing a product that is intended to control its owner and treat its owner (TiVo's customer) as an attacker. They've added a swatch of functions that act directly against a user's interests (there's no time at which it's in a user's interest to have her device refuse to record a show the user wants to record). In so doing, they've created a bunch of potential failures in which the user is locked out of her own equipment.

It's like those movies where an accident or a bad guy triggers the "self-destruct button" on a spaceship. Often the self-destruct button is locked away behind plexiglas and padlocks for safety, but wouldn't it be safer not to include a single command that blows up the whole space-ship?

TiVo's problem is a "glitch" but the reason they're having this kind of glitch is that there's a single command that can tell the TiVo to stop listening to its owner. Wouldn't it be better if TiVo didn't build in any technology that attacks its customers? "

See the CNET Tivo Series 3 Review

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has an excellent article about the conspicuous absense of TivoToGo in the new series 3 HD Tivos Lots of good info on how big media is crippling hardware needlessly.

see also the National Day Against DRM post...

Today is October 3, the International Day Against DRM -- the first global day where people rise up and say no to anti-copying technology that treats you like a crook. Remember, DRM doesn't stop "piracy" -- the only people who get DRM infections are people who don't pirate their media. You get DRM by buying your movies, music, games and books through authorized channels -- the stuff you download from P2P or buy off of a blanket at a flea-market has already had the DRM cracked off of it. They say that DRM "keeps honest people honest" -- but all it does is keep honest people in chains.

Here's some things to do and read to celebrate No DRM Day:

DefectiveByDesign's list of anti-DRM actions contains over 200 suggestions for activities you can participate in today and all year round to fight DRM.

DRMFree.org is a search-engine for DRM-free music for sale on the Internet, a single index of dozens of sites that sell or give away music without crippleware.

DRM.info is a site aimed at explaining DRM to the uninitiated -- what DRM is, why you should care, and what you can do about it. Tell your friends!

UPDATE: I like this anti-DRM commercial by defective by design it explains very simply what's wrong with drm.

Fox Tries to Thwart DVR Fast Forwarding

I dunno, this actually seems kinda clever... but are there enough DVR owners to make it worth annoying/boring regular "live" tv viewers to death with a static image? *shrug*

Windows Vista 32 Bit Edition Loses HD Playback

"Microsoft revealed today that no 32-bit versions of Windows Vista will be able to play back “next generation high definition protected content” (translation – studio-released BluRay and HD-DVD movies).

By far the majority of PCs use 32-bit processors, because despite AMD’s efforts to push 64-bit CPUs into the marketplace early, Intel’s first widely-promoted 64-bit CPU is the just-released Core 2 Duo."

see also Slashdot: No Full HD Playback for 32-bit Vista

UPDATE: or does it? Windows Vista 32-Bit CAN Play HD DVD, Blu-ray Movies

"...it turns out the 32-bit version of Windows Vista can play next-gen protected high definition content. Microsoft reps said Senior Program Manager Steve Riley was mistaken when he told a group of Australian developers that Vista couldn't handle the high definition movies.

But the Microsoft representatives said the support will come from third party HD DVD/Blu-ray movie playback software developers like CyberLink who already make DVD playback software.

This could be a harbinger of things to come. Time Warner won't provide CableCARDs for Series 3 TiVos?

...a complaint on the website ConsumerFury contends that Time Warner Cable's Raleigh division responded to a recent customer inquiry on the matter by stating that "Time Warner Cable of Raleigh does not provide support for or allow TiVo devices on our cable network...CableCARDS will only be installed on cable-ready, CableCARD-slot-available television sets."

Now this could be just a handful of bad customer service reps, or it could be an indication of cable companies circling the wagons to protect their inhouse DVR products/sales. In any case, if the cable companies take this type of stance with Tivo Series 3 boxes, I'm not sure what hope future HTPC based CableCard systems might have.

Some Scary Halloween Broadcast Flag/Analog Hole legislation has come to D.C.

"Here's what the proposed law says, in a nutshell:

Every consumer analog video input device manufactured in the United States will be, within a year, forced to obey not one, but two new copy restriction technologies: a watermarking system called VEIL, and a rights system called CGMS-A (we've covered CGMS-A before; we'll talk a bit more about VEIL soon). "

EFF "blog" entry with the broadcast flag scoop

Original EFF broadcast flag page and here's a PDF of the draft of the legislation... it's been nicknamed "Broadcast Flag on Steroids" :(

Choice quote from Cory@BoingBoing This is like the Broadcast Flag on steroids. The Broadcast Flag only covered TV receivers. This covers everything with an analog video input. If this had been around in 1976, the VCR would have been illegal. Today, it would ban Mythtv, every tuner-card in the market, and boxes like ElGato's eyeTV the Slingbox and the Orb and the vPod. This is a proposal to turn huge classes of technology into something that exists only at the sufferance of the studios.

The Broadcast Flag for terrestial OTA digital TV is resurfacing in Congress. Here's the link/news/commentary round up.

join the fax brigade / call to action against broadcast flag

Excellent EFF insight into the latest salvo on the war against fair use/DTV

Protect your legal right to record television. MPAA tries to get sneaky (again) with broadcast flag legislation

20 suicidal Congressional Reps demand a Broadcast Flag

Slashdot on the terrible 20 and the broadcast flag

Read articles, Scream out loud, Notifiy your representative.

*sigh* not that I expected it to just go away quietly in the night, but there's some interesting not all that speculative speculation/commentary on how the MPAA and RIAA are teaming up for the uber-Broadcast Flag Congress end-a-round

Via the anti-DRM broadcast flag haterz at BoingBoing ;)

"MPAA/RIAA subvert democracy with super-broadcast-flag bid
The RIAA and MPAA have teamed up to demand that Congress get the FCC to create a super-duper broadcast flag for radio and TV. This means that they'll get a veto over pretty much anything that can play video or music -- from your iPod to your PC's tuner card.

My cow-orker Danny O'Brien has written a brilliant, witty explanation of how the MPAA and RIAA are pulling this off in Congress, sneaking around behind closed doors to get this enacted without debate -- and what you can do to stop the enterainment cartels to stop undermining American democracy "

It's time to renew/reup my EFF donation/membership and suggest you consider it as well. (and not JUST for the BroadCast Flag stuff, they do a lot of defense of p2p and other digital fair use rights stuff that's important, IMHO!)

Following up on previous Tivo DRM Snafu coverage

PVRblog notes that Jim Denney, TiVo's Director of Product Marketing,
told TechBlog that these were probably just "false positives."

"Denney said the copy protection is trigged by a flag in the video signal. The reports appearing on the Web appear to be cases where TiVo misinterprets noise in the signal as a copy protection flag, and imposes the restrictions."

Cory dug asked around at a DRM conference and didn't find TiVo's claim that "noise" somehow triggered the content protection too credible, unless it's due to incompetence.

O'reilly blogger Mark thinks TiVo is being disengenious about noise-gate.

Wendy Seltzer would rather use MythTV anyways She's got a MythTV HDTV HD-3000 project page worth checking out.

The blogosphere seems to really be considering tivo alternatives like byopvr ;)

PVRblog broke the news of content protection in Tivo rearing it's head albeit supposedly it's just an accident/glitch. The fact that the capability is built in and can be triggered "accidently" at the head end when certain shows should expire doesn't bode well for TiVo, in my opinion.

See also:

"A bug in the latest version of TiVo's operating system has some users concerned that the service's content protection mechanisms--supposedly intended solely for pay-per-view and video-on-demand content--may someday be applied to broadcast television programming."

TiVo won't save certain shows or allow moving them
BoingBoing Tivo Alternatives
SlashDot: Tivo OS update adds content protection
PVRwire: DRM scare creeps into Tivo
TVHarmony: Tivo and the red flag
Gizmodo: Tivo OS 7.2 aka screw you luanched
Kottke: Tivo hates its customers

You probably already know how I feel about DRM in general, but to surmise: I can't stand that a device I own and a service I pay for can be a moving target (in the wrong direction) with the possibilty of me having less PVR functionality now than when I purchased the device.

You probably already know that DRM is a dirty word in these parts... you probably also know that I'm dying for a legitimate way to record HDTV via cable without using the cable company's DVR i.e. the mythtical cableCARD PC device. I'm not sure that i'd trade DRM up the wazoo to get it, however...

It is rumoured that with Windows Vista (nod to Ed Bot) there'll be sufficient DRM and content "security" to appease the content providers enough that maybe there'll be CableCARD support in Windows Vista MCE.

A few prominent bloggers are wondering what Windows Vista means to 3rd party PVR software including the always insightful to read Chris Lanier MSMVP - PC PVR Needs Vista and PVP-OPM! and Your Company is NOT Ruined, SnapStream in response to a rightfully skeptical SnapStream devblog entry

Now there's no reason to panic or schedule an EFF rally or the like yet, even though i'm not sure I trust the big players in all of this to have the consumers best interest in mind here. There's a gradual closing of the analog loophole endgame afoot, and eventually digital content will be handcuffed to HDCP approved devices that only DMCA violating daredevils will attempt to supercede. Can I trademark HDCP-X-copy now to beat the rush?

Between intel's trusted computing platform, HDCP, PVP-OPM and the like it doesn't look to promising for fair use (or competition!) in general.

The SCOTUS Hat Trick of bad decisions is now complete... Hollywood wins Internet piracy battle: The U.S. Supreme Court rules against file-sharing service Grokster

Corante on the Grokster decision "Grokster Loses - Unanimously - Inducement Test?" Tons of links and info on the grokster ruling post@boingboing

Via SlashDot article | EFF Lawyer interviewed about the decision

hat tip TVHarmony