Rich E makes a very compelling case! I imagine it is only a matter of time. Now that we have compression/encryption and bandwidth to do these things is is only time before an enterprising person gets on and does it.
It would be a shame to have a reaction of "squashing" such as the music and film industry have taken. I believe you should have to pay for content if the author desires you to (it's about the only feasible model), but that payment such be balanced. Before it was possible to download films you struggled to find DVDs for less that 15 quid. I just got Layer Cake for 2.99, a price I'm happy to pay. If I could have downloaded it for £3 I would have done, but only if it had the flexibility of the DVD i just bought - I can play it nearly anywhere, copy it and back it up, and watch it with friends in my living room, but not easily share it. DRM in itself is not inherently evil, it's just that most of the DRM out there is pretty evil because of it's restrictions. Hopefully TV (a pretty big "them" of whom the BBC is I believe, the finest) will take note and Implement a micro payment system, I'll happy follow. Hell, if the TV licensing system could be used to fund/authentically it, that would be even better, but I imagine it's not an ideal system. The trick to getting content provision right I believe, is the payment levels. These are the motivator to steal music and films - they were blooming expensive to buy. There was motivation to steal them. Now if you could micro-pay for streamed TV content, especially if it was re-usable (even with a measure of DRM to stop free-distribution), I would be in, and I believe many others would too. That said, if such a system threatened the existence of the BBC (and it might just), I'm not giving up Radio4 just for TV on my laptop :) Oli On 12/21/06, Richard P Edwards <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
What is great is that..... One 3.5m satellite dish with a four way LNB, connected to four Sky boxes with four Sling Media Sling boxes attached to four Macs, because that is what I like, each with a couple of "realtime" Automator actions.....
