On Wed, Feb 02, 2005 at 02:15:51PM +0000, Simon Kenyon wrote: > nuvexport > CD ripping > transcoding > > built into myth. seems like we should get our story straight before kicking > up > a fuss :-) > > not objecting to these features or suggesting that they be removed - use them > all the time. just pointing out that we should not kick up a big fuss without > considering the consequences.
Everybody has (mostly correctly) ripped poor Simon a new one for asking why these tools are there. They are perfectly legal and are used all the time for perfectly legal uses. However, there is a deeper subtext to this issue. People like the MPAA and RIAA put a lot of pressure to get features similar to these, along with commercial skip and the ability to transfer unencrypted video files, removed from commercial products. Those efforts are wrong, and get fought in the courts. But many of those efforts are outside the courts, and consist of simply pressuring or scaring companies like Tivo not to put in features. Most of us probably run MythTV not because we're hoping our open box can let us violate copyrights all day, we just want an open box that doesn't impose artificial restrictions on what we do to satisfy somebody else's paranoia. But the paranoid are clever, and good at the game. For example, I recall seing a quote that because of fear of lawsuits, MythTV would probably never incorporate the sort of features that really raise the wrath of the MPAA, like filesharing gateways. Of course, any MythTV user with a small amount of savvy can take a file from their mythbox and put it on a filesharing network, so it's not as though this can be stopped from happening -- but nonetheless the fear campaigns get some success. Even people on this list, who use the tools all the time, ask questions like the above. Many of us left Tivo behind because we want a box that is built only in the interests of its user, not that of the builder or advertisers or the media owners of the building company. But unfortunately, the ability to do that needs to be defended.
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