Techdirt: Philips Patents Pissing Off TV Viewers

["Fergie" <fergdawg () netzero net>]

Fascist alert. ;-)

Via techdirt.com.

[snip]

It's hard to figure out where to start pointing out just how ridiculous this story is. Philips has patented a system 
for inserting flags into television broadcasts that would prevent you from changing the channels during commercials or 
prevent you from fast forwarding if watched on a DVR. Yes, this is a "feature" that not a single person in this world 
would want -- except perhaps folks like former TV exec Jamie Kellner, who once said that people who went to the 
bathroom during commercial breaks were "stealing" TV.

To deal with the fact that this is a feature no one wants, Philips has the positively lovely suggestion that when such 
"forced" advertisements were playing, a note can pop up on the screen giving you the opportunity to pay extra to change 
a channel or fast forward. It's not hard to imagine how that would go over.

[snip]

More:
http://techdirt.com/articles/20060418/1651225.shtml

- ferg


--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg () netzero net or fergdawg () sbcglobal net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/


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