COPYCENSE

“As TV marketers scramble to try and figure out what do to about growing digital video recorder (DVR) usage, broadcasters are becoming concerned that increased DVR usage means that users are skipping ever more ads, and that the ads they do see could be out of date. A remote storage DVR system would allow cable operators like Cablevision to place new ads in video streams as they are watched, rather than replay advertising that’s days old. They could also limit and/or remove users’ abilities to fast forward through all advertising.

“Leaving aside concerns over advertising, the copyright issues are particularly craggy. While a user’s personal right to timeshift is enshrined in law (for now), the remote-storage DVR pushes on this arrangement because ‘personal use’ becomes much more murky when it involves a third party sending or “rebroadcasting” content to that user, on demand. When this third party is making money off of this service, things get cloudier still. When one starts to think about how this could compete against existing on-demand services—the very same services being tapped to monetize hit network TV shows—then the clouds give way to hurricane winds.”

Ars Technica. Remote Storage DVRs Pose “Gigantic Copyright Issues.” April 10, 2006.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.