Broadcast Flag rides again, courtesy of NBC & Microsoft?

Just like efforts to close the analog hole, our old friend the broadcast flag (don't remember what that is and how it was defeated? Take a quick trip back to 2005 with us) has reared its ugly head again. Displaying the kind of tenacity rarely seen outside of horror movie villains and potential presidential candidates, some Vista Media Center users have apparently gotten the above popup while trying to record broadcast TV from NBC. Since the FCC regulation giving the broadcast flag its power to remotely disable your recording ability was overturned, not only should it not be enabled, there's no reason the system should respond if it were. The EFF's working with the makers of the HDHomeRun to find out why this happened at all (although it's not the first time); whether it's an honest mistake somewhere or if Microsoft slipped a bit of extra DRM into its latest OS.

[Via EFF]

[ryan @ May 18th 2008 4:39PM]

God NBC are the biggest money grubbers on the planet.

[Velorium @ May 18th 2008 9:47PM]

Why is everyone so surprised this is done by NBC and not ABC. They do after all have this venture called MSNBC. The MSNBC venture existing is also some explanation as to why NBC jumped ship from iTunes to Zune for the same price model Apple proposed for videos with NBC declining. Think about it.

[Frank Furter @ May 20th 2008 1:41PM]

I know! Can you believe the nerve of some businesses trying to be successful and make money? Sheesh.

[clak @ May 18th 2008 4:51PM]

http://www.elgato.com/elgato/int/mainmenu/products/software/EyeTV-3/product1.en.html


The biggest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist—Verbal Kent, The Usual Suspects

[AJ in the East Bay @ May 18th 2008 8:27PM]

Didn't De Niro also use this quote on Angel Heart when he played "Louis Cypher"? I think it was also used on another movie, but I can't remember the name right now.

[Morgan @ May 19th 2008 1:05AM]

@Haikibutsu

Please go back to Digg, they seem to be missing their incoherent idiot of a mascot.

Oh and a big FUCK YOU for bringing up memories of my brother's suicide. Ass.

[Dave A @ May 19th 2008 1:26AM]

@Haikibutsu - whatever you think of him your hate is unacceptable, get some help.

[Shane @ May 18th 2008 4:52PM]

What a joke, bring back VCR's.

[paul @ May 18th 2008 10:59PM]

MythTV For the WIN.

[shanoboy @ May 19th 2008 8:32AM]

How about some myth TV instead! Build your own DVR! No DRM included!

Check it out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_tv

[john @ May 19th 2008 9:32AM]

On the bright side, a few poor souls will be spared from enduring American Gladiators.

[CT A @ May 18th 2008 5:07PM]

It's not just American Gladiators, Medium was blocked too on Monday.

[Anthony @ May 18th 2008 7:03PM]

American Gladiators. Unless it's the original (Go Nitro!) I think MS & NBC are doing us a favor by blocking it.

As for Medium. Well, they should have seen it coming.

[Chris @ May 19th 2008 6:55AM]

"As for Medium. Well, they should have seen it coming."

*ba-dum tish*

[Tommy @ May 19th 2008 8:15AM]

I've had trouble recording fairly frequently some prime time NBC programming with my Media Center 2005. They've blocked me from recording stuff like Chuck, The Office, The Apprentice. Almost every time it happens it also blocks the Today show from recording the next morning.

Looks like I'll be getting a DishNetwork DVR shortly, so hopefully NBC won't get in bed with DishNetwork too.

[iczer2 @ May 19th 2008 8:50AM]

This is rather strange. I keep hearing about Media Center and some cable STB's encountering this, but I've yet to run into this problem on my Series 2 and HD Tivos. Maybe Tivo turned off support for it when the ruling was made?

Either way, I think this is just a case of someone forgetting to turn something off in the code. I wonder if this problem started shortly after an Automatic Update?

[Jon @ May 18th 2008 4:54PM]

Seems a little more than a coincidence...wouldn't NBC and Microsoft have to both be in on it for that to happen?

I'm wondering, can people just record the "flagged" show with a different/3rd party app? I'll just continue to use ORB, F**K microsoft and F**K NBC.

[Rafer @ May 18th 2008 5:21PM]

FRAPS...Didnt hear it from me but Itunes rentals... *Wink*

[Kris @ May 18th 2008 6:03PM]

ORB? That uses Media Center to do all recordings... so that wouldn't change.

[Maestro @ May 18th 2008 8:17PM]

I can partly answer that. I recorded a flagged show with WMC. When I tried to burn the show to a DVD it said this was not allowed because blah blah blah...

So I took that MS-DVR file and tried to burn it with Nero. No dice. Then I transfered that to another computer and not only would it not burn, but when I tried to play it the PC said it was not authorized for that content.

Ug.

[John Bailey @ May 19th 2008 3:57AM]

Microsoft baking DRM into any recordings made with Media centre is not exactly breaking news. It is just usually not that obnoxious until you try to do something the broadcaster doesn't want you to do. So you are not in control of your own gear.

This is just the beginning. Remember.. as far as the media provider is concerned, they own the content and have the right to control how you watch their media. Expect skip proof advertising, opt outs for a fee that don't always work, self erasing recordings etc. And th ultimate goal.. Selling targeted advertising on the PVR in your home linked to your viewing habits.

[Phoenixfury @ May 18th 2008 5:00PM]

I'm more worried about the worst case scenario.. What if they block Heroes and or Battlestar Galactica? Granted I am home when Battlestar Galactica is on, but I am at work when Heroes is on. Is it my fault that Heroes airs while I'm at work? I guess if I'm a greedy NBC exec I suppose it's my fault I need to make money.. Granted I could just wait the next day to watch it online... However my experience of watching any NBC video online has been less than stellar.. To me this just proves that NBC doesn't care about it's customers, just the bottom line.

[Phoenixfury @ May 18th 2008 5:03PM]

Shoot, too bad I can't I can't edit my post after I posted it. What I meant is that the it's my fault that my job happens to be the same time as Heroes. That's what I meant when I said it's my fault I have to make money.

[mabhatter @ May 18th 2008 6:38PM]

This was planned as part of NBC-Universal-Microsoft-Amazon collaboration. This is the same group that got Microsoft to pay a "pirate" tax on Zunes, expecting everybody else (Apple) should do this too. This part of the backroom deal Microsoft was making to get HD-DVD accepted with their DRM in place all over.

This is the crowning achievement of Microsoft whoring themselves to media companies for years... all the WPA DRM aggreements (expiring media!), cable card, CSS, HD-DVD, HDCP... and the list goes on... Vista is the culmination of those agreements to make your computer "their" media delivery device. NBC is firmly in Microsoft's bed (probably performing illegal sex acts on them) in Microsoft's attempt to be relevant against Apple's ipod/itunes juggernaut. My bet is that this was a demonstration of their power over the media...(their fully armed and operational battlestation) and now Microsoft/RIAA goonies will work to chip against the existing laws to make legal and mandatory what was already repelled once.

[Jakob @ May 18th 2008 5:04PM]

Hey, you want "its" here -- the possessive form of it doesn't take an apostrophe. So

"has reared it's ugly head again" --> has reared its ugly head again
"giving the broadcast flag it's power to " --> flag its power to

[wickedpheonix @ May 18th 2008 5:09PM]

the grammar Nazi returns!

[ethana2 @ May 18th 2008 5:13PM]

Jakob, people like you and me don't belong in the english speaking community.

Learn lojban.

[kr @ May 18th 2008 7:40PM]

The great thing is, you probably upset him more by using "me" instead of "I"...

[Rodney @ May 18th 2008 11:57PM]

Actually, "me" is correct there, so he's probably not bothered at all.

[palehorse @ May 18th 2008 5:03PM]

Did any other 3rd-party DVR/PVR hardware and software record the show without an issue?

IOW, did this only effect MCE/VMC users?

[Gav @ May 18th 2008 5:07PM]

www.thepiratebay.org

...

[TavisJohn @ May 18th 2008 7:54PM]

But if no body can record it... Than how will it get to that site?
Magic pixies? :P

[John @ May 18th 2008 8:23PM]

yes, I'm sure everyone who makes torrents of TV shows uses Windows to do it. That's why WMV is so common on TPB and demonoid, right?

[Michael LaFramboise @ May 18th 2008 5:08PM]

ZOMG! THE AXIS OF EVIL STRIKE AGAIN!

[Mitchell @ May 18th 2008 5:10PM]

I use MythTV to record my OTA HDTV. I recorded American Gladiators with no issues. Glad to be open source :).....

Mitchell

[ethana2 @ May 18th 2008 5:13PM]

"Microsoft in bed with content industry, something evil is conceived."

Well what the heck were you hoping for, punctuated equilibrium? I hope no one here was /surprised/..

[ShadowMaker @ May 18th 2008 5:16PM]

Seriously, of all the things they can prevent to copy they chose American Gladiator?

[Billy Gun @ May 18th 2008 5:17PM]

The Brazilian Governament had made a law that there will not be alowed any kind of DRM to the Brazilian HD TV (called Digital TV here).

[Peetah @ May 18th 2008 5:18PM]

Go MythTV!!!

[Blake Bowen @ May 18th 2008 5:19PM]

Keep going, guys. Keep driving people into free content. Do they actually bother to do any testing?

[Eddy Alvarez @ May 18th 2008 5:24PM]

lol wth? do you guys read your own stuff? why would you blame M$? they spent money developing the system, they didn't remove it. NBC is the one to blame for flipping that switch.

If someone walks up to your house, grabs your hose, and fills your car with water, is that your fault for buying the hose and leaving it connected or the guy who went into your yard and filled your car with water?

[Kris @ May 18th 2008 6:07PM]

No you idiot. The FCC overturned the broadcast flag meaning it should be _ignored_ even if triggered.

Both NBC and Microsoft are at fault.

[Ian @ May 19th 2008 12:04AM]

Oddly, MY MCE rig has NO problem recording NBC in HD. Running Vista.

But then again I'm not running the hack know as HDHomeRun, a QAM tuner that masquerades as an ATSC tuner. It could have been that the cable operator inserted the flag (like they do in canada) just to mess with their users who aren't renting their PVRs from the cable operator.

BTW, MCE contains support for this crap because unlike the open source PVR software guys, MSFT actually has money and can be sued.

[Iain @ May 18th 2008 5:27PM]

Who in their right mind would want to record anything on NBC other than Heroes and Chuck anyways?

[electronicat @ May 18th 2008 5:59PM]

I just watched 4 weeks worth of The Office last night on my DVR. I'd be PISSED if those didn't record.

[Funke, Tobias Dr. @ May 18th 2008 6:46PM]

In case you wrote off the American version of The Office after watching only the first season, look again. It surpassed the original long ago, and it's now the funniest show on television in the absense of Arrested Development.

[Funke, Tobias Dr. @ May 18th 2008 8:55PM]

Absence, the story of my grade school years. You'd think I'd know how to spell it by now. Sorry for polluting.

[L.Rawlins @ May 18th 2008 5:28PM]

Tech. Where you get more when you pay less.

[ChiWax @ May 18th 2008 5:34PM]

If this were a conspiracy wouldn't it be happening to all of us who record NBC? I think the information here is half-sided(go figure). We must assume it's a bug until NBC or MS confirms or at least denies it. Q.

[Johan S @ May 18th 2008 6:05PM]

The war on fair use has to stop. The collatarel damage from trying to prevent people from occasionally sharing files is causing a trampling of rights of people who may not even be trying to share it.

The enforcement of intellectual property is not a right it's a privilege. As Thomas Jefferson says, you do not have an innate right to seek compensation for the spreading of something where each copy doesn't eliminate your own possesion of it. That is why the constitution mentions that artists/inventors should only have rights for exclusive sale of their inventions for a limited time (if congress determines it promotes progress). Innate rights are the inalienable ones every human has .. that don't have timed expiration, the duration of which can be set by government.

If the anti fair use crowd idiots were around, 100 years ago libaries would be declared illegal since the publisher didnt get compensation for all the people reading his books. And then we'd never have airplanes and all the technology that came with it, because the wright brothers would not have had the Dayton Public Library to borrow the books they used to help in their design of the airplane.

So at least until recently, this country we live in has a great tradition of fair use and the support thereof.