TiVo 7.2 OS adds red flag content protection "feature"
Oh dear. It was a mistake on the part of one small station providing syndicated shows that brought this issue to light, but the underlying fact remains — Macrovision support is now manifesting itself via restrictions on how long long you can save episodes you record on your TiVo, as well as placing restrictions on whether or not you can transfer the content via TiVoToGo or other media devices. Content that is restricted shows up with a red flag icon next to it, with an attendant message saying "the copyright holder prohibited saving the episode past date mm/dd." Despite assurances that Macrovision support would only affect pay-per-view and premium content, the "feature" is clearly enabled for regular old TV episodes, as well. Regardless of the fact that what triggered the news was one network's mistaken enablement of a series of syndicated shows, the point is that any station or copyright holder now has the power to restrict their content. We don't really care whether more blame should be placed on TiVo for implementing the feature, or on the content providers for weaseling it out of them — we're just getting really sick of "features" that increasingly cripple our devices. Maybe it's finally time to manifest that MythTV setup we keep talking smack about.
