Don’t Touch That Remote
It looks like electronics manufacturer Philips may have just found the perfect way to mess up cable TV, more so than the broadcast flag. They have patented a system that will force you to watch commercials.
Uhh… you can stop rubbing your eyes now. It’s not healthy to rub your eyes so hard in disbelief.
What Philips has proposed is a flag that networks can mark television shows with that will prevent you from changing the channel on your television during commercials. Want to check out the football game on FOX while the game on CBS is having a commercial break? Well, too bad with Phillips’ new system. You’ll just have to sit there and watch them. Even worse, those of you with DVRs (digital video recorders), such as TiVos, could loose the option to fast-forward through commercials on content that you have recorded.
What is funny is what Philips is using for their defense. They are claiming that the content providers that broadcast content with this flag will be the ones that should receive most of the blame. They are only the enablers. Funny, providers of peer-to-peer software, such as Kazaa and Morpheus, have been arguing the same thing. Their problem was that they had no clout with the government, unlike Phillips.
All I can say is that I hope that this dies a quick and painful death. If it doesn’t, then I wish bankruptcy and total destruction upon Royal Philips Electronics and all of the networks that choose to make use of this ability.