Vista is Honoring the ‘Do Not Record’ Broadcast Flag
By: Dan Morrill
Time shifting is an honored tradition, being able to record TV shows is something that makes time shifting something that you want to do, unfortunately reports are coming in that NBC has started using the broadcast flag, and Vista is obeying it.
This screen cap is coming from justinjas, a blogger who was trying to record “American Gladiator” using his Vista PC. If this had been a regular old TV to Tape, he would not have had this problem, but since he was using Vista, the setting that NBC used “no allowed recording” kept him from time shifing his Television show to a time that he could have sat down and watched it. Justin states:
Since when did over the air NBC start putting broadcast flags on their programs. I don’t know if this is specific to my local station (WNCN) but this is the first time I’ve ever ran into this message. I can pause, rewind, fast foward (and still skip commercials) but no recording for viewing later. Thanks NBC. Source: Justinjas
The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) chimes in with
Had consumers not stood up against the FCC’S mandatory flag rule three years ago, alternatives like MythTV would no longer be available. Back then, the FCC tried to force tech companies (and open source developers) to obey the entertainment industry’s remote TV control. A coalition of librarians, public interest organizations, and consumer groups successfully challenged the FCC’s jurisdiction to impose such a broad regulation in Federal court. After the rightsholders lost in court, they spent millions lobbying Congress to pass a law forcing receivers to obey their command. Your letters and calls stopped that bill. Source: EFF
There is no regulation that requires the honor of the broadcast flag right now, however it has been built into Vista, and Vista is quietly honoring the do not record flag. If anything else is going to kill off any kind of adoption of Vista, this kind of story is going to have a deep influence on if people buy the product. With viable alternatives, the resurgent Apple Computers, and Linux the idea that Vista is doing things like this is going to hurt in the longer run.
This also hurts NBC for using it, while this might be a trial balloon to see who gets upset on this issue, in preparation for more legal enforcement, the loss of time shifting will be a significant loss for everyone who records TV. Any system that honors the flag, from DVR’s to your PC, means you can not record for later use.