Digital Home Thoughts: Say Hello to Watermarks and Goodbye to DRM

"Despite what naysayers have to say about looking at small displays, taking recorded video on the run is a great idea. Given the choice between nothing and a small display, many people will take the small display. So, TiVoToGo as a concept makes perfect sense. But, along with that sort of portability of content (from DVR to MCP) comes the risk that the content will end up being pirated into unintended distribution channels. By restricting the "ToGo" part of TiVoToGo to specific playback devices, TiVo was doing its best to prevent such leakage and business model disruption. But, in doing that, there were other unintended consequences. With more MCPs coming out, many of which are not compatible with Microsoft's technology (eg: Apple's video iPod), TiVo was denying itself access to the entire market."



We all know what pisses us more about DRM that practically anything else? The plain fact you can't use PlaysForSure on iPod or iTunes on any non-Apple device. Well TiVo is running into that problem right now. How do you allow your TiVoToGo recordings to play on both your iPod as well as your PDA? The solution is actually very simple, MPEG-4 which has no DRM. But in the process TiVo sticks a watermark on the recording that can be traced right back to your TiVo account and your credit card.

Say hello to fair use again. Do whatever you want with that recording, but don't share it with others. Isn't this all that we have been asking for? So ignore Sony, Apple or Microsoft and just record what you want with your TiVo and then do what you want with recording. Such a no brainier, no wonder NBC wants to sue over it. Like we'd expect a company that thinks Joey is worth saving to understand why this is so important.