Did you know? Michael Powell got a TiVo for xmas

Posted by Simon Perry on 14 January 2003 at 2:01 pm | Tagged as: Business

“God’s machine” he called it.

There are two reasons why that’s significant.

1 - Further proof that anyone who uses a DVR, wouldn’t want to live without it
2 - He’s chairman of the US Federal Communications Commission

The really significant section is-

“Powell said he intended to use the TiVo machine to record TV shows to play on other television sets in his home, and even suggested that he might share recordings with his sister if she were to miss a favourite show.”

It’s common knowledge that there is serious lobbying going on by the visual media industry to try and make it law in the US that all TV-type devices have to be digital and encrypted from source until it hits your eyeballs. They might not have all that much to fear through-

Powell said he understood the needs to balance consumers’ fair use rights to make personal copies of television shows with Hollywood’s fears that TiVo-like technology allows exact copies to be made and easily sent over the Internet.

All the same - you can bet there’s going to be some quickly convened meetings going on in Media Land about this.