Call it a win for Internet file swapping if you like: TiVo subscribers will now be able to send television shows they record over the Internet – whether recorded off adult or mainstream channels – after the FCC approved the technology that will make it so, in spite of the entertainment industry's preferences for other technologies.
TiVoGuard – which can allow a TiVo subscriber to send recorded telecasts online to up to nine playback devices sharing the same TiVo customer account – was one of 13 technologies the FCC certified to protect digital television programs recorded off the air, a move the FCC made months after ordering copy-protection technology go into all digital television recording devices by next year.
The Motion Picture Association of America said the FCC decision would "disrupt local advertiser-supported broadcasting and harm TV syndication markets – essential elements supporting the U.S. local broadcasting system." The comments sounded somewhat similar to Hollywood's old objections to the videocassette recorder.
TiVo has maintained restrictions on allowing recorded programs to be sent online would suffocate innovation as the United States continues shifting to digital technology, while Hollywood wanted tighter controls on that capability. "We are recognizing the need to protect digital content without sacrificing... innovation," said FCC chairman Michael Powell, announcing the decision.
Hollywood and the National Football League each preferred technologies that kept redistribution of recorded digital TV programs to single household transferring only, with each industry backing such technologies from Microsoft, Sony (in four variants), RealNetworks, JVC, and eight others including by Philips and Hewlett-Packard (their joint Vidi Recordable DVD Protection System), Thomson, Digital Content, 4C Entity, and Digital Transmission Licensing Administration.
Hollywood earlier lost a bid to stop another digital video recording systems, when a lawsuit against SonicBlue's ReplayTV was thrown out after SonicBlue filed for bankruptcy, sold ReplayTV to Digital Networks North America, and Digital Networks agreed to pull the feature from their new systems.
