Digital video recording company TiVo has a plan to let users transfer what they record to other devices. And at least two major media players are not amused: Hollywood and the National Football League, both of whom have filed with the Federal Communications Commission to block FCC approval of the new TiVo service.
"We are hopeful (the FCC) rules in favor of technology innovation that respects the rights of both consumers and artists," said TiVo in a formal statement about their To Go service, which would let you shuttle recorded programs to other TiVo-compatible equipment including laptops and desktop computers."
The movie studios and the NFL are said to fear that To Go could mean the inadvertent flooding of their copyrighted content into cyberspace and elsewhere. They are also said to fear that TiVo's proposed safeguarding is adequate enough to keep the recorded shows from becoming more peer-to-peer or other file-sharing fodder.
"We don't have a problem if you want to move the content to your summer home, or your boat," said Motion Picture Association of America executive vice president Fritz Attaway to reporters, "but the TiVo application does not require any kind of relationship with the sender," Attaway said Thursday. "It could be to a nightclub in Singapore."
Sony, RealNetworks, and Microsoft are said to have similar product applications pending, but Attaway said those proposals seem mostly to limit how far copyright work can move from a user's own home network.
