Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled

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• Understanding the Cablevision DVR lawsuit

  While I agree with Mark Cuban that the lawsuit is a mistake , I thought it was worth discussing why - from a legal perspective - the network DVR is an issue. Copyright gives the owner a limited monopoly over a few aspects, most notably the ability to reproduce and distribute the work. In a "normal" DVR, there are two points where these rights come into play: a reproduction and distribution in the initial broadcast, and a reproduction when saving to the hard drive. (Under current case law, even taking a digital file and loading it into memory to play is technically a "reproduction", fixed for purposes of copyright). The former is obviously licensed by the copyright holder. What allows the latter is a concept known as fair use . (Remember, I said it was a limited monopoly). There are four factors to determining whether something qualifies as fair use: the purpose and character of the use the nature of the work the amount used the effect on the market for the work None of these factors are... Posted Apr 11 2007, 08:25 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Intellectual Property, Gadgets, Copyright, Video, Law

• TiVo service on ComCast

  ComCast is releasing a DVR withTiVo software . I've been using Time Warner's DVR service for awhile and I've been pretty happy with it. There are clear advantages from getting the service from your cable provider: namely, no upfront costs, tighter integration (i.e., a single box for cable + DVR), and 2 HDTV tuners. Time Warner's software isn't as bad as the software I've seen from ComCast and Cablevision, but it's not great. And yet, no matter how good TiVO's software, it is fighting an uphill battle trying to compete with the benefits of a DVR from the cable company. So, it's good to see them recognize this and partner with the cable providers. I imagine a lot of customers would even be willing to pay an extra dollar or two a month for the "premium" DVR service. Now all we need is a networked DVR . Posted Jan 19 2007, 02:21 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Gadgets, Video

• iTunes 7 vs. Windows Media Player 11

  One of the main reasons I prefer Windows Media Player to iTunes is that WMP monitors folders and automatically updates your library. In other words, if you add or remove folders on your hard drive, the changes are reflected in your library - automatically. For some inexplicable reason, iTunes doesn't do this. I had been using a wonderful little product called iTunes Library Updater to "fix" the library, but it's a manual process and one that really started to grate on me. While I really liked some of the new interface and features in Windows Media Player 11, the first beta was just too damn slow - but Beta 2 is MUCH, MUCH faster. The instant search works well, and the video interface is very nice and clean. The integrated Windows Media Connect is also a nice touch. People are raving about the changes in iTunes 7, so I decided to give it a go with my new 2nd generation nano. Paul calls it "the best software-based media jukebox [he's] ever used." The first thing I noticed is that they finally... Posted Sep 22 2006, 05:20 PM by Tim with | with 12 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Gadgets, Microsoft, Video, Apple