Canadian cable companies abusing DRM to generate more revenue?

denmor — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 03:32:00 GMT

I feel sorry for our Canadian friends. It appears the cable companies are adding DRM policy to channels even though the content owners are not asking for it in an attempt to push people from Media Center to their DVRs which they can charge a rental fee for. Shame on them if this is real.

A&E prevented me from recording a show!

denmor — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 02:00:00 GMT

Last night I went to set up a series recording for the second season of Gene Simmon's Family Jewels (a guilty pleasure) and was greeted by an error stating that the broadcaster was preventing recording of the show. Needless to say I was quite shocked by this. And then I went over to my Comcast DVR and set up the recording there and it worked just fine. Sigh.

One of the things that frustrates me about DRM is how some vendors are allowed to not follow the rules but others are held to a higher bar. I don't want to go into a DRM is good/evil debate, but in my opinion if a content provider is going to place a restriction on the content they need to ensure it is enforced consistently; otherwise the value of the restriction is lost, customers are confused/frustrated and those device manufacturers who follow the rules get a bum wrap.

Note: until a few weeks ago I owned DRM on Extender...

Connecting you to your media : mcx drm

Canadian cable companies abusing DRM to generate more revenue?

A&E prevented me from recording a show!