Going to the bathroom is theft: I know lots of people have mentioned to this, but it seems pretty amazing. Jamie Kellner, Chairman and CEO of Turner Broadcasting says in an interview that Tivo, and other ways of skipping ads are theft:
Because of the ad skips.... It's theft. Your contract with the network when you get the show is you're going to watch the spots. Otherwise you couldn't get the show on an ad-supported basis. Any time you skip a commercial or watch the button you're actually stealing the programming.
CW: What if you have to go to the bathroom or get up to get a Coke?
JK: I guess there's a certain amount of tolerance for going to the bathroom. But if you formalize it and you create a device that skips certain second increments, you've got that only for one reason, unless you go to the bathroom for 30 seconds. They've done that just to make it easy for someone to skip a commercial.
CW: What if I'm using my PVR to rewind a story on CNN or pause during Moneyline With Lou Dobbs? That's good for you, isn't it, if I can keep watching the network when I might otherwise miss the shows?
JK: Is it good for me? It's good to make it easier for consumers to watch the programs they want to watch. I'm not opposed to consumers getting a program without commercials in it. But they have to create a new model that charges them for that programming the way HBO charges them.
Given that, it's not hard to imagine laws in the future that force TV makers to put devices in their machines that won't let us change channels or turn down the sound during commercials. I've already seen some DVDs that make you watch previews. I'm sure there's more to come.
As always, it's a Philip K. Dick world; there was a novel or short story I remember from long ago in which there were holographic ads in taxicabs, and it was illegal to turn them off.
7:33:47 PM Permalink
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