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I really hate to admit it, but I do tend to side with the content providers on this one. The content providers are supposed to be paid whenever a company broadcasts a show, whether it’s an exclusive first-run showing or a repeat (rebroadcast). For example, every time that 24 hour run of A Christmas Story is shown every year is paid for. I’m sure there’s a “bulk” discount, but it is paid for. In essence, Cablevision was going to avoid this rebroadcasting fee by storing it locally and simply rebroadcasting it whenever they wanted to. Technically, this should only have been done when a viewer requested it because they “recorded” it, but it’s still under the control of the cable company. That’s the very specific distinction that the broadcasters were crying foul about.
Granted, they’re still trying to take away all of our usage rights and charge us to get them back and that really sucks! But, to date, PVR’s are still legal, so long as it’s the viewer who controls it and the content on it. And that’s the current allowance that Hollywood is trying to prevent with their DRM via the DMCA.
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