Comments on: Rent My DVR, Innovative or Illicit?

By: Steffest

Steffest — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 08:48:54 +0000

I tried it today with “Veronica Mars”, and it’s just a bittorrent client …
2 minutes after the show appeared on the torrent networks, the rentmyDVR client started downloading.
Analyzing the TCP/IP traffic clearly showed it was using the bittorrent protocol. (Including the fact that your pc is also uploading to a bunch of people …)
Clever guy, though, earning some money with such a simple trick !

Maybe if I’m REALLY busy and can’t spear the 2 minutes to pick up the torrent myself, he can have my 20 cents. (But then again, if I’m that busy, how onearth am I goning to find the time to watch the show ! )

By: MegaZone

MegaZone — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 03:29:47 +0000

If it is determined to be a legal violation of copyright in the US, the US is a signatory of the Berne Convention, as are most nations at this point. So other signatories are required to protect US copyright (and the US their copyrights). So I suppose the US could call on the legal system in Sweden to enforce the US copyrights.

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 00:08:32 +0000

However, how are the legal limitations in Sweden. Is it possible that what would not be Fair Use in the USA, would be considered Fair Use in Sweden?

This could be interesting. And if online gaming sites can set up offshore to circumvent US restrictions, why can’t offshore content distributors?

By: MegaZone

MegaZone — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 23:27:26 +0000

There was something like this a couple of years back – only they recorded the shows for you, it wasn’t facilitating trades like this one. And they got *stomped* and closed.

‘Fair Use’ isn’t absolute. Time shifting is OK, but many content vendors have said they do not believe recording for others is fair use, and the courts have not, to my knowledge, said it is either. Also, when the courts allowed time shifting, they didn’t mean archiving permanently either.

I can’t see this site operating for too long.

By: weber

weber — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 22:20:24 +0000

hahahaha.. I LOVE IT!!! Stick it to those mega-media corporate bastards. Realistically, I can’t see the courts siding with “Rent My DVR” as it permits re-transmitting the original broadcast.