As far as I can see, the only copy protection on my 2001-era RTV5040 is that a show received from another Replay owner over the internet resides in a special “Received Shows” category that precludes me from re-sending it to another person. However, I can output that show using the analog feed and then input to Replay as a manual recording and then re-send it. I can also download it to any Java-enabled PC with DVArchive or Windows machine running WiRNS.

A few weeks later, the movie did indeed show up, and was recorded completely normally, just like any other movie, with no copy protection flag whatever. Like Mr. Campos (who provided the screen shots above), my cable vendor is Comcast. In my case, it is Comcast New England; in Mr. Campos’ case, Comcast of Seattle.

It is clear that it was not Tivo that incorrectly flagged the movie. Tivo responded to the flag that was incorrectly set by the local station or network channel that piped the movie to Comcast-Seattle for rebroadcast. Mr. Campos’ Tivo only did what it was contractually obligated to do when it finds the flag present.

I understand that the underlying issue is: should Tivo respond to this flag at all when present — whether the flag is correctly or incorrectly present? That question could well be discussed, but in much the same way that we could discuss our preferences for the horizon on which the sun sets. No matter what we decide is best, the sun is pretty much going to set in the West.

I am still happily enjoying my 2001-era ReplayTV. No copy protection, no expiration, automatic advert skipping, and lets me stream and send shows over the Internet at will.

Ever notice how people who have nothing better to do get rich finding ways to make it more difficult for those of us who are just trying to find a few minutes between work hours to unwind?

Every time these things pop up I get pissed off because I know what that means – a bunch of ill-informed chicken little responses around the net. I saw a few already, linking back here.

The fact is most recording devices have Macrovision and these flags have popped up on non-TiVo devices, including PC capture cards. So don’t be too smug about avoiding them because you don’t use TiVo. Even MythTV could be caught if the card used does HW detection.

This will simply not be an issue for the vast majority, nearly all, TiVo users – or any DVR users. It is nothing to get worked up about or to worry about. Well, any more than DRM in general. iTunes is more of a hassle then this.