[Reader-list] Fwd: [ilugd]: Skipping commercials may now be illegal!

[Pankaj Kaushal]

----------  Forwarded Message From Linux-Delhi<ilugd at wpaa.org>----------

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/business/columnists/3200101.htm

Posted on Sat, May. 04, 2002
Paranoia, stupidity and greed ganging up on the public
By Dan Gillmor
Mercury News Technology Columnist

Dear Reader:

If you are reading this column in the newspaper, but did not read
every article and look at every advertisement in previous sections,
stop now. You must go back and look at all of that material before
continuing with this column.

If you are reading this column on the Web and did not go to the
newspaper's home page first, stop now. Go to the home page and
navigate through whatever sequence of links our page designers have
created to reach this page, and don't you dare fail to look at the
ads.

Ridiculous? Of course.

Tell that to the dinosaurs at some major media and entertainment
companies. They insist they have the right to tell you precisely how
you may use their products. Consider:

. DVD movies have copyright notices at the beginning, but can disable
the fast-forward feature of your DVD player while the notice is on the
screen. Studios have also placed commercials at the start with the
fast-forward disabled.

. Hollywood and the broadcast television cartel are going to war
against the makers of hard-disk video recorders that allow you to skip
past commercials. The head of Turner Broadcasting calls it ``theft''
when you, the viewer, decline to watch the ads he wants you to view.

. A major newspaper (not this one) is telling people they may not post
hyperlinks to pages on its site other than the home page. The paper
says avoiding the home page lets viewers avoid home page advertising.

[snip]

--
Raju Mathur          raju at kandalaya.org           http://kandalaya.org/
                     It is the mind that moves
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-- 
Pankaj
"Trompe Le Monde."