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TiVo 7.2 OS adds content protection, blocks transfers, and auto-deletes some shows

We got a bit of a disturbing report over the weekend from a reader:

I recently got a sample of Tivo DRM, accidentally I suspect.  Recently a Simpson's rerun recorded with a red-flag next to it (an icon I've never seen before).  When I selected the episode, I got a message to the effect that "the copyright holder prohibited saving the episode past date mm/dd".  I also noted that this episode could not be copied using Tivo Togo (but ironically it could be "saved to tape" – I guess that is the analog hole).

I have two comments for Tivo, and one for any publisher who is foolish enough to activate this flag.

Tivo 1: Just because someone asks for a feature, there is no reason to give it to them.

Tivo 2: Better treat your subscribers well, or you won’t have a business.  Even your lifetime subscriptions won’t protect you when I (and many others) decide to switch over to an HDTV DVR.

To the Publisher: Go ahead and prevent me from saving your show past a certain date, I dare you.  I can’t think of a single show that I would still watch!  I can't think of a quicker way for you to loose my viewership!

Given that this was an episode from the early 90’s, I suspect the copy protection flag got turned on by accident.  None of my likely reactions will be accidental though...
--Michael McKay

Unfortunately, he didn't have any photos of what he saw, so I started looking around for similar reports. It didn't sound like an isolated or accidental incident. The TiVo support area carries an article about generic Macrovision support in TiVo but nothing on the new flag icon.

Several similar reports are found on forums. this post over on LiveJournal and this one on TiVo's forum both sound like network transfer errors, but people acknowledge in the answers that the behavior is part of the new TiVo 7.2 OS for certain programs.

This post at the TiVo Community Forums has the lowdown. It is related to last fall's macrovision policy change (covered here). The user posted screenshots of what he saw, and how he was blocked from telling his TiVo to "save until I delete"

Here is the now showing list with new red flags

Here is the Show Info screen

Here's the more info screen with scary warning about the copyright holder forcing this

And here's the last screen, explaining that you can't do anything with the show and it will self-destruct in 7 days

This sucks in the following ways (and many more I'm sure others can think of):

1. It treats all TiVo customers like they are criminals with big scary warnings about what you can and can't do. The TiVo interface normally is a friendly thing, not something throwing red flags everywhere. Surfacing the red flag to the top, then blaming everything on the copyright holder, and then having the TiVo website blame macrovision and even go so far as to say "Please do not contact TiVo Customer Support regarding copy protection related issues" is a total cop-out.
2. It removes control from your TiVo. For the last 7 years, you've been able to record and playback TiVo'd shows and save them as long as you wanted or had space. Now, outsiders are telling your TiVo when to delete themselves whether you like it or not. In some cases we're talking about programs you could have transfered last week with the 7.1 OS that are now being blocked. If you look closely at the ToDo list screenshot, you can see the previous night's King of The Hill doesn't have protection.
3. Previous mentions of this Macrovision "feature" discussed it only in terms of premium and pay-per-view content -- in other words, stuff readily available on DVD that movie studios might prefer you went out and bought or rented instead of just watched on HBO. Now I could understand that sort of restriction since a PPV movie is expected to be watched once and not saved or burned to DVD, but these examples are happening on regular TV shows, not premium movies.

Now, many people are saying this is probably a mistake on the part of a Fox affiliate station. They added macrovision "do not copy" tags to the show streams when they shouldn't have, but there was no workaround for the TiVo owner and it demonstrates what could very well happen in the near future with TiVos and other sorts of PVR devices. TiVo and other PVR companies have always had a rocky relationship with TV studios and with the loss of TV ad revenue and splintering of "prime time", TV studios have long been looking for a way to get control back. This could be their tool if used unwisely.

update: I just wanted to reiterate that yes, this was the result of a mistake on the part of the station providing syndicated shows. Still, my issue is with the TiVo software itself, for allowing red flags on content that was neither PPV or VOD. TiVo's head of legal assured Wired Magazine last fall that it would only apply to Pay Per View and Video on Demand, and yet, it appears it can happen to any show if the station adds the flag. This hole should be fixed so that mistakes in the future on the part of networks doesn't end up blocking normal TiVo activities.

another update: Dwight Silverman at the Houston Chronicle posted a quick interview with Jim Denney (director of product marketing for TiVo) about this issue. Sounds like the bug might be traced back to TiVo software misinterpretting noise in the signal as a flag.

by Matt Haughey September 13, 2005 in TiVo

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