At this week's annual cable industry confab hosted in Atlanta, one topic on the minds of many executives is the remote-storage DVR concept. Recently we told you about Cablevision's interesting attempt to wed their high-speed digital cable network to the DVR concept. The idea is extremely simple on its surface: instead of a full-fledged DVR in every home, Cablevision wants to give users access to a centrally managed storage system run by the company. The end result is DVR functionality in the home, but with everything stored by Cablevision. It's an interesting plan, and one that other cable executives are already saying they'll be following if it works out. The problem is, that's a pretty big "if."
See, while the idea is intriguing to cable executives, it's threatening to their TV industry counterparts. Never mind the fact that remote storage DVRs aren't necessarily that revolutionary an idea. With the cable companies getting involved at the level of infrastructure, there are concerns that they could either profit from creating "derivative works" based off of broadcast content, or wrest control from users in some other way.
More...Credit: ars technica
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