sMoRTy71.com: HBO and Fair Use

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Wednesday, October 20, 2004

HBO and Fair Use

HBO has decided to place limits on how their OnDemand content can be used by their customers. In a nutshell, users will not be able to make a copy of content from their OnDemand service. Here's the explanation of the policy from the HBO website:

"HBO has begun using a copyright protection mechanism that helps to enforce existing copyright laws. The technology is known as the "Copy Generation Management System for Analog" or CGMS-A. You will still be able to make one copy (analog or digital) of a program that airs on either HBO or Cinemax, but you will not be able to then further duplicate that copy. However, cable subscribers will not be able to record HBO-On-Demand (HOD) or Cinemax-On-Demand (MaxOD) programs. Since HOD and MaxOD already provide the viewing conveniences afforded by having a personal copy of a program (i.e., the ability to watch what you want whenever you want to watch it), HOD and MaxOD subscribers do not need to copy HOD and MaxOD content. (This does not affect DBS satellite subscribers, since HOD and MaxOD are not currently offered on those platforms.)"

Engadget's coverage of this policy had one of the funnier lines I've heard regarding fair use:

"People are already on HBO about the fact that this caps fair use, but they don't seem to care, as they are looking to protect their content from the evil people who want to watch it."

¶ 8:13 AM

About Shawn Morton

Married father of 6; VP of Social Media at JPMorgan Chase; gluten-free; gadget enthusiast; hair metal aficionado; #Movember man View more on LinkedIn.