Congress to outlaw FF of commercials?

[WayAbvPar]

Story here

Also here

You have got to be fucking kidding me. Next, a Clockwork Orange headset to make sure you don't miss the ads!

Not that this is exactly news, but more confirmation that Orrin Hatch is a douchebag.

[Flashman]

My favorite part:

"Tt is illegal and immoral to induce or encourage children to commit crimes,"

When all else fails, bring up "the children"

[Paelos]

I'll add anything blatantly advertised as such to my list of companies I've banned for retarded advertising only.

Old Navy
1800-CALLATT
Verizon Wireless

[koboshi]

I didn't vote for them.

[Mr_PeaCH]

... my list of companies I've banned for retarded advertising only.

1800-CALLATT

HELLL YES.  For the use of 'Carrot Top' alone; c'mon!

[HaemishM]

punishing anyone who brings a video camera into a movie theatre for recording purposes with up to three years in prison

See, that I have no problem with whatsoever, because anyone who tries to bring a goddamn video camera into a movie theater for recording purposes is fucking tool. It is someone who is quite obviously attempting to break the law and make money off of someone else's work.

Forcing me to watch the shitty previews on DVD's... fuck you, Orrin. Why don't you go write some more shitty music no one wants to pirate. I BOUGHT the fucking DVD. I paid for it with my money. If some marketing skel wants to jusitfy the money they put into buying media space on the DVD, that's their fucking problem. The DVD is mine. If I want to fast-forward, skip or never fucking watch the ads, that's my fucking choice, you pole-smoking cockmunch. Shall we now start putting an ad sheet in the middle of a fucking novel's chapters?

Intellectual property... that is the fucking devil's bollocks. It's an attempt to commoditize thoughts, so they can be bought and sold like pork bellies. Information Age, my ass. Welcome to the Commodity Age.

[Paelos]

Yes ads in books would be an abomination. Can you imagine reading the scene from LOTR in Mt. Doom only to turn the page to find DEALS THAT ARE HOT HOT HOT!!!1

[Sobelius]

I noticed some DVDs I've watched lately have the option to watch previews as a menu item instead of forcing me to watch them. I like that and hope that more DVDs offer that choice.

What I'm waiting for is someone to market TV show DVDs with the commercials intact! Don't we miss some of those classic commercials of yore?


"Mr. Lee -- how do you get clothes so clean?"

"Ancient Chinese secret."

"My husband. Some hotshot. Here's his ancient Chinese secret. Calgon. Calgon with two water softeners softens wash waters so detergents clean better. Calgon helps laundry get up to 30% cleaner. We need more Calgon!"

"Ancient Chinese secret, huh?"

-- yeah, sad, I know the whole thing by heart. I was indoctrinted by TV as a kid...I need my commercials, dammit!

[Joe]

Shall we now start putting an ad sheet in the middle of a fucking novel's chapters?

Yes, and if you skip past it without thoroughly reading what your corporate masters have deigned to create for you, you GO TO JAIL.

[SirBruce]

Yes ads in books would be an abomination. Can you imagine reading the scene from LOTR in Mt. Doom only to turn the page to find DEALS THAT ARE HOT HOT HOT!!!1

Ahhh, the innocence of youth.  Back in the 60s and 70s, they sometimes *did* put ads in paperbacks, much like the stiff cardboard inserts you see in magazines.  Mostly cigarette and alcohol ads if I recall.  They might have been outlawed.  In any case, they were never very widespread, but they did indeed try it.

Bruce

PS - Also, there's the very famous case of a German publisher inserting a ad for soup *into the text* of Terry Pratchett's _Soucery_:
http://www.co.uk.lspace.org/art/related-art.html

[Paelos]

I read about the 60s in a book once.

[Biobanger]

If it gets passed, and the congressperson's child gets caught, you think they will let their precious be subjected to any harm?

[koboshi]

Y'know what the real problem is, I remember on one of the alias seasons on dvd they had spoilers in an ad at the begining of the first dvd for what happens in the last episode.  Pissed me off!

[Gondonaron]

It is inevitable that at some point this kind of blatant offense will happen to us. I mean seriously when we let the government start censoring lyrics and commerical ads what did we expect that they would stop there. Hell no this is just the begining

[schild]

Edit: Just so you know, tv wouldn't exist as it is today without advertisements. Or charging you more instead of advertising. This is SO not the right thing to complain about. The complaint should be the quality of daytime tv and the low quality of commercials outside of huge events (i.e. Academy Awards, Superbowl, etc).

[eldaec]

The thing to complain about is that this wil likely result in the same quality of vague openended legislation that brought us the DCMA and will largely serve to enrich lawyers hired to sue people at random.

The other thing to complain about is that you have so *many* adverts.

I remember watching a certain time related 'hour long' show on dvd and discovering that in that particular case one hour of television = 22 minutes for adverts. It's not uncommon for commercial stations over here to buy US made shows deisgned for hour long slots, and to show them in 45 or 50 minute slots because they just didn't have the barefaced cheek to show that many ads.

The BBC often has to reduce US hour long shows to 40 minute slots (and pad them with trailers).

A common complaint of anyone visiting the US is that they just can't watch network television without clawing their own eyeballs out becuase of the endless crappy adverts.

I don't know how you do it tbh.

[Merusk]

Edit: Just so you know, tv wouldn't exist as it is today without advertisements. Or charging you more instead of advertising. This is SO not the right thing to complain about. The complaint should be the quality of daytime tv and the low quality of commercials outside of huge events (i.e. Academy Awards, Superbowl, etc).

You're not wrong on those counts, but WTH does it have to do with the articles?

  They were about good ol' Orrin wanting to outlaw the ability to skip the trailers/ commercials on DVDs and the outlawing of devloping non-specific P2P and all CD/DVD copying software.

On the P2P stuff, it looks like it'd enable the RIAA et. al to sue developers of FTP programs, Web browsers or any other numbers of software.  Yeah, I'm painting with a large, unreasonable brush to most of our thinking there.

 But consider this, if you knew as much about technology as the most technophobic person you'd ever met, how much convincing would you need to think that those programs 'aided ' copyright violations.  That in and of itself is one problem, it's an "or, or, or" choice, as described.

Now, it's on a PC-centric website, so I'm going to hope they're giving the legislation the worst possible interpretation.  If it IS an, "aids OR, induces OR, procures" type of choice, then yeah, you're going to have a lot of developers and users that can be sued for currently frivilous reasons.

[sinij]

Just so you know, tv wouldn't exist as it is today without advertisements. Or charging you more instead of advertising. This is SO not the right thing to complain about. The complaint should be the quality of daytime tv and the low quality of commercials outside of huge events (i.e. Academy Awards, Superbowl, etc).

I don't watch TV and this regulation will affect me.

[Rodent]

Wait, what the fuck. You poor sods are forced to suffer through commercials on dvd's now?

Man, I hope it doesn't spread over here... But who am I kidding, it will be standard in a year or two.

[Big Gulp]

I don't know how you do it tbh.

It's called a remote control.  Commercials come on, I change the channel.  See, you can do that when you have 300 channels to pick through.

In fact, our way is more efficient, because any smart tv watcher knows they can pretty much watch two shows at the same time employing this method.  The zen of this approach comes into knowing how long commercials on a certain channel run for.  I have now engrained the timing into my DNA.

[daveNYC]

Edit: Just so you know, tv wouldn't exist as it is today without advertisements.

And for this you're pro-adverts?

[Margalis]

The trend is integrating the commercials with the show anyway. Watch sportscenter, it's one big commercial with some sports mixed in.

"Now it's time for the Coors Silver Bullet 6-Pack of Questions!"

[Hanzii]

Wait, what the fuck. You poor sods are forced to suffer through commercials on dvd's now?

Man, I hope it doesn't spread over here... But who am I kidding, it will be standard in a year or two.

Young man, I can tell you don't have kids.
Disney is allready doing this over here too.
Nothing a ripper and a burner can't fix, but the shit is allready here. But a law forcing us to watch... I don't think it would happen here soon.
(My country still maintains a law against comercials during shows and movies)

[Rodent]

(My country still maintains a law against comercials during shows and movies)

Yeah, gotta love only having commercials in between shows. Makes them seem almost acceptable.

[Ironwood]

 Just so you know, tv wouldn't exist as it is today without advertisements.

In your country, maybe.  But go ahead and generalise like America is the only place in the world.

Really.

[Big Gulp]

In your country, maybe.  But go ahead and generalise like America is the only place in the world.

Note that he said, "As it is today", meaning American style television.  In other words, if you don't pay for cable you have ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, and PBS along with the UHF range all for free.  No state run taxes to prop up a socialist tv network.  And if you want to pony up for cable or satellite you have literally around 150 channels to choose from.

Europe does have some good TV.  I couldn't have survived in Germany without Sky, for instance.  Compare the range of programming, though, and we've got choice coming out the wazoo, and without having to pay a tax to any media overlords who roam around in vans looking for unlicensed tv sets.

[Ironwood]

In your country, maybe.  But go ahead and generalise like America is the only place in the world.

Note that he said, "As it is today", meaning American style television.  In other words, if you don't pay for cable you have ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, and PBS along with the UHF range all for free.  No state run taxes to prop up a socialist tv network.  And if you want to pony up for cable or satellite you have literally around 150 channels to choose from.

Europe does have some good TV.  I couldn't have survived in Germany without Sky, for instance.  Compare the range of programming, though, and we've got choice coming out the wazoo, and without having to pay a tax to any media overlords who roam around in vans looking for unlicensed tv sets.

Er,  And ?

[El Gallo]

This kind of law is the reason the Second Amendment exists.  To the barricades!

[Righ]

Europe does have some good TV.  I couldn't have survived in Germany without Sky, for instance.

That's like saying that Europe has some fun things to do, and that you couldn't have survived without sticking an ice pick in your forehead.

Gentlemen, just so you all know: Sky is Fox.

[Big Gulp]

That's like saying that Europe has some fun things to do, and that you couldn't have survived without sticking an ice pick in your forehead.

Gentlemen, just so you all know: Sky is Fox.

Hey, this was circa 1995, and your choices were limited.  It still beat AFN by a country mile.

[Venkman]

As usual, the MPAA is well behind the curve. Any legislation passed about being unable to skip commercials is irrelevant, for one big reason: the function of skipping is built directly into the hardware of a DVD player. Yea, DVD movies can be authored to deactivate the skip-ahead feature on a per-chapter basis (which is why you normally can't skip ahead FBI/Interpol warnings). However, the rest of the stuff is skip-ahead enabled, because some gray-haired geezer in a back room doesn't know shit about how to appeal to consumers whereas Disney sure the heck does.

The trend is integrating the commercials with the show anyway. Watch sportscenter, it's one big commercial with some sports mixed in.

Bigtime. It's been known for a while that the writing has been on the wall for separate Commercials.

Product placement is the current near-term future. Truman Show parodied it well, but the reality has been around for some time. Any show that gets popular becomes a path to new product placement opportunities. If you've ever watched Friends, you've seen more placement than most shows feature. The trend is growing because the standard 15 second/30 second commercial blocks are cutting it anymore.

And it's not because of any technology the MPAA can squash. People are just smarter, and as mentioned, there's 300+ channels to flip through during commercials.

And expect to see advertisements for the local Renaissance Faire in Norrath or Azeroth one of these days. :)