By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 26/08/2026Notwithstanding that it's a genuinely shitty piece of technology, it's still awful that you can't buy it - the fact that you have to rent that crapgadget month after month means that you're paying for it several times over. 70/ 31472 0
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 26/08/2026But at least cable signals *have* PVRs. For the majority of video we interact with, there's no PVR - not even a shitty, broken one. You can't record your Netflix videos, your HBO Max videos, your Disney Plus videos or your Prime videos. 71/ 11257 0
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 26/08/2026Recording a video off a streamer has the same copyright status as recording off your analog cable had in 1984 when the Supreme Court handed down the *Betamax* decision, but because there's an "access control" on video streams, it's nevertheless a felony to make a VCR for a streaming service. 72/ 113210 0
