Word: replays
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...geeks are swapping comedies and cartoons online via PCs, a controversial new device called ReplayTV 4000--think of a supersmart VCR--lets regular nontechie folks save television shows in pristine digital format directly from their TV, then watch them commercial free and send them over the Net to other Replay users. Hackers have even figured out ways to copy Replay files to their personal computers, where the files can be uploaded by users of Morpheus and similar programs for wider dissemination...
Hollywood is not amused, and has filed two lawsuits: one against the makers of Replay, the other against the creators of Morpheus and two similar file-sharing services called Grokster and Kazaa. While it may be O.K. to copy a show for yourself on the VCR, "it's not O.K. to start sending it around and file sharing," warns Jack Valenti, CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America. The first legal face-off begins March 4 with a hearing on the Morpheus case in federal district court in Los Angeles. The Replay trial is scheduled for August...
...biggest threat to Hollywood may not come from the geeks but from so-called personal video recorders. Like its competitor TiVo, which has sold some 400,000 units to date, the newer Replay which has sold only 5,000, gives owners an easy, menu-driven way to search for shows to record onto its hard drive. The reason Sonicblue got sued is that the new Replay 4000, which hit the market in late November and sold out before Christmas, automatically fast-forwards shows past commercials and lets broadband users send them to friends over the Internet. (TiVos do not offer...
...though, Replay-to-Replay show swapping is painfully slow. Software engineer Thomas Wagner, 32, who has three Replay boxes at home, says it took him eight hours to get a half-hour episode of the now defunct show The Tick from another user, even though he has a high-speed cable modem. But he figures all that will change as the technology improves...
...goose the process along, Wagner decided to write a program called Replayer that lets people hack into their Replay 4000 and transfer files to their PC. Once the shows are in the computer, users are free to squeeze them down further, burn them onto a CD or dvd or trade them online. It took Wagner less than a week to crack the box's coding...