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SKIPPING COMMERCIALS IS STEALING ACCORDING TO TURNER CEO
2600.com ^ | 2600.com

Posted on 05/02/2002 6:45:29 AM PDT by Grig

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To: Poohbah
A straight-up question: suppose we develop a truly sophisticated understanding of how the human mind works, develop technology to make use of this (mind-machine interfaces), and this technology can be used to determine if someone really did commit a criminal act.

What happens then?

If it works as advertised, the courts allow it. You can already be forced to give blood, DNA, hair, and blow into a breathalyzer in order to incriminate yourself, so they'll allow it in with the same logic.

Then, instead of adversarial trials, they'll just strap your a** to the machine right after arresting you. And then they'll either release you or proceed directly to the sentencing phase.

Look on the bright side, though - there'll be a lot fewer scummy defense lawyers in the world ;)

101 posted on 05/02/2002 10:53:14 AM PDT by general_re
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To: Some hope remaining.
You know, I'm afraid to ask which way the mistake went...

Does it really matter? ;)

102 posted on 05/02/2002 10:54:54 AM PDT by general_re
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Mr. Kellner should be required to get up at 5.30 AM and sit in front of a 50 inch projection set connected to digital cable. He should be forced to watch approximatey 100 channels of ads for six pack abs, Ronco products, get rich schemes with Carlton Sheets and his ilk, various foot pads, hair removers, teeth whiteners , libido improvers and overenthusiastic Aussies pushing cleaning products that dont work when you use them.

No remote control, no looking away, no turning off the set for at least an hour. And may God have mercy on his soul.

103 posted on 05/02/2002 11:00:00 AM PDT by catonsville
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To: Poohbah
What happens then?

Bigger prisons? But who will guard them when everyone is IN them?

104 posted on 05/02/2002 11:39:15 AM PDT by mc5cents
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To: mc5cents
Well, my thought is that it might end the idea that mere possession of certain things is grounds for locking you up.

However, it also means that the murderers, thieves, and rapists will NOT want to be caught.

105 posted on 05/02/2002 11:42:21 AM PDT by Poohbah
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To: Grig
expect legislation forbidding any device that allows consumers to skip the sacred commercial

I sure hope they don't ban refrigerators.

106 posted on 05/02/2002 11:46:35 AM PDT by Equality 7-2521
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To: Grig
That's what the MUTE button or the OFF button is for. There is no way we can be forced to watch the shows or the ads. If doing away with the TV altogether becomes the only escape, oh well, wasn't worth much anyway. Vapid, twitterpated asses!
107 posted on 05/02/2002 11:51:53 AM PDT by wingnuts'nbolts
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To: Grig
(sarcasm) My I suggest that we have the government federalize (minus the small independents) the Entertainment (Movies, TV & Music) Industy. Though the irony would probably be lost on hollywood liberals.
108 posted on 05/02/2002 11:56:55 AM PDT by Paul C. Jesup
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To: Grig
LOL. Did anyone tell her that selling commercials to advertisers when no one is watching is also stealing?

You know, it gets more and more clear that the TV is truly meant to be a flower pot. Turn it off, stop feeding these beasts.

patent

109 posted on 05/02/2002 11:58:09 AM PDT by patent
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To: tcostell
How about a law requiring remote controls that only work in the first 5 minutes of the hour.

Of course you'll also be required to have your tv hardwired to the electrical circuit so that you can't unplug it. Not to mention that it's possible to trip the breaker so there should be a lock on your breaker box or fuse box. Turner should be the only one with a key to the box.

I've got news for Turner and his ilk. Since they are bombarding my house with their radio waves, they are actually trespassing. When those signals are in my house, I'll do any damn thing I want with them. If he could figure a way to keep them out of my house and I then run a cable down to the broadcast station--that would be stealing. If I have cable tv or DirectTV then I am paying for the programming and my contract certainly doesn't require me to watch the commercials.

Next thing you know, he'll be telling us that we're required to watch Oxygen (or is that (O)xygen?... beats the hell out of me).

110 posted on 05/02/2002 11:58:17 AM PDT by Equality 7-2521
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To: Grig
"Because of the ad skips.... It's theft. Your contract with the network when you get the show is you're going to watch the spots. Otherwise you couldn't get the show on an ad-supported basis. Any time you skip a commercial or watch the button you're actually stealing the programming."


111 posted on 05/02/2002 12:01:21 PM PDT by aomagrat
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To: Grig
I thought the airwaves were public! Nobody owns a wave frequency. I can watch it or ignore it at my pleasure.

-PJ

112 posted on 05/02/2002 12:47:42 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too
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To: Grig
Stealing?!?

No. It's not stealing. It's "income redistribution", Ted.

113 posted on 05/02/2002 1:26:56 PM PDT by Motherhood IS a career
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To: Poohbah
>...suppose we develop a truly sophisticated understanding of how the human mind works, develop technology to make use of this (mind-machine interfaces), and this technology can be used to determine if someone really did commit a criminal act. What happens then?

Two things occur to me.

1) As I understand the technology, it is entire "non-invasive." It simply senses the subtle electromagnetics of a person's brain working, and deductions are made from that. I'm not sure I could think of a good reason not to use it. It's doesn't hurt anyone, it's not torture, and, assuming there is a way to filter out false-positives, why not?

2) However, the reverse of this technology has also been in use for some time.

Over a scratchy speaker, a researcher announces, "Jack, one of your electrodes is loose, we're coming in." The 500-pound steel door of the experimental chamber opens with a heavy whoosh; two technicians wearing white lab coats march in. They remove the Ping-Pong-ball halves taped over my eyes and carefully lift a yellow motorcycle helmet that's been retrofitted with electromagnetic field-emitting solenoids on the sides, aimed directly at my temples. Above the left hemisphere of my 42-year-old male brain, they locate the dangling electrode, needed to measure and track my brain waves. The researchers slather more conducting cream into the graying wisps of my red hair and press the securing tape hard into my scalp.

After restoring everything to its proper working position, the techies exit, and I'm left sitting inside the utterly silent, utterly black vault. A few commands are typed into a computer outside the chamber, and selected electromagnetic fields begin gently thrumming my brain's temporal lobes. The fields are no more intense than what you'd get as by-product from an ordinary blow-dryer, but what's coming is anything but ordinary. My lobes are about to be bathed with precise wavelength patterns that are supposed to affect my mind in a stunning way, artificially inducing the sensation that I am seeing God...

[Michael Persinger has a vision ]
So here's the rub as I see it. If a real criminal can be "induced" to remember & re-experience a crime IN HIS/HER MIND and those electromagnetic patterns are recorded, then, by someone devious, those electromagnetic patterns can be played back to an innocent mind using a Persinger-type device.

Even if that innocent person is, say, not himself fooled by the recording "placed" into his brain, would his brain then be sufficiently altered to cause a false-positive on the detection device?

These two technologies -- the recorder and the playback mechanisms -- provide bad guys with a perfect tool for creating some pretty convincing criminals...

Mark W.

114 posted on 05/02/2002 2:57:30 PM PDT by MarkWar
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To: cake_crumb
LOL! I also remember the episode in which everyone goes almost insane when all the networks' signals are disrupted and the only way to placate the populace is to broadcast mindless dreck from a pirate station. Also, no one knows what books are or how to use them!
115 posted on 05/02/2002 4:24:28 PM PDT by Paul Atreides
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To: 1Old Pro
These network people are sheer idiots.

No, they are scared to death.

116 posted on 05/02/2002 4:27:47 PM PDT by RobbyS
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To: Grig
Some people don't watch TV at all. It's all commercials. That's why they call it commercial TV.
117 posted on 05/02/2002 4:28:23 PM PDT by RightWhale
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To: Grig
people who skip over commercials as thieves!

So that's how AOL-Time Warner lost $54 BILLION last quarter.
"We stole it from them," TheRightGuy said, laughing all the way to the bank.

118 posted on 05/02/2002 4:43:26 PM PDT by TheRightGuy
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To: Grig
If you don't watch the commercials then the terrorist have already won.
119 posted on 05/02/2002 8:24:21 PM PDT by Oztrich Boy
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To: Grig
Well, I guess I will be the contrarian in this thread. I do skip commercials myself, and think they aren't all that effective. But they do subsidize tv.

Let us suppose that every house hold in america got Tivo tomorrow, and nobody watched a single ad. TV other than HBO type channels would be radically altered.

Most people want to watch live events live however, so tivo or no, there still will be commercials being watched. However if 50% less eyeballs are looking at each ad, then the ad companies will only pony up half the money. In actuality, it will be bad enough in a real life situation.

The exact demographic that the advertisers are trying to reach (upwardly mobile 18-34 year olds) are the people who will be early adopters of Tivo. When the only people watching commercials for Mercedes Benz cars are social security collectors and poor folks, Mercedes will put their ad dollars elsewhere.

120 posted on 05/02/2002 8:38:24 PM PDT by dogbyte12
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