TiVo Rocks, RIAA and MPAA Suck

Have I mentioned before that the recording industry is *not* in a slump? Here's the gist, the recording industry is shipping a small percentage less records (CDs, whatever) than last year. But they are accepting returns for unsold goods at a much much lower rate than last year. So, if you look at the SoundScan #s, the numbers derived from actual cash registers, you would see that actual album sales are up(!) and the recording industry is printing less(!) which should dovetail into a great profit. Apparantly they are losing money on the lawsuits against kids? Or would that just be the increased lobbying? Anyway, they're liars and we don't like them.

So, now the MPAA and NFL are trying to stop TiVo from it's own plans to add features to everyone's favorite electronic device. I should probably dig deeper into the issue, but the simple story is (a) copy protection is not a bad thing and (b) TiVo is trying to keep access restricted, but the big guys spend more time listening to the lying RIAA than their consumers.

The NFL, meanwhile, is concerned that a user could send a copy of a game to someone in another time zone, where the game is blacked out. Burger responded that at current bandwidth, such a transfer would take 144 hours.
This quote from the link within mine.

Where are the people looking at the big picture of how technology and life intersect? Because coming up with laws and regulations in the current system seems to be a mess benefiting those with the most lobbying dollars.