Philips Patents Technology to Force Ad Viewing

An anonymous reader writes "According to New Scientist, Philips has filed a patent for technology to force viewers to watch the ads in a program. Basically they plan to add extra flags to the Multimedia Home Platform that would stop controls from working until the ads are finished." From the article: "Philips' patent acknowledges that this may be 'greatly resented by viewers' who could initially think their equipment has gone wrong. So it suggests the new system could throw up a warning on screen when it is enforcing advert viewing. The patent also suggests that the system could offer viewers the chance to pay a fee interactively to go back to skipping adverts."

DVDs anyone?

[amigabill]

Basically they plan to add extra flags to the Multimedia Home Platform that would stop controls from working until the ads are finished.

DVDs did that years ago and I've hated it the whole time. Especially after I've waited for it for previous viewings of a movie, and I'ev already decided to or not to buy that thing or watch that other movie coming soon (ie. 4 years ago) to a theater or DVD near me. Is this prior art, or do they have a loophole aroung it? Though I wouldn't mind if the threat of lawsuit over such a patent prevented any media distributors from doing any mroe of this really annoying crap.

yes, amazing how far we've come...

[MrFebtober]

...Anybody remember those Magnavox TVs that actually detected when a commercial was playing and attenuated the volume to make them less annoying? I believe it detected the audio compression technique that commercials use to seem louder than the actual program or something like that. Now that was technology for the consumer.

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[account_deleted]

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A fee?

[Brad1138]

"The patent also suggests that the system could offer viewers the chance to pay a fee interactively to go back to skipping adverts."

I already pay a monthly $80 "fee" for TV, does that count for anything?

Re:Still fine by me

[Mr. Slippery]

And if it prevents you from switching channels? Return it as defective.

According to TFA, it does (or can be used to) stop a viewer from changing channels during commercials [newscientisttech.com]. (And if the show you want to watch starts during a commercial break in the one you're watching now? I guess that's tough luck.)

Re:offensive

[back_pages]

Someone has probably already said this but you can flash the ROM on your DVD player and skip those inane advertisements. It'll also unlock the region encoding and you can play pirated movies from Bangkok or some crap like that, but I've never been interested in that.

Mine was really easy. I had to open the case and read the model of an IC inside it, but most of the time that step is unnecessary. I just hunted the web for the flash program, downloaded it, burned it's contents to a CD, inserted the CD in the DVD player, clicked a menu or two, waited 10 minutes, and that's it.

Now I can skip ANY FLIPPING JUNK they put at the beginnings of the DVD. That stuff drove me completely nuts, plus I found it ethically uncomfortable to cope with it in order to watch the movie I bought. It took me about an hour for the complete project (opening the case, reassembly, searching, burning the CD, and burning the ROM) and it has vastly improved how I enjoy my DVD player.

Just a thought.

you also have to enforce the patent in court...

[gd23ka]

or else it wont do you much good. This is why Illuminated Business Microsun Inc. aka "the industry" patents everything from the mouseclick to "organizing data on a means of retaining state over long periods of time in organizational subunits of variable or invariable size"). To them a $10,000 is as much as a dime to you. However when they want to cash in on their patents (or to squeeze you and everybody else out of business), if you don't fold like a good boy they take you to court over these patents and sue for infringement and of course damage. You know what happens in court, I don't have to tell you, now do I.

Re:Changing the Channel

[Hao Wu]

Which is why people like Sirius or iPods: commercial free.

Everything started out ad-free. Every communication medium, including radio, tv, the internet...

Re:Changing the Channel

[Guppy06]

With satellite radio, just the opposite: Sirius' "no ads on the music channels" stance forced XM's hand, who had to drop the (few) commercials they had among the music channels to compete.

"No commercials" really is one of the big selling points for satellite radio, and the providers know it.

Re:offensive

[Dachannien]

You have to be fairly fortunate (or do research ahead of time) to own a DVD player that someone has hacked the firmware for, or that even has flashable firmware. For example, I like my DVD player - a JVC - but sadly, very few of their players have been hacked.

While the parent poster is in good shape, the rest of you can do a search for "dvd player firmware" [google.com] to get started.

Re:Well look on the bright side...

[Anonymous Coward]

well they won't find any compact disk logo since it's compact disc.

Re:Contracts

[Anonymous Coward]

"Click-throughs and sealed envelops do not represent agreement, because the time for any agreement passed once the goods and money changed hands."

It depends on where you are. In the USA sealed EULAs are binding. In Scotland they are binding. In England and Wales they are not binding. Click throughs have not been tested in England and Wales, but would likely be binding. What you think should happen and what the law believes is allowable are not the same thing.