Fuck's sake, take a critical thinking class. Yes, houses can have mortgages. So what? That's an entirely separate arrangement to the purchase of the house from the previous owner. A better criticism would have been that one is buying a service, the other is buying a physical object. Do I have to criticise my own analogies now?

My point is: if they were selling 'lifetime of service' then privately defining lifetime as 'till we get tired of providing it, heh, heh', then they are a bunch of bastards from whom nobody should purchase anything. I'm very sad to say this, as the original TiVo company was absolutely brilliant, with great tech support and a great product. I doubt the people from whom I bought a lifetime service intended nine years as the lifetime of the service, and I very much doubt that any of them are still there.

No, I am not saying the current owners did anything legally wrong.

Yes, I am saying the current owners did something morally wrong.

Yes I am saying that it is extremely bad PR.

Yes I do suspect it was part of a deal with Virgin.

Ahem. The British army didn't invade Washington in 1812. It was in 1814, during the "War of 1812". HTH. However, you are remarkable in my experience for even remembering that it happened at all :)

In every single other aspect of your post, you are as right as a right thing wearing an "I'm right" t-shirt at a "We are Right" rally.

There was an interesting suggestion after the Lockerby bomber was freed, that long term the UK wanted to do a deal with Libya for exactly that. Libya -> Gibraltar -> EU IIRC

Jolly good idea too.

Take a look at:

http://www.fsf.org/news/blogs/licensing/more-about-the-app-store-gpl-enforcement

It appears the most likely reason is that they* wish to add more terms and conditions to the download, and the GPL specifically forbids it. So rather than ease their terms for GPL, they just don't play.

*they == both Apple and Microsoft, but presumably not Android Marketplace

The EGP service costs them almost nothing (and they made money on it with monthly subscriptions). Why would they drop it and piss off a rabidly loyal fan base?

TiVo customers since 2001 have been asking when the new Series 2 onward TiVos will be available in the UK. I would have jumped at the chance to buy one. However, TiVo UK got into bed with Sky and now Virgin and seem to have decided that their best advocates can fuck off. Hence I think it's a PR fail to save very little cash, or more likely, Virgin wants to pull in the series one owners (if they live in a Virgin area).

I dislike redefining words in the contract. I dislike it a lot. Contracts should not be able to redefine "Lifetime" to mean "up to thirty days" no matter what. Similarly "Unlimited" should not be redefined to "Limited, at our discretion" by the mere use of an asterisk and some small print.

I agree they probably haven't broken the law. I expect they are very confident of that. I do think they are being a bunch of bastards (if you don't like bunch of crooks).

I imagine that if this affected you - perhaps if your yearly subscription to Radio Times or Private Eye were cancelled without returning you money pro rata because the word 'year' was redefined in small print - you would be similarly cross.

I'm charitably assuming English is not your first language. So perhaps you should look up 'lifetime'.

Anyway, I gave them a *lot* of money nine years ago for a service to last a long time. Your pathetic logic is like say "you bought your house ten years ago, do you still expect to own it now?"

Justin

Absolutely. Especially for those of us who don't get Virgin (49% of the UK), and wouldn't want their crappy service anyway (my parents used to have it - I'd go almost anywhere else based on their experience).

I was a long time TiVo advocate, but no more. I will be recommending the Humax Foxsat + Freesat to everyone from now on. EPG is in the Freesat signal, so there's no way that you can get shafted like this again.

Justin.

What a total PR fail. TiVo used to have such a good reputation.

Presumably Virgin made this a condition of the contract and TiVo rolled over. Shame on both of you, avaricious, nasty, money-grubbers.

Remember folks (UK and US): don't buy a TiVo product, or a Virgin Media one, they will take your cash and then let you down.

Justin.

I bought a "lifetime" subscription. TiVo are now defining that as nine years, no argument, tough.

I am extremely unimpressed, and won't be buying a new TiVo. Not that I can get Virgin - or would want Virgin - anyway. They seem to have given up making good kit and selling it themselves, and instead got into bed with first Sky, then Virgin, two of the greediest and crappiest providers around.

Anyway, there will be homebrew, so the box won't be bricked, and even failing that I should still be able to use it to rip&store DVDs, which I mostly do because I DIDN'T NICK THE FUCKING DVD, I FUCKING RENTED IT, SO STOP NAGGING ME NOT TO FUCKING NICK IT.

Sorry. Personal bugbear.

Justin.