In what was surely a hug win for the advertising industry there, the Japanese government has ruled that ad-skipping using TiVo is illegal. Let's take a moment with that one. You can own a TiVo but it is now illegal to fast-forward through the commercials. Kevin Tofel at PVRWire alerted us to this story and has some good questions about the law. Let me add a few more: Is it illegal to forward through commercials on a VCR? Is it illegal to skip through the boring parts of the shows? How will they enforce it? Imagine for a moment if the U.S. ad industry exerted this sort of control and you ran the risk of being labeled a felon for fast-forwarding. You have to believe someone in the industry has at least thought out loud about talking to their favorite Senator regarding this.
1. Whats next, arresting people for leaving the couch for a snack during the commercial break. When the host says on tv "don't go anywhere, we'll be right back" it now means in Japan "or else!"
Posted at 10:44AM on Jul 16th 2005 by rj