This is so awesome. Somebody needs to make fatalities for all 35 characters, though.
(Source: dorkly.com)
Have you every watched a Fox show on Comcast On Demand?
If you answered “no” to the above question, do yourself a favor and don’t.
Fox has done something extremely stupid and childish with their implementation of On Demand. Simply put, Fox disables the use of DVR controls during advertisements so the consumer can’t fast forward them and get back to whatever it is they’re watching. It doesn’t stop there, you’d be silly to think that. Fox bombards you with at least 3-5 commercials per intermission. Observant viewers will notice that shows that have approximately 45 minutes of content are extended to a full 60 minutes. That’s right, they force you to watch 15 minutes of commercials for any one of their shows On Demand. This is fucking outrageous. Nobody should treat their consumers like this; it’s abusive and unfair. Some people might argue that Fox needs commercials to support itself; that’s simply bullshit. If that were the case, then why is Fox the only station with their “special implementation” of On Demand? Fox is a multi-billion dollar corporation; there is absolutely no way that they “need the money.”
Let’s put things in perspective so it’s easier for you to understand. Today, I tried to watch an episode of Family Guy (which isn’t that great anymore, but that’s a different issue entirely) while eating my pizza. When it came time to fast forward the ever so lively and rich commercials, a little box informed me that the “DVR controls” had been disabled. How about pause? Nope. Stop? Nope. I can use all of those functions when the show is actually playing, however. Since I didn’t want to subject myself to FOX’s abuse, I turned off the DVR and turned it back on to exit out of the show.
All Fox is doing is eliminating freedom of choice, plain and simple. It has nothing to do with needing the money (the commercials are so shitty nobody could ever be enticed to buy the product). What gives them the audacity to tell me what I can and can’t do with a cable box that’s already been purchased? It all comes down to them knowing they can get away with it. They don’t care about consumer experience because they’re already a multi-billion dollar corporation. Who cares about the experience of a couple of disgruntled people?
Elimination of choice and limiting what people can do with their products is becoming increasing widespread now a days. Take a look at George Hotz; Sony bullied him for simply wanting to restore OtherOS to the PS3. Take another look at the widespread use of “online passes” for games such as Mortal Kombat and NHL 11. Companies are effectively shutting out people who buy used games from online multiplier. I understand the reason why companies are doing it, and while I don’t support buying used games myself, it’s simply the wrong way to handle it. The reason people buy used games is because they don’t value the product enough to justify paying the full amount. Companies such as EA should give people reason to value their product; charging extra for specific content only reinforces what the consumer already believes about the quality of their product. You might also have heard about the Protect IP bill, which could possibly limit the access of certain websites not only to Americans, but to the whole Internet. It has the potential to be abused; corporations could request the blacklist of a site they don’t agree with just because they can.
Companies shouldn’t be able to get away with all of their crap, but they do anyways because we let them do it. Until we stop tolerating the kind of bullshit that Fox, Sony, EA, and others get away with, they’ll keep limiting us and finding more ways to circumvent what we already own. The Linux philosophy certainly applies here; I’ve recently deleted Windows 7 and installed Ubuntu 11.04 on my new laptop because I support freedom of choice and truly believe Linux to be a superior operating system and experience. When I had Windows, my computer would always get trojan horses and viruses. After I switched to Linux, that all went away.
I’m all for having freedom of choice and you should be too.
(Source: aguiney)
