Loren Pechtel

Agreed. I've seen such. What really gets annoying is that the copyright warning messages are always coded anti-skip.

Surprisingly, I haven't found any patches that remove this "feature" from software DVD players.

Ab_Normal

I haven't gone out of my way to watch a show on one of the broadcast channels since X-Files. Everything else I follow (short list) is either on public tv or cable, both of which I subsidize, directly by my cable bill or indirectly through taxes. (I'm a bad bad person who doesn't pledge.)

VonEvilstein

If this is "unethical", then by extension, everyone who goes directly for the sports pages, not reading every ad in the newspaper, is guilty of the same thing!

Anyways, I remember no contract between myself and the makers of the TV shows... nope, I didn't sign a thing.

Asswombat in interview wants measures against ad-skipping tech... you can have my remote when you take it from my cold, dead hands!

Godless Dave

So if I buy a magazine, but before reading it I take a razor knife and cut out all the advertisements, am I stealing?

(hint: no)

...

Brilliant! Here's a (somewhat OT, but not totally so) related example. I use a popup stopper called Ultimate Popup Killer (ultimatepopupkiller.com). I can browse the web with that running in the background and poof...no more unwanted popups. I've also deleted the Flash plugin simply because advertisers insist on making it so bloody annoying. Animated images are shut off, for the same reason.

However...some websites now block people who use popup kills. Advertisers are fighting back. There's antiadblocker.com and anti-leech.com (notice the hyphen in that second url!) which are now blocking people like me. So be it. Kazaa Lite (kazaalite.com) is protected by Anti-Leech...but that same program can easily be found at k-lite.tk (again, include the hyphen).

Still, the marketers insist on pushing a failed technology. It reminds me of Gorbachev desperately trying to reform an irreformable Socialist central planning system while avoiding the inevitable collapse of the whole bloody thing. :banghead:

As to the popup spammers who complain about lost revenue, all I have for you is...

:boohoo:

Ut

In Switzerland, (and in the rest of Western Europe AFAIK), that whole "some commercials every 5 minutes" business is completely unknown. We even watch some American shows where there is a lame fade-out, fade-in effect every 5 minutes to replace what was originally a cut for commercials.

There might be some commercials between different shows, or a single commercial pause in the course of a 2 hours film. I think the broadcasters get some of their cash through a tax that must be paid annually in order to watch TV. (Don't ask me what kind of arrangements are made between broadcasting companies and government)

Unusual Suspect

I buy a TV to watch programs, not ads. I have a phone for my personal use, not to receive unsolicited ads. All advertising is an intrusion into my private space, and I can block it out any way I choose. Any other arguments are fairly irrelevant.