I don't think your statement is mutually exclusive of mine. I agree they're taking advantage of the holiday season and trying to cash in on the "gold rush" of people wanting to get them before it's too late. I am completely on board with your statement that they could always change the firmware in an effort to get the networks off their back, but the amount of players they sell with the old firmware may be high enough that the networks aren't satisfied with that. Also, we all know that hackers will find ways to re-enable these features via hacked firmware, etc, and the networks will get wind of this Even if RTV tries to do a "push" of the firmware to every unit, people will find ways around that, too.

I think therefore the networks will ultimately win, and SonicBlue will get hit with a massive settlement unless they agree to stop production of the hardware. Remember, a firmware push can't disable the hardware's ability to redistribute the shows and skip commercials, but putting an end to the product line can.

I actually do think it's a pirate box, and I don't see how anyone can argue that it's not. The revenues for television shows on the networks come from advertising. If I'm not subjected to WUZZAAAAP and "Howyadoin" Budweiser commercials, FOX has no money to pay Matt Groening, Hank Azaria, et. al., and I lose my Simpsons. They also can't pay the NFL for the rights to telecast NFL games. Then the NFL can't pay the players, and I don't have my football games. Boo.

I am NOT a fan of commercials, and if I get a RTV 4000 I will happily skip them. But I will do this with full knowledge and understanding that I'm depriving the networks of their ability to advertise to me, and that might in the long term endanger the financial structure of network television. For you to say it's not a pirate box means you don't think anyone would lose money if the RTV 4000 were to suddenly appear in everyone's home. Can you explain how you've arrived at this conclusion?