TiVo On A Hollywood Leash?

“Among the functions included in TiVo’s latest software upgrade is the ability to allow broadcasters to erase material recorded by TiVo’s 3.6 million users after a certain date. That ability was demonstrated recently when some TiVo customers complained on TiVo community sites that episodes of The Simpsons and King of the Hill they recorded were ‘red-flagged’ for deletion by the copyright holder.” The company insists that the deletions were a glitch, and that there are currently no plans to allow studios to remotely delete programs from TiVo hard drives. Of course, that kind of denial begs the question: why install the technology for something you don’t plan to use?