Tivo has announced plans to allow users to share programs between their devices and computers, not unlike the way users may take videotapes and DVDs with them to play on other devices. It’s an attractive option for people; we can imagine sticking an episode or two of our favorite programs on our laptop before heading off on some tedious business trip, for example.

Predictably, of course, Hollywood hates the idea and wants the FCC to stop Tivo from doing it. Their arguments sound just like those used by Jack Valenti when the MPAA was terrified of the Betamax, a fact whose irony seems to have escaped the current crop of movie-making drones.