I've missed my whole point to your Rogers on Demand. I disagree that TVO and NFB are cheap content. They may be "free" (well our tax dollars fund it, so it's hardly 'free') but they are high quality. What robs them of being interesting is the same thing that kills a website: they rarely have updates!

Most of the content can be found elsewhere yet people just go to hulu where alot is right in one place.

Yet Hulu doesn't require authentication nor for people to subscribe to anything.

A friend of mine subscribes to various torrent RSS feeds. New episodes of his favourite shows are automatically downloaded to a large storage device in his basement.

Your friend must be a terrorist! In any case, he most definitely hates Amerika!!!
If old media has it’s way, he will be soon invaded by a SWAT team that will tase him and bring him to jail for 25 years and fine him $22.222.17 for every movie he pirated.
(I’m setup about the same, except for the large storage device in the basement, because I don’t have a basement).

You should read the posts you reply to. I didn't say that type of box was in the States. I specifically referred to it as "magic" and as a product that doesn't exist. U.S copyright laws are worse than ours. There are various efforts to globalize copyright law, and others to make Canadian law more closely resemble U.S law. All this merely to make sure that outdated business models can continue to work, and all at the cost of individual freedom, innovation, and competition. The internet is changing the world and old media is actively resisting, which is really too bad because if they got on board the world would change for the better much faster than it is changing now!

Geeks like me already have setups similar to what I described in their homes. A friend of mine subscribes to various torrent RSS feeds. New episodes of his favourite shows are automatically downloaded to a large storage device in his basement. His entire home is networked, so in the rooms where he has TVs (the bedroom, den, living room, kids room) he has installed modified XBoxes running media player software. Anyone in the house can turn on an XBox and watch the latest episode of almost anything. If they want to watch something they don't have, they can remotely add it to the queue using a web browser and in a few minutes it can be watched anywhere in the home. The XBoxes will play almost any video format and can also play YouTube videos, movie trailers from the Apple site, or music from the expansive collection also stored in the basement hard drives.

The technology to create this kind of setup is cheap, it's available everywhere, and the only thing stopping companies like Rogers and Videotron from figuring out how to monetize it is their own hardheadedness and stupidity. Instead of choosing to innovate, they have chosen to attack consumers through lobbying for aggressive changes to copyright law.

What I'm assuming is that we all want high quality video, and that we all want it at a reasonable price. I champion BitTorrent as THE choice because you can't beat the price (free, or if you want to get technical merely the price of an internet connection, which you can do so many other things with that they all price out to cost almost nothing individually) and the best quality versions of whatever you're trying to find (whether it's current TV shows or out of print movies) are the ones that jump to the top of the pile when you're searching.

As an example, take the TV show Daria. Currently, there are only 2 DVDs available with the two specials and a handful of episodes. The specials are edited (missing footage that was aired on TV) and have had the music replaced or removed. On BitTorrent I can get this content uncut, with original music, the way it was intended to be seen. I can also get the full TV series, which has yet to be released.

The internet democratizes content distribution, and while that may be bad for business if you're a gigantic media conglomerate, it's great if you're just an individual who likes TV, an artist, DJ, or student learning the ropes of video editing... I happen to believe that we should prioritize individual freedom and happiness over corporate bottom lines; I also think that even in a technological climate like ours, where it's no longer possible to have a monopoly on distribution, content and carrier companies can still turn a profit. They just have to start thinking outside the box. Huge companies are bad at this, and that's why they will die. Much as they would like to, it isn't possible to legislate us back in time. As long as content comes into our homes, it will be copied and redistributed. It's like Jack Valenti's campaign to ban the VCR. Seems pretty ridiculous now right? In 50 years Rogers on Demand will look just as hopelessly stupid. Drafting new, more restrictive copyright laws is not only a waste of time, it will end up jailing and fining people who would otherwise contribute in a big positive way to the Canadian economy. It's a bit like marijuana legalization. Freeing up content to be shared would do so much good, but the old white men can't quite get their heads around it.

As for my box, I think you missed the point. My box isn't a "service". It's hardware. All you'd need to make my magic box scenario a reality is a source of video (cable you paid for) and a network. The only reason boxes like this don't exist are big media companies thinking that it's their god-given right to get paid every time someone watches a video or listens to a song (and unfortunately, Canadian law supports them on this to some extent). Well I reject the concept that reproducing and taking in sensory input can be illegal. I refuse to call watching Family Guy on my TV legal, but watching the same episode on my computer or iPod illegal. That's ridiculous. It's wrong, and it can't be allowed to continue.

You may argue that a world where all content is free will result in fewer movies, fewer TV shows, less music... you couldn't be more wrong. There would be a lot MORE content, but it would be coming from individuals and small bootstrap production houses instead of Hollywood, Quebecor, or whoever else. I'd welcome the change. Do you realize how much Quebecor alone controls what you see, hear, and read in Montreal? It's downright scary!