[vdr] Re: Child protection / access control module

[Steffen Barszus <st_barszus@gmx.de>]

On Friday 20 December 2002 14:41, you wrote:
> What concerns me the most is: when should the PIN be checked?
> Clearly it should be checked, for instance, when a recording is selected
> for playback that has some age restriction. That would be a one time check
> at the start, and that's it. But what if the user wants to zap though the
> channels? should there be a PIN check every time a channel with an age
> restricted programme is encountered? I guess that might make zapping a bit
> tedious... So, should there be a "timeout" for the "validity" of an
> authorization? Like, if you have entered your PIN you may switch channels
> until you stay with a specific channel for a certain amount of time. After
> that you'll need to re-authenicate yourself. 

No! this would be really annoying. If I am in child mode the restricted 
channels should in fact not exist, so there is no ineterest what is behind 
that restriction.

>What if you switch to an age
> restricted programme and then turn off the tv (and leave VDR running)? The
> next person who turns on the tv would be able to see the restricted
> programme without authorization. So, should an authorization only be valid
> as long as the current programme runs?

this would be the users fault! so I vote for no

>

I would recommend a session like solution with no timeout. If we have a 
timeout users are bothered which are not interested in this security things.
The authentification itself should be called by a key or keycombination, 
another solution would be a menu-entry (more vdr-like ;-) ). after that all 
things that are allowed to the authenticated user is allowed till it is 
switched off (again a menu entry, this could be reached trough a key if 
wanted)

It would be a good solution if:
- default group can be defined (so people don't want have anything to do with 
it will not be bothered)
- group of equal users can be assigned and switching between them with no pin 
is possible (profile-use -> different channel-order, different plugins and so 
on) switching in a higher class should effort a pin, switching in a lower 
class not (-> easy switch off "adult-modus" ;-) ) 

The timeout idea is bad, it should be assigned to the user to make sure, to 
not forget to switch his user-mode off.
There are further issues, which come up if vdr will have such a thing:

-recording of rated content should be possible, while being in child-mode, but 
then there should not be shown anything on the screen and at the same moment 
plugins should be possible to use -> mp3/mplayer/dvd/svcd -use.

This all would make the vdr quite more complex, but with a good default 
configuration (all is allowed) nobody who is not interested will be bothered 
by the feature. 


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