New DVD chips 'to kill illegal copying'

[dancho]

Big Brother is watching You :

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/7940.cfm

[Mug Funky]

damn, that sounds a little extreme.

it would also conveniently stop importing of DVDs from other regions, even in countries that allow it. i'm not too keen on that idea, considering the quality of releases differ greatly between countries (and the R1 or R2 isn't always the best, wink wink).

however, the bottom line is discs stamped this way will cost more and deliver only theoretical benefits. only the companies that can afford to waste money will bother with this, and then only on big budget titles (lower budget titles are usually outsourced to cheaper local replicators that wont support this technology).

the discs will still be rippable, and i doubt that today's informed consumer will buy DVD players that support this feature, knowing they wont play as many discs as a much cheaper player. it's common knowledge that cheap chinese players usually have less problems than brand-name players...

[shevegen]

For me I already avoid DVDs as much as possible, mostly
because of the amount of space they take away while containing
copy protection, and suffering from easy damage like scratching
of surface.

I am glad for any information about this, for not only will I myself
not buy this crap, but I will also inform others that they
are being abused by companies.

EDIT: I occasionally use a DVD to burn a big Linux Distribution
on it. Thats about it as far as my DVD usage goes these days.

[bern]

This has to be a wind up. Who in their right mind is going to buy a player which won't play existing discs?
The companies behind the new advance say living room DVD players will eventually be able to check on the chip embedded in a disc, and reject any discs which have been copied or played in the 'wrong' geographical region.
This must mean reject any disc which does not have the chip embedded otherwise the system won't work. None of the existing discs have a chip embedded so they obviously won't play and niether will any of your home movies. It's a total none starter in my opinion.

[shakey]

If it rejects dvd's with no chip, what's the point of software that allows you to burn your on movies/pictures on a dvd?

It's complete nonsense.

[foxyshadis]

It's all wishful thinking. Studio execs are spending millions on RFID to modernize their supply line, and come out with a number of additional dubious and fanciful benefits to it to (presumably) please shareholders and scare pirates. Not like fanciful posturing is anything new to the execs or the organizations.

[Sirber]

DVDR will be tagged or DVD (movies)?

[Shinigami-Sama]

how long untill people start to re-write the firmware to bypass it?
it'd cost way to much to make it an embedded system...
and unless it cleaned my livingroom and did my dishes as well
the cost of that would not be worth it at all

[Doobie]

These "chips" will probably add a dime to the cost of disks, no harm to the entertainment industry's interest.

I don't see any way the chips could prevent a player from reading a DVD copy. For all the chip and the player knows, these are your home movies.

And, even if the chip and player knows the disk is copyrighted and protected, how would it know that you're copying rather than just watching?

All current DVD readers know nothing of this chip. So, as long as you have a DVD reader from circa 2006 and prior, the chips will mean nothing.

The only use I see for these chips is inventory tracking.

[Sirber]

if I make a copy of a disc, the copy won't have the chip thus will play flawlesly?

[shakey]

You know what the companies really want: everone to have a chip in their body, so the player will know who's in the room and will only allow a dvd to be played if everyone there owns a copy of the film.

That'll be a very long way off, but you just know it could happen....

[Shinigami-Sama]

be all like demolition man eh?
everyone has a chip in their hand and such...

[foxyshadis]

Even assuming there's anything solid to this at all, the new players (much more likely Blu-ray or HD-DVD, why invest in DVD tech at all today?) probaly wouldn't play unchipped discs at all. It's a paranoid possibility that devices might already include such a chip and could be activated by playing the correct codes on a disc. You can hear them salivating to require everyone to buy their entire collection again, except that someone would first have to buy the player, and no one's even going to make a player that no one will knowingly buy. Manufacturers haven't forgotten DIVX.

[Morbo]

What we need now a days,is a good indie film about 30 years in the future,but from our point of view on DRM schemes...

Tags embedded in our bodies,all of our entertainment........even our pets(you know,so in case they get lost).

Orwell was right,.....but it was worse than even HE could imagine.

[*.mp4 guy]

I'm pretty sure this will be circumvented almost emediately if it ever makes anything of itself. It would be really easy for some Chinese manufacturer to make every dvdr they sold look like some commercial disk to any effected players.

[DarkZell666]

When will they bl**dy understand that people pirate films/albums/etc. because they are so expensive ?

I'm pretty sure that at least halfing the prices will encourage at least 4x times more people to go and by the originals ! Everyone would benefit from it !

Typically, students who don't have a penny in their pocket would at last be able to buy _some_ stuff instead of downloading it.

And only a certain amount of people are lucky enough to have the money to buy such things. In the whole world, at least 50% of the population lives on very low income. Cutting down the prices would plainly and simply enable MUCH MORE people to buy those movies/cd's/etc, and raise those money-grabber's profits more than just slapping copy-protection on everything. Everyone would benefit from it ! (ok I've already said that ... xD)

[Sirber]

@DarkZell666

Did you say that everyone would benefit from it? ;)

[mpucoder]

Just a couple of comments. Home recording to DVD is very popular, DVD recorders and DVD cameras are two large sources. So it would be stupid to make a player which did not play unchipped disks. I did not infer that unchipped disks would be unplayable from the article, only that the players will not play disks with the wrong region chip. This does not affect piracy at all, only the importation of disks from other regions.
Second thing - yes, the industry seems stupid and yells about losses, and lots of people claim that lowering the price would reduce or eliminate piracy. But the industry is not that stupid, they know about acceptable losses (slipage) and how to price a product for maximum profit. If you plot price per unit versus profit for all sales, including slipage, you come up with a curve that has a knee in it. Go above the knee and the unit price discourages sales, go below the knee and sales increase but profit declines.

[DarkZell666]

Go above the knee and the unit price discourages sales, go below the knee and sales increase but profit declines.

Yeah I've heard all this in University, and you're right pointing that out. It's just that, imho, they're way past the knee point right now ;)

[adam]

I'm reading up on this from various sources, and its all just speculation how they'd implement this, but the consensus is that something would be authored into the content which links it to the chip on that disc. So if you copied that content onto a blank disc it would instruct the DVD player to only play it if it locates that specific chip, and thus it would not play. I don't see any other possible way. There's no way all non-chipped discs would be locked out regardless of content...it'd be ridiculous.

So your current DVD collection and home movies and such would be unaffected even when played on a player that supported these chipped discs.

[Sirber]

so the content can be altered to skip the "chip lookup"...
Every protection system gets bypassed, even DRM...

will they learn one day? :(

[Mtz]

I think first "Hollywood" need to make good movies. They are blaming the piracy decreasing their benefits. Make a good movie and I'll buy it.
If the discs will cost much, the televisions will make a step to broadcast the movie very soon after launching in cinema. And if I will buy some reciever which record the movie in HD resolution I will not need to buy their protected DVD. If I want to see the movie soon after launching I go to cinema. If I want it for my collection I'll wait to record it from satelite at HD resolution.
"They" want to control us more and more: can listen what we speak in our homes if we have mobiles around, cameras everywhere and if I don't have a mobile in my room when watching a movie or a camera to record what I'm doing, why not a "chipset in my DVD".
So, we are paying money to be watched by "them"

enjoy,
Mtz

[foxyshadis]

A return of the hardware dongle, in rfid form. Interesting, maybe it's even a part of the AACS spec. Still has the same issue as normal reverse engineered key-exchange, you just have the extra requirement of a transponder in the copier (presumably PC drives with it would appear, if it was used in actual movies). Since a disc can't alter its content, guarding against cracking is pretty hopeless when so many people want to find a way.