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DVDs, CDs, Blu-ray, HD DVD and other media will have RFID chips embedded into them

According to reports, DVDs, CDs, Blu-ray discs and HD DVD discs may soon have RFID chips embedded into them to prevent illegal copying of movies and music. The chip is currently in development by a company called U-Tech, which is a subsidiary of Ritek, the world's largest manufacturer of DVD discs -- both stamped and recordable. The company developing the actual RFID chips is IPICO, and both U-Tech and IPICO have announced production at one of U-Tech's main production plants located in Taiwan.

The technology will also find its way into drives and players. When a user places a disc inside a player, the RFID reader will verify whether or not a disc has been copied or whether or not a movie is being played in the correct geographical location. Unfortunately, this also means that users will be unable to make home backups of discs and store away originals for safe keeping.

Ritek's chief executive officer Gordon Yeh said "this technology holds the potential to protect the intellectual property of music companies, film studios and gaming and software developers worldwide." Apparently, a new RFID equipped DVD drive will perform the security check by hardware, and not require system drivers or specialized software. The intent is to prevent users from creating software to circumvent the RFID mechanism. The online enthusiast community however, has been successfully modifying driver firmware for a number of years.

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Hurts Consumers
By Alphafox78 on 9/15/2006 1:42:48 PM , Rating: 5
Everyone knows that whatever you do to protect something, the bad guys will always find a way around it. same applies with this. The end user is left with no rights over the product the purchased, while the pirate will just load some hack and not even noticed the RFID technology.




RE: Hurts Consumers
By jmunjr on 9/15/2006 1:49:01 PM , Rating: 5
You're missing the point. Getting around copy protection is not done by the "bad guys", but rather the good guys. People who try to protect our rights as individuals and consumers. Making backups of products we purchase and own is our legal right. Copy protecting them is the bad thing. And for the idea that we buy a license to view something. That's an absurd concept. Our DVD players are not portals into a museum.


RE: Hurts Consumers
By crazydrummer4562 on 9/15/2006 7:23:56 PM , Rating: 2
amen to that


RE: Hurts Consumers
By Tsuwamono on 9/15/2006 7:26:13 PM , Rating: 3
I agree. I have a whole 60 GB hard drive of my game ISOs so that i dont have to switch CDs all the time. With this bull i probably wont be able to do that. These guys are retards. They really arent loosing that much money from the piraters except ofcourse for microsoft who even people who dont steal games, movies and music pirate. I really dont see why they freak out so much over like 2% of their earnings going somewhere else. Oh no.. i lost 2% profit from the company that i wouldnt see anyway!.. unless ofcourse you work for enron lol.

I say screw em. If companys start putting this crap in i just wont buy their crap anymore. Ill get the pirated versions just because i dont want to support them.

As far as the music downloading goes, im sure i speak for a good 50-60% of music downloaders when i say that i download 1-2 songs from an artist that a friend tells me about. If i like the songs ill buy the CD and rip it onto my PC so i can make a playlist for while im playing games.

Moral of the story is: Microsoft=suckzors Music industry=suckzors Greedy MOFOs=Suckzors...


RE: Hurts Consumers
By mindless1 on 9/15/2006 9:48:07 PM , Rating: 5
There has never even been solid evidence that piracy reduces sales, rather than increasing them due to the increased popularity, user base and support (since developer support is always incredibly poor for consumer software and entertainment content in particular), creating the perception of a more desirable product leading to subsequent purchases that wouldn't have occurred otherwise.


RE: Hurts Consumers
By Christopher1 on 9/16/2006 7:36:16 PM , Rating: 1
Exactly right in that it has never been shown that piracy reduces sales. Actually, the evidence goes in the other direction, where people who download a song or movie illegally buy the real thing eventually or find out it sucks and don't.

The people who are for copy-protection are actually against customers having the right to protect their investments by trying-before-buying.


RE: Hurts Consumers
By rushfan2006 on 9/18/2006 8:44:07 AM , Rating: 2
Well I agree with you, but first clear something up -- it is not a legal "right" for us to make backups of software/music/etc. we buy. This is one of those things we in the US take for granted so we assume its our legal right. The reason we are allowed to make backups legally is because the software agreements say we can and pretty much every company knows they'd shot their self in the foot if they didn't allow the practice. However, they COULD put in the agreement NO BACKUPS of this software allowed.

Anyway all that aside, you are right though -- the point of copy protection is really to just keep us honest. Nothing more. Nothing less. I honestly don't think for a minute, especially in today's world, that companies really think that their encryptions or whatever will stop someone determined enough to break it.

Second reason -- its a legal deterrent...after all if there is encryption and since you HAVE to break the encryption in order to copy something....well in the court room that makes it all the more easier on the company suing you for copyright infringement...it looks much more impressive to the judge knowing that you had to knowingly remove a means of copy protection in order to copy whatever it is in the first place.

Like I always say -- you'll never stop anyone determined enough to get something done. But never make it easy...at least make them work at it.



RE: Hurts Consumers
By juserbogus on 9/18/2006 9:13:16 AM , Rating: 3
do you really know what you're talking about?... of course judging by your name that's a given when it comes to the rights of the consumer! We as consumers have full LEGAL right to make backups under current copyright law. while copyright grants authors the exclusive right to reproduce and profit from their works, the law recognizes an exception called fair use. which among other things allows you to photocopy parts of books you own and make backups of movies, music or other digital media. The REASON that the allow backups in the lic agreements IS because of the RIGHT of fair use... so sure, while they could say "no backups" it would not be enforceable.

but of course big business get around our LEGAL rights by having congress pass in 1998 the DMCA. The DMCA does not prohibit the copying of digital works, (ok we kept our right) only the distribution and use of tools that circumvent copy prevention technologies... and there it is, we still have our right to make a backup but if it has digital copy protection we can't use the tools that can do it.


RE: Hurts Consumers
By rushfan2006 on 9/18/2006 9:44:03 AM , Rating: 2
Oh my I'm sad, ashamed, dejected...I feel silly and appalled.....well not really but I do enjoy sarcasm.

Well first of all that's NOT how I understood it...but I never claimed to be either below admitting when I'm wrong - in fact its quite a lot healthier both mentally and physically too just that then to get worked up and emotional over it. Secondly, I never claimed I was a legal expert. However, I do believe my confusion came from the fact that I have used software at a previous employer that you CAN NOT make backups of due to security reasons.

As far as the handle for my login name..and this is the third time on these forums I said this now...it has NOTHING, in any way, shape or form to do with the talk show host. Rush refers to the band Rush and that's where the moniker comes from.

As for politics...I'm not into politics I'm into what rules/laws jives with my value system, my ethics and my morals. If its left or right leanings from time to time...no difference to me...that's why I've been an independent since I first registered to vote at 18.



RE: Hurts Consumers
By latrosicarius on 9/15/2006 5:27:34 PM , Rating: 3
LOL!!! Are they serious?! There's a number of ways right off the top of my head that would be really simple ways around this...

1.) Custom firmware for DVD player
2.) Hardware emulation software -- simple program that tricks the OS into thinking that the device is a genuine RFID-compatable hardware player, when in fact, it's not.
3.) Buffer capture - simply copy the movie/song as it's read in RAM into a temporary page file... then assemble it from there into a file.
4.) SIMPLY TAKE A SCREENSHOT OF EVERY FRAME and assemble into HD movie.... duh

RIAA / MPAA fails :|


RE: Hurts Consumers
By mindless1 on 9/15/2006 9:49:39 PM , Rating: 1
Umm, sparky, it's not clever to announce ahead of time what you would try so they'd pay most attention to preventing it.


RE: Hurts Consumers
By jkostans on 9/16/2006 11:29:37 AM , Rating: 2
But people have to buy this player first... I don't think movie studios will be ok releasing a DVD that will only play on less than 1% of the players people have. You can't force people to buy a new DVD player when they already have one, this is just a technology anouncement and will never make it to market.


RE: Hurts Consumers
By mindless1 on 9/17/2006 12:08:24 AM , Rating: 2
That is likely, they would wait until a reasonable percentage of the populace had enabled players, but that may only be a matter of time.


RE: Hurts Consumers
By Viper007Bond on 9/17/2006 5:02:22 AM , Rating: 2
Well it's not exactly rocket science... ;)


I don't see how this can work
By johnsonx on 9/15/2006 2:42:57 PM , Rating: 5
If I put a disc in a DVD player that has a valid video file on it, how does the DVD player know, RFID chip or not, that it should or shouldn't play the movie? How does it know the movie isn't one I created using my video camera?

I suppose if I make a bit-level copy of a disk, there will be something in the data that tells the player it was a copy-protected disk that now has the wrong RFID tag. But I don't think most people backup their movies like that.

Except in rare cases I like the backup to have just the movie; no menus, no bonuses, no into, no crap. Indeed, I've ripped some movies I've purchased for the sole purpose of getting past all the crap; nothing like being forced to watch a bunch of previews and then wait for some long menu intro to make me break out a DVD ripper in anger.

I think most people rip the disc, and then recode the main movie with Nero or some such as needed; at this point it's just a generic DVD movie with no indication where it came from or what's on it.

I guess the only way this RFID thing could work is if they require DVD players to ONLY play copy-protected disks; any unprotected disc would be presumed to be an illegal copy, even if it's really just your vacation video.

Somehow I don't think that will fly either.




RE: I don't see how this can work
By johnsonx on 9/15/2006 2:48:26 PM , Rating: 2
just to clarify:

In the above text when I say 'DVD player', I'm using the term generically to refer to any future movie disc playing device whether it be a RFID equipped DVD player, HD-DVD player, Blu-Ray player or some as yet unknown format.


RE: I don't see how this can work
By xsilver on 9/15/2006 8:07:20 PM , Rating: 2
just FYI
smart people may custom rip their discs

dumb people just put the disc in, open dvdshrink, press go


RE: I don't see how this can work
By johnsonx on 9/17/2006 12:17:35 AM , Rating: 2
But DVD Shrink I think more or less does what I described above. It rips the movie file, and re-encodes it. The original copy protected structure, which would contain whatever tags needed for this RFID technology, is lost.


this sucks
By ForumMaster on 9/15/2006 1:22:22 PM , Rating: 2
i would never buy this. DVD's get scratched. what happens if my Blu-Ray/HD-DVD get scratched and i can't make a backup? the movie is lost and there goes another $50. this will also make the hi-def media even more epensive then it already is. wonder how quickly the firmware will be hacked though.




RE: this sucks
By GoatMonkey on 9/15/2006 2:51:02 PM , Rating: 3
That's not a problem because you get to give them money again for the same thing you already bought. Problem solved.


RE: this sucks
By Souka on 9/15/06, Rating: 0
RE: this sucks
By mindless1 on 9/15/2006 9:54:57 PM , Rating: 2
I haven't, even after sending receipt and a scan of the damaged disc. Further, I don't volunteer to jump through hoops if they're already making the product less versatile (or useful at all if you don't pay more for the DRM supportive hardware) but no less expensive.

So let's see these discs at drastically LOWER prices, if their nonsense argument about it being effective at the target is true, the lower price should reflect this.


Will not work for older fomats
By Lonearchon on 9/15/2006 1:40:05 PM , Rating: 2
How will they force people with older DVD drives and burners to upgrade to the new rfid enable one. They realy can't make it incompable because it will not work in older dvd players making many customers upset. As long as it remains the same format older drives will be able to rip it




RE: Will not work for older fomats
By Lonyo on 9/15/2006 4:49:45 PM , Rating: 2
Yup.
When you make something new, you either have to make it backwards compatible, or make it part of whatever BEFORE release. It's going to cause quite a ruckus if they make new DVD's which can't be played on old players.


RE: Will not work for older fomats
By dhluke on 9/15/2006 6:49:15 PM , Rating: 2
Wouldn't Ritek screw themselves with this? Think about it... They would completly destroy their production of blank media for consumers if they were to use this. Why? Because since we can't make copies, we won't need blank CD/DVDs, so they won't sell anything to the consumer... They will solely have to rely on the business to buy their CD/DVDs.



Possible implementation...
By darkfoon on 9/16/2006 2:44:10 AM , Rating: 2
They might implement it like this:
The RFID tag contains the decryption key needed to play the disc. Then the DVD player reads the tag when the disc is inserted, and uses the key to decrypt the movie in real-time. Yes, this screws over people with currect DVD players. But a skilled individual with a RFID scanner could get the data, which leads me to the second implmentation...

They'll have the key on the RFID tag encrypted too, and only the HDCP or some other chip in the DVD player(with some industry held secret) will be able to decrypt the key on the RFID tag, which is used to decrypt the movie.

This is gonna suck.
Coincidentally, I was always the kid in class who'd ask the teacher if they were going to give us some horrible punishment, and instead I'd be giving them the idea. HEY RITEK, ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME?? THIS IS HOW TO DO DRM!!!!




RE: Possible implementation...
By greylica on 9/16/2006 1:12:23 PM , Rating: 2
Yesss but you only forgot to read my post, any HDV Cam can be used to pirate this. Thay are only spending more and more money turning DRM on an Expensive and Ultrageous form of masked protection.
The only way to really solve the problema is like the way Apple did with Itunes, or Imovie, but them the producers willn´t be free for take the money of artists because of an honest people at another instance will have the counter, I saw this history when they try to take control over Apple, pushing everyone thats honest againto piracy with the idioctic idea of change of prices betwenn songs.
May all of them try to do the same thing with films.
The fact is that price, availability, and esay of use, is the key for the future to never need again DRM in this way.
Course I guess that it has to be DRM, but in another form, offering to people acess at affordable prices and not treating everyone as if they are the same person.
Show them the advantages of the legally aquired music and films. Bye Bye DRM.
It´s like I´ve said, Tom and Jerry. Nobody will win. We, the customers, will loose again...
Don´t you remember Sony´s Rootkit ? I will always remember...



RE: Possible implementation...
By umerok on 9/18/2006 11:49:15 AM , Rating: 2
They couldn't do that. It would require EVERYONE to buy new hardware to play DVDs. Punishing consumers to protect their intellectual property won't fly. Piracy will increase because people won't want to buy new players. Comapnies would have to offer a free upgrade / RFID reader installation into legacy DVD players for this to begin to work.

And then, if (when) someone cracks that encryption...


I would love to see something like this work.
By SilthDraeth on 9/16/2006 9:01:39 AM , Rating: 2
Before you jump on me, read what I have to say.

I would love for technology like this to work, and actually make copyrighted material unable to be ripped and copied at home. With a few caveats.

1. The RF ID protected disks come with a replacement warranty. It doesn't have to be lifetime, but a nice 3 year warranty, where you mail your disk back to the company, and they send you a brand new one for free.

2. Why not make RF ID writable dvds, and cds, and enable the players to be able to make one copy of a disk. The original RF ID tag would be modified to show that a copy of it has been made, and the copy's RF ID tag would then report that it is a certified copy, and would not be able to be copied as well.

The biggest problem I see with this technology, is getting everyone to replace all of their existing DVD and CD players. It won't happen just to buy a music CD, or Hollywood film.




By SilthDraeth on 9/16/2006 9:16:47 AM , Rating: 2
Oh yes, I hate all the crazy DRM scams. I fully understand copying.

My two year old got a hold of my DVD binder. I couldn't find my DVDs for three days. Finally my wife noticed something shining in a thin crack between the two small dressers our TV sits on. We go up and spread the dressers apart, and there are 50 dvds crammed into a dvd wide slot. All of them scratched up like crazy.

I would still though like to see something that works well, and doesn't mess with the good consumers. But as so many have stated above, the pirates will always exists. All it takes is one person to develop a software to get around this completely, and release it, then the technology is useless.


By jtesoro on 9/17/2006 4:55:08 AM , Rating: 2
I don't think this addresses people's need to watch the material in other types of players though (e.g. video-capable iPods for instance).

Still, I understand where you're going. DRM isn't so bad if it is implemented in such a way that it is as transparent as possible to legitimate users. Unfortunately, I haven't seen anything out there that's close to that.


This will end piracy ...
By AndreasM on 9/15/2006 1:26:14 PM , Rating: 3
until someone hacks a player to always detect the signal by modifying the hardware or having an external RFID source. After that the movie ends up on P2P and everyone can copy it. And the DRM industry rubs their hands as they get to con the movie industry with yet another pointless exercise in 'build-useless-DRM-for-big-bucks'. I'd laugh if it wasn't for people getting hit with stupid lawsuits from industries afraid of change.




RE: This will end piracy ...
By FITCamaro on 9/15/2006 1:42:19 PM , Rating: 2
Also what happens if you just try to play it in a current player that doesn't have the RFID reader in it? You can't stop the disc from turning or the laser from reading the disc. And if its in firmware, then the OS isn't going to get any kind of message saying that the anti-piracy check failed. Unless they're going to run some kind of program when the disc starts up that accesses the firmware of the drive, then what can they do to stop you from running the disc on a current drive?

And people will still find a way around it.


meh...
By Comdrpopnfresh on 9/15/2006 2:28:05 PM , Rating: 2
this is against the user's rights, as by law, they can have one backup for themselves. even though it may stop piracy it impedes on legal copying- don't see it goign very far. also, how will homemade discs play?




RE: meh...
By hondaman on 9/15/2006 2:59:51 PM , Rating: 2
In the US, yes. Not in other countries. The MPAA and RIAA is most concerned with the wholesale copying, distribution, and selling of their goods in asian countries, where a large majority of piracy takes place.


RE: meh...
By Staples on 9/15/2006 6:14:00 PM , Rating: 1
Fine. They should start selling them in two packs.

Wonder what everyone will think of to complain about next.


Ok, but..
By JSK on 9/15/2006 1:46:12 PM , Rating: 4
The easy solution? Dont buy those players. We will be fine in the current generation of DVD/CD with our current players and media. At least PC wise.

People are already staying away from the HD movement in record groves so that will kill itself unless they unify so this wont be applicable to most of us on that format for a while.

The only real issue I see in the worst case scenario is home players, car stereos etc.

We would see many people just use their current tech for a while if this becomes mainstream.




Hacked Firmware
By Vesuvius on 9/15/2006 5:26:10 PM , Rating: 2
Hacked Firmware for the device...bye bye RFID protection...c'mon. It'll be hacked in a matter of weeks, I suggest they don't waste their money developing this.




RE: Hacked Firmware
By mindless1 on 9/15/2006 9:58:43 PM , Rating: 2
What makes you think they haven't noticed firmware hacks? It's trivially easy to prevent firmware updates as traditionally done. How many people do you know that will open their new player and start reverse engineering and soldering?


Easy Solution...
By kilkennycat on 9/16/2006 1:50:14 PM , Rating: 2
Just stick the DVD in the microwave on HIGH for about one second. That will pretty much guarantee to destroy the RFID chip's internal circuitry by gross RF overload. The RFID-equipped player mandatorily must be designed to play legacy (non-RFID-equipped) DVDs, otherwise not one would be sold, so the DVD will now appear to be a legacy one. And the RFID-equipped DVD must mandatorily play on a legacy player, so it cannot have a unique data format linked to the presence of the RFID chip.

Problem solved. Yet another truly nutty and ill-conceived DRM idea flushed down the toilet, like Sony's root-kit solution to prevent copying audio CDs.




RE: Easy Solution...
By kilkennycat on 9/16/2006 6:58:10 PM , Rating: 2
On reflection, a microwave oven might not be the best idea, considering the aluminized layer in the DVD. However, a localized high-intensity RF noise-source right next to the RFID chip should nicely blow-out its silicon. So the guts of a microwave oven and a highly directional micro-antenna should do the trick without damaging the rest of the DVD.


Conspiracy!
By middlehead on 9/15/2006 1:25:41 PM , Rating: 3
They'll flip flop every six months on which has more DRM, the discs or downloads.




.
By Xorp on 9/15/2006 10:52:47 PM , Rating: 3
Not even Microsoft is this bad. They are big supporters of HD-DVD and are fine that HD-DVD has managed copy protection, meaning you can make 1 or 2 copies of your HD-DVD. Blu-ray has nothing like this.




RFID ZAPPER
By aussiebob on 9/16/2006 9:30:16 PM , Rating: 3
It's all easy...just zap the discs with a RFID ZAPPER and kill the inbuilt tag and the info on it ;)

https://events.ccc.de/congress/2005/wiki/RFID-Zapp...




Why bother making a hard copy?
By mamisano on 9/15/2006 5:47:48 PM , Rating: 2
Keep it electronic, on your hard drive. Prices of storage have been dropping a lot lately so best bet is to rip it to your PC and watch it from there :)




They never learn.
By mindless1 on 9/15/2006 10:09:20 PM , Rating: 2
Yes Ritek, make a product that costs a little more, has lower sales rates, then wonder why your business is declining.

When will businesses learn that in the long run they cannot force their will upon consumers, who will spend their money on less offensive products?

They (including content holders) see sales lower than they'd like and instead of accepting that they need better product and/or lower price, they feel they can FORCE someone to pay them more money. Utter stupidity, that just incites more people than ever to shun the products.

Now to the MPAA/RIAA: Movies and music WILL COST US LESS.
The more hassles we have using it as WE want to, the more the perceived value of the product drops. It might cost less because you drop the prices. It might cost less because we don't buy as much. Either way, you're going in the wrong direction, looking to stop your ship from sinking by adding weight to it.




Innocents , hmmmmmm
By greylica on 9/15/2006 10:14:42 PM , Rating: 2
The only way to get this to work is to program a Rfid to a code to decript the content of the media and do this by an isolated hardware that can´t be reached or located by any software in the world, leaving to the hackers the job to decript it.
Course they willn´t. They don´t need...
If I am a pirate, I will buy a Camcorder with HDV, takes an electric panel, an closed room, and simply play the movie.
hauahuahauah.
The job is done.
After this, hauahua, encode to H264 using Quicktime, and since Blu Ray will probably use any codec for the people who wants HDV for their famylies film. The Bomb is ready to be trigged. Capitche ?
A bomb to the DRM vendor and to the producer. They will atack each other for who is the blame.

hauhauaahu, Everything that was said here is nothing compared to creativity of this kind of people, I cannot believe that all of you are so innocent. Excuse-me but I am smiling to the joke until now.
Most of the films that the black market play are ripped this way. Tell me who will need HDV when these people are most occupied with his own poverty, who nedd a state of the art and expensive HDV when they sometimes don´t have any job or food ?
They say 720 X 480 Scan lines is bealtifull, UAU !! 1080I is only for magnates... I heard it everyday.
I live in Brazil, the salary here is poorer than in other countries and doesn´t grow by the corruption of the government that takes the most of it in taxes. It is the bigger cause of the piracy here. It´s not for protest or poorer education. The most poverty people will never care to quality of the films, they only want to see. They don´t even know what is piracy. The most of the people only look for the price.
The government takes it´s efforts to do so and diminute the piracy, really diminished it to 50% in four years I can say, but the so high taxes will make him fail on this job again and again.
I really want you to understand that everyone who wants to do Illegal copies will do in a way or another, and the chips that can be sell with HD-DVDs R and RW will not make any difference. This will only function to illude you on your country, and make you think you can´t break the codes because of your education. Yes, you are educated to do so breaking the codes. huahauahsuhus.
The first thing you will try to learn is a way to broke it inteligently. The pirate will use creativity. Codes, blergh huahauahauahuah.
Course the burner program can detect a code onto the film that was filmed by a camcorder and don´t rip it, but nothing that an dicroic lamp with certain frequency or leds can´t anihilate.
Let´s think again everything, we can be inteligent, but they are creative...
Here in Grey Silica, we are using 99% of free software to create movies, I will think twice before buy expensive DRM protection, cause one way or another it will be broken and my job too will be pirated.
My own solution. I do everything right by my self, pay what I want to use, buy Windows, Buy Corel, Buy everything that is needed to be in the right side of the law.
Others ?
Let them take care of Them...

To the Government ?

They know minor taxes = minor piracy, anyone did something ?

NO !!!

And finnaly, my mouth with no poison saids:

DRMs and Pirates will be Tom and Jerry forever.

Everything depends on the vision of the prism. Open all of your eyes !!! The world is bigger. A chinese people where poverty is masked can tell it even much better than myself.




BS
By Nocturnal on 9/16/2006 3:42:58 AM , Rating: 2
This is a bunch of crap. Losing money my butt!!!




It's not April 1...
By mbf on 9/16/2006 8:57:13 AM , Rating: 2
or is it?




By ShadowBlade on 9/16/2006 10:52:16 AM , Rating: 2
If they do start implementing hardware based copy protection like this, theres a simple way around it: Keep a separate computer around that is not updated in hardware or software and not connected to the internet.




what about netflix
By nfin1ty on 9/16/2006 11:24:58 AM , Rating: 2
what about netflix and other online/store rental places? will netflix and other online services have to buy even more copies to cover more regions? i hope they get pissed and do something! this is a bunch of crap!!




Useless attempt.
By Apprentic3 on 9/16/2006 8:26:26 PM , Rating: 2
Personally, I think its a pointless chase after the pirates. I do think that anything that's man made can be undone as well. So far, I don't see much tech that claims that its got some kindda DRM, unbroken into yet. End of the day, we, the consumers suffer by paying more and having to go through the hassles. And the fact that we can't rip shows is kindda unfair since I can't be lugging my desktop or laptop along all the time, and would def love to view it on a handheld if possible.




Right to backup?
By Zhoul on 9/17/2006 8:23:20 PM , Rating: 2
I understand there is a legal right to make one backup copy of digital media. The question is, why? Why should people assume they have an automatic right to do so?

When you buy a pair of jeans, a new TV, a bag of milk... you don't make a backup of it in case it rips or gets broken. You take careful measures to preserve the lifespan of those items. Just because it is feasible to back up media like CDs shouldn't automatically make it a right, IMO.

What should be a right (and generally is) is converting CDs you buy to other formats like MP3 for portability and convenience. Programmers of games should allow full hard drive installs for convenience and not try to curb piracy by being lazy and not providing such an option. There are other solutions out there that aren't as restrictive. You don't NEED ISO backups. Handle your discs carefully and keep them away from the kids. I can count on one hand the number of optical discs that have failed on me over the past 15 years.




Whats next???
By majorpain on 9/18/2006 10:47:04 AM , Rating: 2
Next step they will"disconnect" internet all over the world and send the goodies trough mail...
Can almost see some peeps saying: "Internet is the devil, is bad, terrorism gets money from it, internet is making mass destruction bombs..."




Get rid of piratism?
By pertsa on 9/19/2006 7:33:40 AM , Rating: 2
This all a bunch of crap here. If you can play the content on some media you surely can copy it as well, analogically if there's no other option (and I doubt that).

"How many people do you know that will open their new player and start reverse engineering and soldering?"
27




Easy hack
By Trisped on 9/19/2006 1:39:55 PM , Rating: 2
pick up RF reader and a transmitter. Use the reader to record the RF data. Copy data to transmitter. Place transmitter close enough to player for device to be picked up.




Easy way around this?
By Hakuryu on 9/19/2006 3:52:35 PM , Rating: 2
I'm not an expert at copy protection, but couldn't you simply burn a copy of a RFID protected disc, and then put it in an older DVD player that doesn't have this built in and watch it with no problems?




By Soviet Robot on 9/20/2006 5:07:25 AM , Rating: 2
I'll tell you when they're done ****ting on us.




By Xenoid on 9/15/2006 2:39:35 PM , Rating: 1
I lol'd.




By QueBert on 9/15/2006 4:08:32 PM , Rating: 3
so you're willing to allow them to make your life harder, by implimenting protections that ultimatly only ONE person has to crack, then every P2P/Torrent user can get it with no effort? So now the disc you bought, you can't make a home back up copy. Meanwhile half the world's downloading it from a torrent, and can make a bazillion copies with zero hassle.
Is piracy wrong? Well, it's illegal in the US, no need to debate right/wrong as that's a moral issue. I do know, many countries through out the world, piracy is legal and nobody cares, except the RIAA and folks in the US who have a stake in ripping us off.

Personally I don't want my life to be made harder, expecially when the touted "protection" is nothing more then a challenge some 14 year old Russian will probably figure a way around in what, 2-3 weeks tops? What if it ends up taking a few months "oooooh!"

It won't make piracy any more difficult. Piracy isn't difficult to beginw with. I don't know ONE person who understands or knows how to decrypt a DVD on their one. Google it though, and you have tons of one click softwares that will do it for you. When this RFID is cracked, and Little Johnny can download a one click program that'll copy the disc. How is that difficult? Do you know anyone personally who cracks? doubtful, cracking isn't hard at all, and doesn't work. because it only takes a single person to release a single crack and the rest is history. Protections like this will only stop the swapping between friends at work, which is something, but as long as P2P, Torrents & Usenet exist. That is where the real piracy lies, and won't be stopped with some idiotic RFID chip that is probably about as secure as any other DRM *read, not very...*


By Staples on 9/15/2006 4:26:46 PM , Rating: 2
iTunes DRM has never gotten in my way, never. Well implemented DRM will not affect 99% of people. And for the post below this, you were told that you can't make a copy. I don't know why everyone brings up the issue "what if I want to copy it." You were told you can't, it is not like you bought somehting and they told you you are free to make 100s of copies.


By aiken666 on 9/15/2006 8:33:07 PM , Rating: 3
Gee, that's funny. The law in the US explicity says that consumers *can* make backup copies. Are you suggesting that media company's insatiable desire to control every aspect of their audiences' lives trumps US law?


By archermoo on 9/15/2006 4:11:37 PM , Rating: 2
What about the people that want to make a copy of their movies for personal use so that they can store the originals somewhere safe? Copyright law allows that, and this tech would infringe on that.

I have no problem with making things difficult for criminals that feel they have the right to other people's property without paying for it. I do have a problem with overzealous "pirate fighters" disallowing legitimate use.


By johnsonx on 9/17/2006 12:21:29 AM , Rating: 2
LOL, a fresh crap pile from Beenthere. Cornfedone must be lurking here somewhere. Say hi to your dad Cramitpal for me.


By rushfan2006 on 9/18/2006 10:58:10 AM , Rating: 3
LOL...well I wouldn't go that far...as much as I think Piracy is bad....it is nothing.....completely pales in comparison the crimes that most the folks (I say most because to address any flames saying "well some folks in prison might be innocent and just wrongly charged" and all that stuff) in prison, especially max and super max prisons committed to get there. I honestly only thing over blatant pirates should do real jail time -- other than that you just fine the hell out of them so they basically get the message....kind of like a progressive penalty think were first offense is just like a $500 fine and some community service, then second is stiffer and third is jail plus like a six figure fine.

Anyway...if the US would grow a pair and start executing these mofo's who do the REAL crimes then we'd have PLENTY of room in our prison system for the lower crime offenders.

Law is such a funny beast --- "humane treatment of prisons" -- yeah meanwhile some folks are in there for literally torturing and shredding thier victims to pieces..but oooh make sure the prisoners are treated humanely.

<jumps off soap box>



By bldckstark on 9/18/2006 12:26:03 PM , Rating: 3
I was a prison guard for a while. Your point of view appears to be skewed by a lack of experience, with both real prison environments, and life in general.

Ponder this awhile - people are sent to prison AS punishment, not to be punished while they are there.

As for the rest of your statements, I agree. I met a guy there who was in for 5 years for drunk driving. I met a guy who got 20 years for stealing a case of beer. I met a guy who got life for hacking up his daughter, and a guy who got 10 years for screwing three rottweiller puppies to death. I also met several mentally handicapped persons who just had no place else to go.

Prison time is not fairly administered, and is a little too quick to be used as punishment. Alternatives exist.


By ssvegeta1010 on 9/16/2006 6:28:26 PM , Rating: 2
OH SHI--!

They figured out the future of society! A super race where assholes on the internet get to choose who lives and dies!


By greylica on 9/16/2006 6:30:58 PM , Rating: 2
OK Hitler_2 you will really solve the world by this, causing wars of who will have the copyright of the screw !
Or then a person whose invented the wheel will be ressucited to receive the credits for his invention.
The super crowd of humanity will be solved by a bullet, buuut .... hmmmm tell me what to do when a person have a father that is a criminal but he/she is not ? Kill his father can be a start to a vingence. You could turn the world into a really Chaos situation.
I Know you can be more inteligent than this, lets think, find a new way cause this way is invented before the wheel !
Older solution will not solve the problems. And new problems to new solutions will come and you will never know.
Mecanicist !!!
I prefer to be an Holistic person.
But, in turning back to the discussion, it will not solve the problem too, piracy is a problem of business rules, nothing more than this, bullets will solve it once, and again you will face the same problem.


By johnsonx on 9/17/2006 12:27:26 AM , Rating: 2
Yep, I knew it... as soon as I saw the drivel from Beenthere above, I knew I'd find Cornfedone down here somewhere. I swear these two are either the same guy, twins (Cramitpal's bastard offspring), or co-habitating butt-pirates who 'break loose' every couple of days to post garbage on DT.

At least they're sometimes funny, but not today.


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