Privacy types are just going to
love this one. Major studios, including Warner, Disney and Fox, are prepping to start embedding
RFID chips in every DVD produced, enabling them to track the disc from the factory to the store to your home. The chipped DVDs will then be examined by your home DVD player to make sure you're not trying to do anything fun like playing the movie in an incorrect geographical region, or running a copied disc. While they're starting out with DVD movies, it seems the proprietors of the tech are hoping to squeeze the chips into
HD DVD,
Blu-ray and any other medium in need of some
copy protection. "This technology holds the potential to protect the intellectual property of music companies, film studios, gaming and software developers worldwide," sez Gordon Yeh, CEO of Ritek, whose U-Tech subsidiary is all prepped to start making the discs in Taiwan. Once all the manufacturing kinks are worked out, U-Tech will work with the studios for a test roll-out in Australia. Of course, to make any of this relevant, new DVD players will be required, but we're not clear if the discs will play as normal on non-RFID players. So, we're still short on deets, and there's no real word on when we can expect any of this to show up on Wal-Mart shelves, but that doesn't mean we can't start running around frantically and start decrying the end of our civilisation, for it is indeed at hand.
posted September 16th 2006 2:30PM
Its funny how Hollywood pats themselves on the back for the large profits they make from movie tickets, then spend billions trying to halt piracy. They should give a coupon when you buy a ticket to drop the price of the DVD when released. Or a rewards system like some movie theaters to be used when purchasing DVDs. Unfortunatly this new technology will mean higher prices for players and the disk itself. They'll just blame the pirates for the increased cost, and stick it to the legit consumers.
word, john.
crap like this and the artificially high prices of DVDs only encourage piracy.
...but you know how greed is. dont expect it to stop.
I think Dave is on the right track... they're doing this knowing full well that it will fail. But if they are able to infect every manufactured DVD with this crap, people will give up buying from Walmart and will buy from iTunes. Sure the download would only be viewable on your PC, but more and more people are getting HTPCs anyway.
It's all a conspiracy set up to make Apple king of the world with music and movie downloads.
/sarcasm (sort of)
As a film student, I understand the desire for major studios to protect their intellectual property. Millions of dollars are invested into films. At average, advertising for a film costs up to $30 million alone. Normally advertising costs more than actual film production costs. Therefore, it seems right that studios would invest money into embedding RFID chips in every DVD produced in order to prevent piracy. Even though I am against piracy and for “copy protection”, I believe the industry’s attempts to be futile. Yes, it is possible that the RFID chips can prevent piracy; however any scheme they invent will sooner or later be cracked. The music industry has faced the same problems the film industry is currently encountering with bootlegs and pirated CDs. While this new device would deter piracy, it wouldn’t eradicate the problem. If anything, the new RFID chips would frustrate consumers considering new DVD player equipment would be required. I believe that the film industry needs to examine other ways to protect their intellectual properties that don’t involve added costs to consumers. Instead, focus should be on cracking down on the people who sell bootlegs on the streets and at flea markets. Increasing fines and the threat of jail seems easier than embedding tracking devices and creating new media devices.