New DVD copy protection format announced

Just got some interesting news from a contact who works with the DVD Forum,
who gave me the info under the condition that I not reveal her name - let's
just call her "April F" - or go into too many details in public about what
they told me. Here is what I can tell you without being dragged through the
courts.

Apparently after much lobbying by the MPAA and the various multinationals,
all DVDs released under their imprints as of April 1st, 2005 will be
equipped with a new kind of copy protection, in an attempt to stop once and
for all the heinous crime being committed by millions - people watching
their DVDs more than once.

Under new laws to be enacted under the DMPABCA (Digital Millennium Plus A
Bit Copyright Act) it will become illegal for anyone to buy a DVD and watch
it for more than one single viewing. The new law clearly states that motion
pictures are licensed, not sold, and that the person who purchases such a
license by buying a DVD of a movie only has the right to view it one single
time before they are obliged to pay another fee to see it again.

"Look, it's the movies," said entertainment lawyer April Fuelles. "It's
exactly the same thing as computer software. I mean, look at Finding Nemo.
I hate to spoil the film for people, but the reality is that those are not
real fish. They're computer generated, and therefore subject to the same
licensing laws as computer software like Windows XP."

The new regime is expected to involve some form of product activation,
where the DVD purchaser will be permitted to watch the first five minutes
of the movie (or 10 minutes if there are more than 12 studio logos at the
start of the film) before being asked to contact a toll-free number to
obtain the code to view the remainder of the disc.

In a separate development, a new copy protection scheme being prepared by
intellectual property protection giant Macrovision is causing some problems
in beta testing. The scheme is ingenious, said Macrovision head of
development A. Prilfuells...

"What we've done, without going into too much detail that might help
hackers, is to merge DVD technology with the clever methods used by some
email-borne worms and viruses," Mr Prilfuells said. "When a user uses a
program such as DVD Decrypter to rip the movie to their hard drive, the
protection detects the attempt to decode CSS protection and the second
level of protection is silently activated. This checks the Windows registry
for the name of the owner of that computer, then searches the user's hard
disk for that user's contact details - email, street address and phone
number. That information is then seamlessly edited in to the movie's end
credit sequence, right after the director credit. So for example on
Minority Report, the credits run like this:

DIRECTED BY STEPHEN SPEILBERG

PIRATED BY DAVE SMITH, 23 REGENT STREET RESERVOIR VIC 3073
PHONE +61 3 9555 6754 EMAIL

PRODUCED BY KATHLEEN KENNEDY

....and so on. That way, the studio that owns the film will have no trouble
getting a vigilante posse together to rough up the perpetrators within
hours of them distributing their pirated discs via the internet or at
market stalls."

The new system is, however, rumoured to be causing some problems. In
testing the new system, software engineers are reported to have had trouble
while copying "Pirates Of The Carribean", where the names, addresses and
emails of every single cast member that played a pirate in the film
suddenly appear in the end credits of illegal copies."

"I hate Macrovision," said Johnny Depp yesterday. "I am a private person,
and I used to be able to enjoy that privacy despite my standing in
Hollywood. But thanks to this new copy protection, tens of thousands of
illegal DVD purchasers know where I live and keep ringing me up to say
'arrrrrr'. I can't take it any more. I have to move, and I'm not telling
anybody where. Thanks for nothing."

The scheme also runs into technical difficulties if the disc being copied
contains a copy of the music video for the song "Stand And Deliver" by 80s
group Adam And The Ants. Macrovision expects to have a fixed version of
their protection scheme ready for prime time when the system is launched on
April 1st, 2006.


- Anthony

Anthony Horan

Nice try.

luminos

In article <>,
says...
> Just got some interesting news from a contact who works with the DVD Forum,
> who gave me the info under the condition that I not reveal her name - let's
> just call her "April F" - or go into too many details in public about what
> they told me. Here is what I can tell you without being dragged through the
> courts.

LOL - very clever I like it. And the date again, is...??

--

NightStalker

NightStalker

You took waaaaay too much time writing this and it wasn't even that funny. To
write a good April Fool's joke you've got to start it off as seriously as
possible and then get more and more outrageous. People will start off
thinking it's perfectly reasonable, then they'll start getting angrier and
angrier, then finally they'll stop and say "This can't be real!"

There was a *really* good "leaked" memo out a while ago about Episode 2. It
started out with some reasonable information, then got crazier and crazier
until Anakin accidentally decapitates his mother after she gets raped by Mace
Windu and Fox executives are kowtowing to Lucas saying, "Don't get me wrong!
I love the rape scene!"

After only the first couple of sentences, it was obvious your post was a
joke. The punchlines weren't even that funny, IMHO.

Better luck next year.

Cernovog

On Thu, 1 Apr 2004 16:02:01 +1000, Anthony Horan
<> wrote:

>Just got some interesting news from a contact who works with the DVD Forum,
>who gave me the info under the condition that I not reveal her name - let's
>just call her "April F"

Wasn't Disney actually trying to develop something like this a few
years ago? ISTR the plan was that you'd get three watches of your DVD,
and then you'd have to call a phone number and give your credit card
details and buy the disc again to get another couple of watches out of
it.

--
Sir Oran

We love television because television brings us a world in which
television does not exist. In fact, deep in their hearts, this is what
the spuds crave most: a rich, new, participatory life.
(Barbara Ehrenreich)

Sir Oran

"Anthony Horan" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> Under new laws to be enacted under the DMPABCA (Digital Millennium Plus A
> Bit Copyright Act) it will become illegal for anyone to buy a DVD and
watch
> it for more than one single viewing. The new law clearly states that
motion
> pictures are licensed, not sold, and that the person who purchases such a
> license by buying a DVD of a movie only has the right to view it one
single
> time before they are obliged to pay another fee to see it again.
(snip)

rofl...this is exactly where things are heading. Thanks for the
laugh...

Mike

Mike Kohary

On Thu, 1 Apr 2004 2:36:55 -0500, Cernovog wrote:

> You took waaaaay too much time writing this and it wasn't even that funny. To
> write a good April Fool's joke you've got to start it off as seriously as
> possible and then get more and more outrageous.

There's no pleasing some people.

"That's just what Jesus said, sir!"

Sorry it wasn't nerdily accurate enough for you


- Anthony

Anthony Horan

> Wasn't Disney actually trying to develop something like this a few
> years ago? ISTR the plan was that you'd get three watches of your DVD,
> and then you'd have to call a phone number and give your credit card
> details and buy the disc again to get another couple of watches out of
> it.
>
> -

Here in the U.S, it was called DIVX, short for "Digital Video Express."
$4.99 got you a movie, recorded in a non-standard DVD format, and one 48
hour viewing period. Additional 48 hour viewing periods were available at a
rate of $2.99 each.

Disney was a staunch supporter of the format, though I don't believe they
were a financial backer--electronics giant Circuit City was the chief
backer/pusher. Thankfully it failed miserably, with the demise being
announced within a year of the format's rollout.

William Hicks

Anthony Horan <> wrote in message news:<>.. .

> Just got some interesting news from a contact who works with the DVD Forum,
> who gave me the info under the condition that I not reveal her name - let's
> just call her "April F"

Such an imaginative name! Gave your whole story away immediately.

Fred

when an april fool's joke doesn't work ....
the joker becomes the ....
"Fred" <> wrote in message
news: om...
> Anthony Horan <> wrote in message
news:<>.. .
>
> > Just got some interesting news from a contact who works with the DVD
Forum,
> > who gave me the info under the condition that I not reveal her name -
let's
> > just call her "April F"
>
> Such an imaginative name! Gave your whole story away immediately.

jeremy wrinklebottom