A great reason NOT to chill out. They tried to pass it once and when it failed they got their congressional whores to try and hide it in a larger bill and it still failed because in your words, "the internet community smoked it out and stopped it". Sounds to me like they're going to keep trying.

Maybe, but you have to know to look for it first.

I clearly stated they should not have advertised them as "HD-Ready". I always understood thet when HD-DVD came along I could watch it on my "HD-Ready" television. After all, HD-VHS worked via component. I had no reason to doubt HD-DVD would too. I feel I was deceived and I don't doubt many others feel the same.

So you think Granny should be kept in the dark? I think she should be made aware of her options.

Tell you what. Argue semantics with someone else. Bored, gone...

I don't blame the studios for being concerned about piracy. Yes HD movie files are large but with the rapid advance of broadband and distributed file sharing it is already feasible to copy a large movie file off the internet. And it should get easier and faster in the future.

Without some form of copy protection any person with an HD drive could rip a movie HD-DVD and it would be all over the net. Having seen what happened to the music industry it makes sense that the movie companies are concerned.

That said, I do feel sorry for the early adopters stuck with HD ready displays that have no built in HDCP. No easy way around that problem.

And this will also happen even WITH copy protection. These things are broken -- always and quickly.

Everyone says that, but I wonder if it will really be that simple for joe average (like me) to do, as would be the case without copy protection.

But once a ripped copy of a movie is out there it is pretty much out of control, so I suppose you are right.

And therein lies the problem: They want to stop Joe Average from doing it, but Joe Average doesn't do it, and won't do it if the same multimedia conglomerates that sell the media don't sell the means to copy the media.

Instead of focusing on ALL customers, why not target the people that actually DO pirate?

Like releasing their films on DVD a heartbeat after the theatrical release instead of 6 months later. Close that window down when professional bootleggers make all their sales. Or perhaps lowering prices a little to make a $10 bootleg look even more unattractive.

The problem with that approach is that the current, relatively rapid, DVD releases are already hitting ticket sales for the theatrical run. And the problem there is that it greatly reduces revenue from DVD sales, which is currently the major revenue source for many movies. That might be great for DVD buyers like us in the short run, but if revenues dry up for movie studios it will have a severe impact on the making of future movies. And that is not so good.

All these ideas seem to suggest the movie studios should try to "compete" with the criminals who pirate movies, whose cost of "production" is essentially zero. Am I the only one who finds this strategy unworkable?