GIjon213

One would hope. But the marketing efforts to this point have put us consumers 2nd in importance to money. I.E., releasing a 'better' version of a DVD a few months later, BSG and it's half season releases that cost almost as much as a full season, and lets not talk about not including a special feature on a certain DVD so that they can release a whole 'new' DVD shortly there after and charge you again.

And when they finally break down and give the customer what they want (I am thinking Star Wars...) they do such a crappy job at that it seems that they almost wanted to make it look like crap.

I don't think some upset DVD connoisseurs will deter them. Yes, people who subscribe to this forum will, initially, piss and moan and they may not buy anything for a while. But Joe Schmo on the street wouldn't give two shits about our little "sticking to the man" Boycott, and we, being who we are, will want to see that 'special feature' that seems so illusive. And we will conform. Not all of us, but majority of us will.

Eventually, a way around this would be found, and then the industry will come out with some other cockamamie way to stop 'piracy'. This cycle will continue for a very long time.

Iron_Giant

"IPICO claims that its RFID tags can be read from at least six metres away, and at a rate of thousands of tags per minute. The passive chips require no battery, as they are powered by the energy in radio waves from the RFID reader."

Does this mean someone can drive by my house with a RFID Scanner to see what kind of "Products"/DVD I have in my house. Then could drive around a get a shopping list together and break into the houses that only have what they want.

I have a feeling privacy groups are not going to allow this, law suits coming down the road?

Jay G.

I think it's important to note that no major studio or DVD player manufacturer has been attached to this project yet. The vnunet article only mentions some studios that the disc manufacturer prints for, not that any of them will use this tech on their discs.

Here's an editorial saying a lot about this tech that people here already have:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060917-7760.html

wildcatlh

That second article seems to say that discs embedded with an RFID chip would play sans restrictions in an "old" DVD player that can't communicate with the RFID chip.

The second article is likely right though. This technology probably won't take hold for this or the next generation. Maybe in 15-20+ years when/if HVD is the standard we'll see it.

Fok

Even if they did put a chip in the DVDs, someone will find a way around it.

Nuff

I fail to see how this will even slow down piracy much less stop it. Even if you have an RFID dvd player it has to be able to play non RFID tags or your home movies you created, old dvds etc would be unplayable. All it takes is one person to figure out how to rip a new RFID DVD to a computer and burn it without the RFID to a blank dvd and the copy protection is gone. How does whoever came up with this retarded idea still have a job?

Jay G.

I can see the RFID-tagged DVDs having a new bit-tag on the disc itself that identifies the disc and tells RFID-equipped DVD players "hey, I'm supposed to have an RFID. If you can, read mine and see if it matches with what I'm telling you."

I this case, a straight copy wouldn't work if it moved this new bit with it. However, a re-author of the disc would probably get rid of it, and since CSS is cracked, it would be easy for pirates and copiers to do so.

So maybe not as simplistic a protection as it first seems, although it's still going to be ultimately circumventable, and thus worthless.

Splitter402

I like the concepts behind RFID but lately..all the employed uses are pushing me to not like it at all.

Not that I would do anything that might violate rights on a DVD or anything...

pdinosaur

what do you think IP is for?

Dead

Potentially, yes. But, six meters isn't a very long distance and RFID communications tend to work best line of sight, as opposed to through walls. So, with current technology the risk is probably minimal. As time progresses, and technology grows, the risk will probably become much more real.

Jon2

I disagree. Anything that does not work (or cause problems, or makes using something more difficult than it needs to be) for "Joe Schmo" is not likely to sell.

Remember the original DVIX format. It died despite the efforts of Circuit City and the big studios (Disney, Paramount, etc.) pushing it. "Joe Schmo" just didn't want it.