Company tries to make DVD Copying Hard...

[Jonbo298]

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- A Silicon Valley company unveiled Tuesday a new technology that it claims to be able to block 97 percent of the DVD-copying software used by Internet pirates, without interfering with a DVD's paly ability or picture quality.

Macrovision Corp. said its RipGuard system, which can be included in personal computers, DVD players and DVD recorders, would plug the digital hole through which unauthorized versions of DVD films can be easily copied on a computer and then "burned" to other discs or put online for downloading.

The company is just the first of several firms expected to rollout new anti-piracy technology that has been years in the making, according to a Los Angeles Times report carried by its online version.

For Hollywood studios, the technology could help wring even more revenue from DVDs, which have become a leading source of their profit.

It is estimated that unauthorized DVD copying cost the studios some 1 billion out of the 27.5 billion dollars they collected from worldwide DVD sales and rentals in 2004.

"Macrovision RipGuard DVD is designed to dramatically reduce DVD ripping," Steve Weinstein, head of the company's entertainment technologies unit, said in a statement Tuesday.

Although the software used to rip discs is illegal in the United States, it has been in widespread use online since a Norwegian teenager and his chat-room friends wrote an early version in 1999.

The potential market for Macrovision is huge. With hundreds of billions of DVDs pressed every year, even a small licensing fee from the major studios would generate a significant boost to the company. Enditem

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...nt_2581302.htm

This is laughable at best. That 3% can tell the other 97% how their software somehow bypasses it or I give it a month after this is introduced before its found a loophole. Stupid companies, they never learn how determined people can be to circumvent copy protection.

Hackers/Crackers - Companies: 0?

[Happydude]

heh, i wouldn't be surprised if this repgaurd would be history within a month after it comes out....as for preventing copying of DVDs, it's a good idea for hollywood, they just need to find a better way.

[Dark Samurai]

I'd be mad too, if I lost 1 billion dollars from my 27.5 billion /sarcasm...

[Jonbo298]

Well, the movie industry wants to suck every last dollar out of you to go to projects that fail horribly because the director thought it was a good movie So that extra billion just makes bad directors feel better

[Dyne]

I can only see the revenue from this as minimal. My impression is that the people who do download movies are probably the same crowd that rents movies and wouldn't buy movies anyways.

Just another company that wants to profit on royalties.

And speaking of which, this is mid-late in the DVD generation. People should realize that BluRay and HD-DVD formats will have next-to-no piracy when they get released. But I don't see any companies putting all their eggs into the next gen basket right away.

I say, put the eggs in the basket instead of wasting your money on yet another piracy protection program, unless it's 100% teenager-proof. This 97 is a pretty number on paper to PR people, but movies will still get ripped and widespread. The wide-spreading may just take a little longer, but with the way fileshare keeps growing, I doubt it.

[Blackmane]

This will stop non-hackers who just want to have a movie for free and don't have any knowledge in that area, but beyond that....

Pshh, I love when companies try to claim that their software or technology is "virtually unbreakable" because there is always somebody waiting to prove them wrong.

[thatmariolover]

Originally Posted by Dyne

And speaking of which, this is mid-late in the DVD generation. People should realize that BluRay and HD-DVD formats will have next-to-no piracy when they get released. But I don't see any companies putting all their eggs into the next gen basket right away.

That's exactly what I was thinking as I was reading the article. This is great, it should be out right about the time I invest in HD-DVD.