View Full Version : Microsoft to "end piracy"
DrMachine
10-02-2005, 06:50 PM
http://www.cinematical.com/2005/10/02/microsoft-kills-blockbuster-for-good/ (http://www.cinematical.com/2005/10/02/microsoft-kills-blockbuster-for-good/)
Microsoft Kills Blockbuster for Good
Posted Oct 2, 2005, 3:35 PM ET by Martha Fischer
Though there has been talk for ages now about single-play DVDs (they sound cooler when you imagine them self-destructing after playing in a puff of smoke), word now comes that Microsoft is actually ready to mass-produce the things and hopes to make them available some time next year. The discs, which will sell for about $5, will ideally replace the rental market, thereby enabling studios to limit piracy. (A similar technology is available now on a small scale and is being tried by some studios with their Oscar screeners.) Since you'll still be able to buy normal DVDs, I'm a little unclear on how this will totally end the copying of discs, but I guess it'll at least get more expensive.
The problem for consumers (apart from the death of your DVD counterfeiting business) is that the new discs will require new players, which will in turn bring Bill Gates a little closer to ruling the world. No word yet on how much the players will cost, or on the suicide watch at Blockbuster HQ.
Petey Parker
10-02-2005, 06:54 PM
You need a new player to play these and they only work once? People will be beating down the door for these!
kaptain
10-02-2005, 06:54 PM
I think the wetdream for content providers is pay per play. if they could devise a way to ensure that they received a small payment every time a movie, song, or game is played they'd do it...
Thudpucker
10-02-2005, 06:54 PM
No way am I buying a special player so I can buy these one play discs. Fuck that.
Smokinblues
10-02-2005, 06:55 PM
this has been tried before, and it failed miserably.
Movie Maker
10-02-2005, 06:55 PM
wow.
Bandit Chimera
10-02-2005, 06:58 PM
One: this is one of the single most wasteful things i've ever heard of (play the shit once then throw it the fuck away...great idea)
Two: I ain't buying a dvd player just for this shit.
Three: Thats retarded, lets ruin a whole business, the rental buisness, that lets us renew used products to be more f'in wasteful.
Wow ... :no:
Thudpucker
10-02-2005, 07:03 PM
The best thing about DVD rental stores is buying used DVDs. I hit those 3 for 25.00 sales that Blockbuster does all the time. And now that they do the unlimited rentals for 25.00 a month, keep them as long as you want or bring them back ever day for more?
Yea, I like Blockbuster just fine.
Flonk
10-02-2005, 07:05 PM
I don't see this ever catching on ever.
Need_A_Kiss
10-02-2005, 07:05 PM
The problem will be that is this format gets wide support from the industries, then there really wont be much of a choice for us consumers.
cmoney
10-02-2005, 07:19 PM
Yeah, because DIVX caught on so fast...
cmoney
10-02-2005, 07:21 PM
The problem will be that is this format gets wide support from the industries, then there really wont be much of a choice for us consumers.
Sure there will. If it ever gets to that point, I believe consumers will finally put their feet down and say no. It's a line that I don't believe we'd tolerate the crossing of. Then again, it'd be rash of me to overestimate peoples' unwillingness to be exploited...
Gavin
10-02-2005, 07:22 PM
I can't image this becoming the new thing.
How many times do companies need to try this and fail before they realize that they'll NEVER WORK!!! It doesn't matter how good it sounds on paper. People do not want these things!!!
And it won't have any effect on piracy.
DrMachine
10-02-2005, 07:24 PM
Sure there will. If it ever gets to that point, I believe consumers will finally put their feet down and say no. It's a line that I don't believe we'd tolerate the crossing of. Then again, it'd be rash of me to overestimate peoples' unwillingness to be exploited...
I think we'll see people not buying into this bullshit long before it catches on
Smokinblues
10-02-2005, 07:28 PM
people like their dvds. The studios like the money they get from dvds. also notice there isn't a source listed. rumors about microsoft are always a little dubious.
Shepherd
10-02-2005, 07:31 PM
Yeah, this sounds like shit. Plus, I'm sure the code that allows them to be played only once will be broken in short order.
R
NickT
10-02-2005, 07:31 PM
Yeah, because DIVX caught on so fast...
http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/1999/19990618l.jpg
DrMachine
10-02-2005, 07:38 PM
Yeah, this sounds like shit. Plus, I'm sure the code that allows them to be played only once will be broken in short order.
R
it's not code (optical discs for the most part aren't easily writeable), it's discs that get "burned" when played once by the laser...then the can't physically be read again
Flonk
10-02-2005, 08:25 PM
How many times do companies need to try this and fail before they realize that they'll NEVER WORK!!! It doesn't matter how good it sounds on paper. People do not want these things!!!
And it won't have any effect on piracy.
If anything it'll make piracy more common.
Simps
10-02-2005, 08:33 PM
Who would pay $5 to "own" something that dies after one viewing? Hell, with Blockbuster I can rent it for $3-4 and watch it as many times as I want in 5 days.
I can't even concieve of paying for this. Unless they're released the same time a movie opens in theatres, but even then, I'd rather watch it on a big screen.
Smokinblues
10-02-2005, 08:37 PM
Who would pay $5 to "own" something that dies after one viewing? Hell, with Blockbuster I can rent it for $3-4 and watch it as many times as I want in 5 days.
I can't even concieve of paying for this. Unless they're released the same time a movie opens in theatres, but even then, I'd rather watch it on a big screen.
that might be the only context it makes sense. lot of talk about same day movie/dvd releases being tested soon. but i still don't see a disposable dvd thing ever succeeding.
DrMachine
10-02-2005, 08:42 PM
that might be the only context it makes sense. lot of talk about same day movie/dvd releases being tested soon. but i still don't see a disposable dvd thing ever succeeding.
that certainly is enticing...that would be the only way it would make sense...but it would have to be cheap (the player) and it could kill the movie theatre industry
Shepherd
10-02-2005, 09:22 PM
it's not code (optical discs for the most part aren't easily writeable), it's discs that get "burned" when played once by the laser...then the can't physically be read again
Hmmm, I see. Still, I bet there will be a way around it in short order.
R
Haborym
10-02-2005, 10:15 PM
I think the industry is underestimating consumers. DVD has created a huge market of people willing to buy their favorite films, larger than VHS ever did.
Now manufacturers think that people are going to replace their technology just to help them stop piracy? Not going to happen.
And if they think they're going to force consumers to do that, I'd say they're wrong. Maybe in 10 years, but people are going to be fucking furious if the DVD players they buy this Christmas won't play the DVD's they buy in 5 years.
jza1218
10-02-2005, 11:11 PM
What the hell would the benefit be for the consumers?
I see Microsoft having a surplus on coasters in the near future...
chris page
10-02-2005, 11:58 PM
as a pirate myself, there's only one thing to say about this nonsense..
"arrrrrgh!"
Sir Erudite Gav
10-03-2005, 01:59 AM
as a pirate myself, there's only one thing to say about this nonsense..
"arrrrrgh!"
Exactly, where were they in the 17th century?
Smokinblues
10-05-2005, 06:28 AM
this story is a hoax.
http://www.edbott.com/weblog/?p=1061 (http://www.edbott.com/weblog/?p=1061)
On the Internet, a hoax can spread just as fast as a genuine news story. That’s the lesson from the bogus story published in an obscure UK business magazine yesterday that claimed Microsoft is about to unleash a new single-play DVD format.
Paul Thurrott reprinted the story without giving credit to the original source. Bink.nu picked up the story from Paul and reprinted it verbatim.
Techdirt commented on the original story, with attribution but without any fact-checking. So did John Walkenbach.
The funny part? There’s no truth to the story. None whatsoever. In fact, the original story sparked a flurry of e-mails around Microsoft as people in different groups tried to figure out where on earth this story came from. After the head-scratching stopped, a spokesmen told me, they concluded that the story was not true. “It appears to be confusing an existing feature within Windows Media DRM that allows for single-play of promotional digital material. This has been an option for content owners to use for some time for the Windows Media format - it does not apply to MPEG2 content found on DVDs.”
Downloaded content in the Windows Media format can be DRM-protected, and if the content owner wants to limit it to a specific number of plays, or to set an expiration date for the content, that’s an option, just as it is with subscription-based music services. But it’s only one of many options, and it has nothing to do with DVDs.
So, case closed. The single-play DVD format can go back to the 1990s, where it rightfully belongs.
artimoff
10-05-2005, 06:32 AM
If anything it'll make piracy more common.
I know, it makes me want to download something right now. :twisted:
Gavin
10-05-2005, 06:35 AM
aahhhhhhhhhhrrrrrrggggggggg
No one messes with Steve the Pirate.
Flonk
10-05-2005, 06:39 AM
aahhhhhhhhhhrrrrrrggggggggg
No one messes with Steve the Pirate.
Except Reavers.
Taxman
10-05-2005, 06:40 AM
Is it piracy or privacy that Microsoft would most like to end?
t00lverine
10-05-2005, 06:51 AM
I'd like to add my angry statement as well. STUPID FUCKIN' MICROSOFT! Thanks, I feel much better now.
People, stop complaining about Microsoft. The story was a hoax.
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