New Steps To Protect DVDs In Piracy War

edited February 2005 in Science & Tech
Macrovision Corp. today plans to unveil technology that it claims can block 97% of the DVD-copying software that pirates use without interfering with a DVD's playability or picture quality.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company is just the first of several firms expected to roll out new anti-copying technology that has been years in the making. The main challenge has been finding a way to alter discs without rendering them unplayable on the more than 200 million DVD players already in homes around the world.

For Hollywood studios, the technology could help wring even more revenue from DVDs, which have become a leading source of profit. According to Macrovision, unauthorized DVD copying costs the studios about $1 billion out of the $27.5 billion that analyst firm Screen Digest estimated they collected from worldwide DVD sales and rentals last year.

And for Macrovision and other anti-piracy companies, the potential market 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, which reported $128 million in sales last year.
Didn't these companies learn from past experiences? -KF

Source: LA Times

Comments

  • CammanCamman NEW! England Icrontian
    edited February 2005
    expected to roll out new anti-copying technology that has been years in the making.

    Unfortunately for them, it will have been years in the making and days or weeks in the breaking. All the major DVD copying programs will be updated shortly after this comes out to handle the new encryption, this stuff is foolish.
  • ArmoArmo Mr. Nice Guy Is Dead,Only Aqua Remains Member
    edited February 2005
    around and around we go
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited February 2005
    ...unauthorized DVD copying costs the studios about $1 billion out of the $27.5 billion that analyst firm Screen Digest estimated they collected from worldwide DVD sales and rentals last year.

    I'll bet that relies on the assumption that every person who watches a priated copy would have bought or rented the DVD if there wasn't a pirated copy available. I for one, can do without. But if the movie's free, why not watch it?
    Camman wrote:
    Unfortunately for them, it will have been years in the making and days or weeks in the breaking.

    So true!
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