# The End Of DVD Piracy



## ksv (May 31, 2003)

"Technology News
Thursday,  May 29 12:01 AM EDT

Sony Unveils New Self-Destructive DVD Player
By Brian Briggs and Christa Morse

Tokyo - Many industry analysts have wondered which way Sony would go in the
copyright protection debate. Sony manufactures both hardware, which is
harmed by piracy controls, and entertainment, which is helped by piracy
controls. A recent release of a self-destructive DVD player shows that the
entertainment division is winning that internal argument.

"Large amounts of pirated material were hopefully destroyed in the blaze,"
said MPAA officials.
"Copy protection has been foiled too easily by pirates, and we need to do
something more effective," said Sony Entertainment vice-president Harold
Wang. "Self-destructive DVDs have been tried, but rejected by consumers. We
feel that consumers will embrace the self-destructive DVD players, because
it gives them that Mission Impossible I've-got-the-latest-gadget feeling. We
even have the player say 'This DVD player will self-destruct in 10
seconds.'"

Wang addressed the safety concerns of destroying a DVD player: "Sure there
are safety issues, but most homes are equipped with smoke detectors these
days, and are chock full of pirated material which would be destroyed in the
blaze. OK, their house might burn down, but isn't that a small price to pay
to combat piracy?"

Instead of the standard low-powered laser most DVD players are equipped
with, the SD-DVD player from Sony has a high-powered laser which will
eventually burn through the DVD and ignite the highly flammable material
from which the player is made.

Other DVD player manufacturers such as Panasonic and Hitachi also announced
self-destructive player. "I've seen the Sony model and it slowly catches
flame and burns up. Our model is fitted with a small amount of plastic
explosives which causes a much more dramatic destruction. Consumers will
feel like they're in the movie when that thing goes off," said Ronald Misuki
of Panasonic.

Hollywood applauds the move. Chairman of the MPAA Jack Valenti said, "Not
having a DVD player makes it absolutely impossible to view pirated content,
which makes copying a DVD entirely useless. Granted, it also makes watching
the damn thing impossible, but we don't care if you can't see the content,
just as long as you buy brand new, legitimate copies from your local or
online store."

DVD rental chains Blockbuster and Hollywood video expect to reap a large
benefit from consumers who forget to eject a DVD before the player
self-destructs."


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## chevy (May 31, 2003)

When will we create a self destructing OS ? I don't know, something like if you steal the Office Suite made the OS owner, the CPU clock is accelerated until it is burned.


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## JohnnyV (May 31, 2003)

Ummm...right...I hope this is a joke


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## Giaguara (May 31, 2003)

after seeing the copy "protected" cds, here come the dvds... get your marker pens ready, guys


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## ksv (May 31, 2003)

I love how this article is written. It starts as a pretty innocent "another copy protection scheme" article, then it just gets more and more absurd. I didn't get the joke before the smoke detector part


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## toast (May 31, 2003)

Chevy's got it right ! 
Self-destructible programs are the future.

(Read with HAL 9000's voice)
"You-entered-a-bad-serial-number. In-a-couple-of-seconds-this-computer-will-be-no-more. You-better-run-,-human."


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## ksv (May 31, 2003)

> _Originally posted by toast _
> *(Read with HAL 9000's voice)
> "You-entered-a-bad-serial-number. In-a-couple-of-seconds-this-computer-will-be-no-more. You-better-run-,-human." *



That would rather be read with Apple Speech's Depressed voice. HAL9000 is an intelligent being and would never blow himself up


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## Darkshadow (May 31, 2003)

I dunno, HAL9000 was pretty wacko....if it decided that self destructing was the only way to get rid of a pesky human, it might have.

I'd guess self-destructing modems would be the next step after this one.  Download illegal software/files?  Too bad!


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## AdmiralAK (Jun 3, 2003)

hmmm.....
The only beef I have with DVDs is the region encoding.... I have no problem purchasing, but I  dont wanna buy 3 different players to see DVDs bought from 3 different regions!


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## mdnky (Jun 6, 2003)

> _Originally posted by chevy _
> *When will we create a self destructing OS ? *



Have you never used Windows before?


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## Arden (Jun 6, 2003)

Johnny:  You think this is a joke?  This is a perfectly legitimate venture.  I know three people already whose DVD players have self-destructed.


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## wiz (Jun 6, 2003)

LOL


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## doemel (Jun 17, 2003)

_hmmm.....
The only beef I have with DVDs is the region encoding.... I have no problem purchasing, but I  dont wanna buy 3 different players to see DVDs bought from 3 different regions!  _


well, that's why they hacked those, too! I find it particularly annoying since I'm travelling back and forth between Canada and Switzerland, always taking my PowerBook along. At least for portables they could have made an exception. But, no, they'd rather give the "hacking industry" another problem to chew on. Anyway, thanks to a "cheese eating surrender monkey" from Paris (I believe) I can enjoy the best from both continents 


*Disclaimer: My post is not intended as an encouragement to use hacked firmware updates. And besides, you could render your drive useless by doing so, so I won't recommend it anyway.*


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## Arden (Jun 17, 2003)

Wow... somehow I completely skipped your disclaimer as I was reading your post, and I didn't see it until the second looking!  Weird.

Laptops are, by nature, portable and relocatable, and they shouldn't have region limitations since they are constantly traveling between regions; I agree with you there.  However, the media industry doesn't give a flying fryke what kind of computer you're using, or DVD player; they just want to make sure they get their way, no if's, and's, or asses.


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## doemel (Jun 18, 2003)

Well, I'd say: Treat your customers as you want to be treated by them.


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## Arden (Jun 21, 2003)

If only everybody actually considered that and followed its wise preaching.

If only companies didn't make half-assed products that were liable to break or be bug-ridden, and actually did thorough testing and assessment to determine how the customers would react before they went to market.


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## scruffy (Jun 22, 2003)

what about videolan?  I thought VLC could play DVDs from any region, by bypassing much of the DVD player's firmware, and just reading raw data from the disk.

This does mean that it takes more CPU work to watch a DVD, so if you have an old computer like mine, you might find it's underpowered for videolan.  On my G3 300 the video is quite skippy...


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## Trip (Aug 18, 2003)

First of all: who on earth would buy a DVD player if they knew it would explode? Second: the government wouldn't allow it. Heck: carry it on a plane with a portable screen and kill all the people onboard sounds like a good idea to me. And finally third: FAKE!


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## ksv (Aug 18, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Trip _
> *First of all: who on earth would buy a DVD player if they knew it would explode? Second: the government wouldn't allow it. Heck: carry it on a plane with a portable screen and kill all the people onboard sounds like a good idea to me. And finally third: FAKE!  *



I don't know what you're talking about


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## Trip (Aug 18, 2003)

Tushay.


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## Arden (Aug 24, 2003)

Or why you're reviving this thread...


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