This DVD will self destruct...

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That's right! Forget about running your DVD rental back on late Friday nights, in the upcoming years DVD rentals will now destroy themselves! You read it here first:

MGM Studios used self-destructing DVDs with music videos and trailers to promote the new James Bond movie, "Die Another Day." Movie critics were told the DVD would self-destruct in 36 hours — a nod to 007's gadget-providing character Q.
Destructable DVDs were also used at MTVs recent Latin American awards show in Miami.
A disposable DVD begins life as an ordinary DVD. It is then coated with an epoxy and light cured, leaving a rough surface which makes the disk unreadable. Next an acidic polymer is used to smooth out the curface of the disk. Special dye in the mix is opaque only when in an acidic environment. An additional coat is applied to neutralize the acidity of the previous layer. The dye becomes clear and the disk is readable. When the disk is removed from packaging the neutralizing coat begins to evaporate and eventually the dye becomes opaque, preventing the disk from being read. The disk's life span can range from a half hour to two weeks depending on the thickness of the top coat. Spent disks can be returned to be re-coated for further use.
Click to expand...

Well? What are your thoughts on this? :)
 
My bet is that it wont fly. Do any of you remember DIVX? No not the codec but the distribution scheme that was adobted by circut city in the late 90s? The basic premise was that you payed only a few dollars for any dvd but then had to pay a few dollars every couple times you watched it. The whole thing was a big failure, no one bought them and a lot of money was lost.

Now this is a little different, I don't know but if the self destructing dvds don't require new specialized DVD players like DIVX did and enough movie companies get behind it then maybe it might just get some market share initially. But long term I don't see how this could work, would you want to waste gas and time running back and forth to best buy to pick up another copy of a DVD you already have owned?

I also see this leading to an increase in bootlegging and illegal distribution of copied DVDs. If the public doesn't want to deal with the movie industries stupid practices they will just do what they did to the RIAA and start getting more and more of their movies online.
 
This technology is about eight years too old. DVD burners will be mainstream in the next year or so so whats going to stop people from getting these destructing DVDs and burning them. Who cares if it only lasts for a few days, burning them to a normal DVD will make them last forever.

What I would like to see is foldable DVDs.
 
itanium: foldable optical media exists right now, its just a tad expensive to mass produce at high data density storage levels like that of a DVD.
 
Hmm... So the race has started to copy the things BEFORE they self destruct, eh?
 
Whenever the entertainment industry gets too ambitious in securing their profits (by investing in these anti-piracy technologies), the resulting loopholes that consumers find will only generate a backlash.
 
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