Macrovision: Legal DVD Copying On Deck

[admin]

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/newstex/IBD-0001-19667568.htm

[Chewy]

"the times, they are a changing"

the movie industry cannot ignore lessons learned from the audio industry and broadband

the key points seemed to be revolving around providing legal alternatives to maximize
revenue

[drfsupercenter]

If I make a copy, can't I recopy the copy as many times as I want? I'd like to see them try and encrypt a backup... even if the original has some hard-set limit.

[admin]

A digital watermarking system might be introduced, where if a copy ends up online, they'll know which computer made the copying. I think this is a reasonable limitation, since I think most people make copies for personal use, not uploading (although you'll have to be careful when giving copies to friends, just in case they intend to upload it somewhere).

There will be increased prices for "copyable" versions of movies I think. It's ironic that studios will then be able to make money from DVD rips.

[beachbumm33]

seems like that's all it's about $$$$$$$$

[drfsupercenter]

So if I convert one of those to an AVI it will have a watermark??
I'm sure if it's one of those "invisible" watermarks that uploading sites can recognize, that can be removed by making a new AVI that copies the video and audio stream... or something.

Or we can just stick to the current backup method.

[admin]

Not a visible watermark, but similar to the "DRM free" tracks on iTunes, where there is information stored in the file that can be used to track down who made the original copy. Basically a digital fingerprint. The file would still be using DRM/encryption to make it hard to remove this fingerprint. Don't know what kind of identification will be stored in this situation, nothing really personal, but enough to track down the computer that made the copy.

I wonder if something like this was available now, and that Macrovision/AACS made a software that allows you to copy DVDs/HD discs easily and legally, but with a digital fingerprint imprinted into the copy, would the majority of people still bother with rip tools? If a legal tool was available, then it would be harder to make the moral argument in regards to still supporting "unofficial" rip tools, although the protection of privacy might be an issue (but then the counter argument would be, if you are concerned about the identification information imprinted in a digital copy being viewed by others, simply make sure the copy is not shared with people you don't trust).

[admin]

In a perfect world (from a content holder point of view) where every device is connected to the net, you would simply register online which devices "belong" to you. The next time you use that device, you will be prompted to accept this registeration or not (to prevent other people registering your devices), or to reset the registeration (for a limited number of times, for things like when you sell your equipment to someone else).

Copies you make of content you purchased will only be playable on your registered devices - a check is made online during playback to see if your device is registered to playback the content. You would be able to add up to a limited number of devices (more than enough for most people), and this would prevent copies being distributed, and at the same time, ensure you can make unlimited copies for your own personal use.

A device cannot be registered twice, so this would also prevent you from sharing with your friends and family (assuming they want to register their own devices too).

[drfsupercenter]

Not a visible watermark, but similar to the "DRM free" tracks on iTunes, where there is information stored in the file that can be used to track down who made the original copy. Basically a digital fingerprint. The file would still be using DRM/encryption to make it hard to remove this fingerprint. Don't know what kind of identification will be stored in this situation, nothing really personal, but enough to track down the computer that made the copy.

I took DRM-free iTunes songs and saved them into 256kbps mp3. I'd like to see their "watermark" make its way into my mp3... especially since I used non-Apple software to do it. That's what I mean about the DVDs, you could do something similar.

[admin]

The way digital watermark has been talked about in regards to AACS (Blu-ray/HD DVD), is that they will make players that will only playback files that have the digital watermark in them ... so if you remove them, the files won't play anymore. The issue with this is that home made files won't play either.

In the end, as I mentioned above, if a simple method if provided by the content providers to copy stuff (but with identification information), then a lot of people will use that instead of a more complicated method that removes ID info. Of course, having the ID in the file could cause other problems, such as if the file was stolen and uploaded, then you would be responsible for piracy even though you didn't upload the file.

[drfsupercenter]

So you're saying we'll have to buy all new DVD players in order to play DVDs now?!

[admin]

My post above was in regards to AACS, which is used on Blu-ray/HD DVD. They can't change the DVD specs anymore, as existing players will have to work with these kinds of discs. I don't know how they will introduce legal copying, perhaps they will just encode some info into the copied file with your personal information, but they can't stop you from removing it. Most likely, they will just offer you a legal alternative that costs a bit more, that's all. I say they should forget about DVDs and start thinking about Blu-ray/HD DVD, and how to introduce managed copy for it. If they make some tool that allows you to make a legal DVD quality version of HD movies (and maybe even iPod/PSP versions too), or even have the DVD/portable versions on the disc that you can copy and burn yourself, I think that might be interesting, even if it costs a bit more to buy the disc.