Self-Destructing DVD's Coming Soon 798
BrianH writes "Looks like a close cousin of everybody's favorite self-destructing video format is making a comeback. Four years after Circuit City and its Hollywood backers pulled the plug on the self-expiring DVD concept, FlexPlay Technologies has introduced the EZ-D...a 48-hour self-expiring DVD disk. The difference? This time around you don't need a special player, and "time extensions" are no longer an option. It looks like Buena Vista has already signed on to the format, so Disney, Mirimax, and all of their other companies should be using this soon. As if that wasn't bad enough, it looks like this works for music and software disks too!" Here's an older story on these technologies.
Mission Impossible (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Mission Impossible (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Mission Impossible (Score:3, Insightful)
Meanwhile the rest of us will have a problem paying $15 for a movie we can get a "2 day pass" on.
So:
1. Rippers not foiled
2. Home buyers irritated they pay good money and don't "get" the movie.
Sounds like a piss poor excursion for the record industry.
Re:Mission Impossible (Score:5, Interesting)
Down the street from me is a big vending machine/kiosk type thing that purports to rent DVDs. I havent been able to try it because it seems to require a discover card and the signup cards never seem to be there. But from looking at it it seems to have 20 movies or so available 24 hours a day for a 3 day rental.
I am guessing that is the type of thing they want to do with expiring DVD's. If they sold 48 hour dvd rentals at airports or hotels i'm sure i would use the service from time to time. And the company and the buyer dont need to worry about where they will be in 48 hours to return it. Takes all the difficulty out of running a vending machine based rental service.
Of course it doesnt seem like a good replacement for blockbuster, i agree with many posters that said the last thing we need is the entire world throwing out every movie they rent. But then again there are disposable cell phones for sale that serve a niche but we arent all throwing away our telephones after every call.
Re:Mission Impossible (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm not exactly an environmentalist, but everything is going throw-away it seems. Swifter-type one-use dusters and mops, paper plates (don't recall the brand) now advertising that you have more time for family if you use their product and throw it away--this commercial complete with a shot of Mom doing dishes and looking over her shoulder to Dad with two kids laughing over a game or similar group activity. Disposable DVDs...sheesh.
I remember when Compact Discs first came out; one of the promotional ideas was that it used less plastic than LPs (that's "vinyl" or "records" for you young 'uns) and cassette tapes, yet they packaged them in jewel cases several times the CD's thickness and large boxes over twice the height of the jewel case. WTF? I guess they were afraid of them being stolen. The boxes eventually shrunk but the large jewel cases are still prevalent.
Come to think of it, my Mom made my sister and I do the dishes while she and Dad had all the fun.
Re:Mission Impossible (Score:4, Interesting)
also in their FAQ: http://www.flexplay.com/faq.html#recycle [flexplay.com]
Re:Mission Impossible (Score:5, Interesting)
However, if I can toss the disk in my city recycling bin that might not be too bad...
Re:Mission Impossible (Score:5, Insightful)
Most of their income comes from late fee's.
If there's no incentive to bring the movie back, they have no recourse to charge a late fee, bye bye extra income
Environment? Market? (Score:4, Interesting)
Okay, lets assume this isn't a hamfisted attempt to push DRM down the throat of Joe Sixpack. While all these useless DVD discs pile up in the local landfill, someone out there is getting a pizza delivered.
I wonder what's best for the long-run? A peapod-like video store or 48-hour DVDs? You still have to drive out to the store to buy the DVD in the first place.
Also, video stores makes a lot, if not most of, their money off late fees. I wouldn't expect these things to be that much cheaper than the offerings at your local video store.
Also, where exactly is the market for this? People too lazy to goto the video store AND who also don't have pay-per-view AND don't want to subscribe to NetFlix? Yeah right, I'm sure these 800 people are going to love DRM-DVD.
Re:Environment? Market? (Score:5, Insightful)
And what's with all the yelling about DRM? I hate overly-restrictive DRM as much as anyone, but how is an essentially normal DVD that just stops playing after 48 hours any worse than a normal DVD that you have to give back to Blockbuster tomorrow? DivX, with all its nonstandard technology, "activation" crap, etc. was ugly. But this EZ-D thing you can play in any DVD player, there's no one tracking what you're doing with it...what's the big deal? It's not like these are going to replace real DVDs in the market. This technology is made to target renters, not buyers...
DennyK
Re:Mission Impossible (Score:3, Interesting)
Aw crap, why'd you have to go and say that?? Now if it fails FlexPlay Technologies will blame it on DVD rippers, and it'll be another reason for makers of DVD-copying software to be sued [slashdot.org], and somehow the RIAA will stick their big nose in.
Re:Mission Impossible (Score:3, Insightful)
hehehe As soon as I read the article I thought of that.
The thing that really pisses me off with this is it's yet another disposable consumable. AKA more waste for the friggin' landfills. I mean what, exactly, is wrong with the current DVD format? I can understand the use of these for, say, screeners for video stores, and awards consideration etc... but again, this is yet another ridiculous idea to rank next to the disposable cellphone.
Resources on this planet are not unlimited,
Ways to crack it (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Ways to crack it (Score:5, Funny)
Poke. Poke. Poke. Poke.
No more movies.
Mwa ha ha ha.
Re:Ways to crack it (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Ways to crack it (Score:5, Informative)
The story [yahoo.com] I saw this morning seemed to imply that there were two color changes involved. One, when you removed it from the envelope, to make it readable, and another 48 hours later making it unreadable again. (On rereading it, they may have meant "undecypherable to the laser" where they wrote "impenetrable to the laser"; you know how those non-techies are with language: so there may be only one color change.)
That said, maybe you could extend the life somewhat by keeping the disk in the freezer between plays. But you know people will just copy 'em to the hard drive instead of bothering.
Re:Ways to crack it (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Ways to crack it (Score:5, Interesting)
"After 48 hours of impeccable play, the DVD will no longer be readable by the DVD player". 48 hours of impeccable play implies that the reaction takes 48 hours to even get started. Somehow, I suspect that the quality will degrade rapidly as the deadline aproaches. And if it does, will we be able to claim false advertising? If the reaction is really air based, then what happens if the air has a high concentration of the reactant? That would make the DVD drcay more quikly. Would we be able to sue for our remaining few hours?
Re:Ways to crack it (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Ways to crack it (Score:5, Interesting)
A few things can be assumed. First off, the estimate of 48 hours is probably just that. If the movie only lasts 48 hours, or if it happens to last 80, then it was all just chance one way or the other.
I'm guessing they probably say 48 hours, because that is the minimum it could last. The point behind the movie is that it does decay, and it's not so much a matter of how long that decay actually takes.
Next, if the reaction happens actually because of contact with air, then it's safe to assume that it actually NEEDS constant exposure to that air to react. If that's the case, no problem. Gloss clearcoat will easily prevent the air from reacting and can be purchased in a spray can at any hardware store. I'm suspecting that if you buy one of these movies and place it label down and give it an even, clean, and complete cover of clearcoat, the reaction will probably stop.
Re:Ways to crack it (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Ways to crack it (Score:5, Interesting)
Then cover it with a layer of clear acrylic spray. There may be some vertical deviance, but most players are made to correct for up to somewhere between
Re:Ways to crack it (Score:5, Funny)
Then cover it with a layer of clear acrylic spray.
Thanks a lot, you insensitive clod! Now you've gone and made nitrogen and clear coat illegal circumvention technologies under the DMCA.
Now only criminals will have nitrogen and clear coat.
And I use them everday for, uh, um, medical reasons.
You don't need a vacuum (Score:5, Informative)
If the reactant is oxygen or nitrogen just place the dvd player in an open box with a piece of dry ice or another source of CO2. The CO2 is heaver than air so if you don't disturb it, the CO2 will stay in the box. If it's not O2 or N, bolt the box to the ceiling and fill it with helium.
Overkill much? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Ways to crack it (Score:4, Insightful)
I think this says a lot about how ripped off we are with regular DVD's. I mean this seems to be targetted at the rental market. It appears to be an additional process in the manufacturing (at least from skimming the article I got that impression), which will increase expense, and yet it appears these will be sold at rental prices...
Re:Ways to crack it (Score:5, Funny)
So what? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:So what? (Score:5, Insightful)
Is this really a problem for people who have access to DeCSS and a DVD burner?
I wouldn't say "problem"--I'd say "boon". Suppose your '48-hour DVD' is flawed and only lasts 46. Are you going to:
a) send it back with a friendly request for your remaining two hours, or
b) cheerfully use your backup copy?
And on the somewhat-more-illegal side, there's a definite advantage to a product you can 'rent' and never be expected to return--it's half as much hassle since you only have to go to the store once. (Unless you have to go back to return the discs, which might, according to the article, be reusable--but maybe that won't happen in the US, since America is so used to disposable appliances.) Good job preventing piracy, guys!
Re:So what? (Score:3, Interesting)
Now any shop, supermarket or garage, can get into the rental business.
Let me guess, the MPAA, or whoever doesn't mind technological advances that put other people out of business, but when it's them... well, the sky is falling.
Re:So what? (Score:5, Informative)
Remember though that DVDs require two decryption keys to work: one of which is stored in the player, and the other in a special area on the DVD. Blank DVDs have this key area zeroed out and can't record data on them, so unless you have a DVD press in your basement you can't make a true bit-for-bit copy which includes this vital key area. This is why decryption tools like DeCSS are necessary if you wish to copy CSS encoded DVDs on your computer.
Re:So what? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:So what? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:So what? (Score:4, Insightful)
It should be interesting to see how these effect the storage market and the film industry. Imagine a game that requires a CD that expires in 48 hours. How about a copy of Windows where the install disk fries itself after install? This combined with product activation would be a real pain in the ass.
Re:So what? (Score:5, Interesting)
>in 48 hours.
I imagine someone will buy it. If it is perceived as cheap ($2.00-$5.00 each time instead of $60.00 one time, works better in some people's reasoning). I wouldn't touch such a game.
>How about a copy of Windows where the install
>disk fries itself after install?
Whoever chooses to buy such a thing brings the consequences on himself. I'm not sure I see a problem really. In a way, I wish Microsoft hadn't been so willing to enable copying from the beginning. Had they made it difficult to copy windows install discs, we might have seen more competition in the OS market since 95. I often wonder if more people have Windows installs that are afoul of the license, than have completely legal installs. Some days I actually wonder if one person in ten who runs Windows even has an original install CD.
There are alternatives to Windows, but most people don't know it. If they can't afford Windows, they know they can get it free. If Microsoft actually made an effort to stop them getting it free, they would start to understand the value of the alternatives.
Film Industry (Score:5, Funny)
Hmm.. When I first read that, I misinterpreted your mention of the "film industry" to mean they'd use this as a plot point.
NEXT SUMMER.. IT'S JAMES BOND.. IN A RACE AGAINST TIME!
[M] James Bond, we need you to get this DVD to a scientist held prisoner in a North Korean jail!
[James Bond] Sounds too easy. What's the catch?
[M] You only have 48 hours-- before the DVD's copy-protection makes it disintegrate!
And of course james bond slams the dvd into the north korean prisoner's imac with 5 seconds left before the disk oxidizes or whatever, after which we get to see a tense moment while COPYING FILE appears on screen and a progress bar tries to outrun the dying DVD while the seconds tick down... will it be copied in time?
Find out, in
007: JAMES SCREWS SOME CHICKS AND THINGS BLOW UP
[[ This film is not yet rated ]]
No problem. (Score:5, Funny)
Great! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Great! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Great! (Score:3, Insightful)
Nobody would do such a thing. The DVD format is MPEG2, which is fairly old and inefficient. DivX5.x is 10 times as small, with a similar quality. So you do not need to restore it back to 7GB - all you need is to produce a 700 MB AVI file, and be happy. If you are really picky, make it larger, for two CDs. Any CD-R will do, and the download would be not too difficult (as if it's you who has to copy the bytes by han
Great, just great! (Score:5, Interesting)
I'll tell ya, the first thing I would do with such a thing is to back it up. Or better yet, I would just return it after it expires and tell them that it never worked right in the first place. It's not like they could prove otherwise.
Re:Great, just great! - uhh... (Score:3, Insightful)
"The first thing I will do is make an illegal copy, then I will return it and ask for my money back by lying and saying that it never worked."
I'm no angel, but what ever happened to ethics? Are we now so numb to piracy that stealing and lying are considered the "first thing" one would do?
Am I the only one who thinks there is something just a little cracked in the general conscience?
-sk
Re:Great, just great! - uhh... (Score:5, Funny)
Well...it works for the MPAA and RIAA. I guess the "consumers" are catching up. ;-)
Re:Great, just great! - uhh... (Score:3, Interesting)
And all it would take is for someone major like FOX News to do a story about how this "brand new technology" has been cracked 5 seconds out of the jewel case due to existing technology like DeCSS. That would blow the whole thing wide open and raise awareness on how to be able to keep what you pay for.
Poor xxAA, I we
Re:Great, just great! - uhh... (Score:4, Insightful)
Nope, I'm baffled by how acceptable theft has become. I know the big media companies are bad and want to restrict our rights, but that does not justify consuming their product and not paying for it.
The attitude of "if I can get away with it then I should do it" seems to be everywhere.
Re:Great, just great! - uhh... (Score:3, Interesting)
Copyright is basically a bargain between authors and the public (which includes authors as well).
The idea is that the public wants certain desires it has fulfilled more than they would be without any copyright law at all. It grants a certain extent of copyrights in order to come out ahead. The authors often like this as well, so it's win-win.
But there are two limits: First, that if the public isn't doing better than they otherwise would be, why should they have that copyright system? Shouldn't th
Re:Great, just great! - uhh... (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, as it is the public that is sacrificing something in order to grant a copyright to begin with, it doesn't seem inappropriate for them to be the only people that count.
However, you're underestimating what the public wants. Essentially there are two goals. First, the public wants works created. Original and derivative works. Second, the public wants to use them. And not to merely use them, but to be able to get them for free,
Re:Great, just great! - uhh... (Score:3, Insightful)
At this point, better only for the consumer shouldn't be a stretch. Don't forget that the original argument for copyright is to maximize the value of the public domain. By encouraging authors to produce works that will later enter the public domain and benefit everyone, that is. From the current state of the laws, we could back all the way out to registered copyrights with one extension and your argument is still valid, but jus
Re:Great, just great! - uhh... (Score:3, Insightful)
More still were created without thought to copyright - Michaelangelo, Leonardo, Bach etc were paid to produce works of art, copyright wasn't an issue, but there was profit. Some of the most valuable paintings didn't get the painter any money -
Re:Great, just great! - uhh... (Score:3, Insightful)
I pay for t-shirts, cds, tickets, etc to support local, unsigned bands. But when it comes to the major media companies, I'm going to play their game until they either play fairly or die. I prefer the latter.
They want to hike up the price for CDs to rates so high even the FTC can't stand it? No problem; I'll just make
In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:In other news... (Score:3, Interesting)
Cool idea for rentals (Score:5, Insightful)
The solution is scavenger robots, that search for used-up dvds =)
"Hey give that back! I was using that as a coaster! GNggghhhh!!"
48 hours huh? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:48 hours huh? (Score:4, Funny)
They're doing you a favor! (Score:5, Funny)
Open Season (Score:5, Insightful)
Somebody tell me again how this reduces the impulse to bootleg? They might as well just sell the nicely-printed cover art, and let people get the bits from their friends, or wherever. (Maybe they can get AOL to send them out.)
Re:Open Season (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Open Season (Score:3, Insightful)
What about DOA's (Score:5, Interesting)
Expiration (Score:5, Funny)
This is great news... (Score:3, Redundant)
Trying to put rental places out of business? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why? Rental places typically buy a certian number of new copies and rent them out repeatedly, after a few rentals the disc is paid for and it is pure profit on the disc after that, especially when you factor in the real money maker, late fees. When the movie is no longer a hot rental, they'll then just sell off their excess copies as pre-owned DVDs.
With the self destructing DVD, rental places will continuously have to replace their stock. They will not be able to charge late fees, nor will they be able to sell excess copies they've already made money off of. Ultimately, the rental place will no longer even be necessary since you'll likely be able to buy the destructable disc at any retail outlet or direct from the company for $2 a pop.
Re:Trying to put rental places out of business? (Score:5, Insightful)
We're always saying the music industry doesn't have any right to keep making money with an obsolete business model after technology has supersceded it, and that if they continue to stick with it then they deserve to die, even if it worked in the past. Well, the same thing goes for rental places. If technology comes along and puts them out of business, well, too bad. They have no fundamental right to remain.
Re:Trying to put rental places out of business? (Score:5, Insightful)
Excellent point.
And just imagine what happens when the public gets used to this crap: the studios permanently end the sale of DVD's and slowly inch up the pricing on these self-destructing ones. There you'll have it, the pay-per-play business model they so desire.
That would also throw a fat wrench in the whole Fair Use/DVD copying argument...right now, we are entitled to make backups of our DVD's since we have purchsed them. But once you can no longer buy a DVD that will last more than 48 hours, what argument do you have that you should be allowed to back it up? Sadly, none...it's going to be gone in two days anyway.
And I'm not even going to go into the issue of the waste this system would produce. I guess the MPAA's five-year plan is to have a worthless DVD sitting next to every worthless AOL CD in every landfill across America. Someone just shoot me now.
Not really (Score:3, Informative)
At (for example) GBP60 for a new movie on VHS (as Rainman was on it's release), the tape has to be rented 120 times at GBP2 just to break even on the purchase price - that's every night for 3 months - to say nothing of the store overhead.
Now add to this the fact that you can never have just *one* copy of a new release on the shelf, or your customers will go elsewhere.
This is why your corner video store HAS to charge late fees,
I think it's outstanding! (Score:5, Interesting)
You wouldn't need a membership, leave a deposit, have a valid credit card, nothing. You could feed the kiosk cash and out comes the DVD. You take it home, watch it, then put it in for recycling.
It even works better than the Netflix-style thing, because you shouldn't have availability issues as you do know with Netflix. Instead, you can order from Netflix (or heck, from Amazon or RentAmovieTodayOrSomething.com) and it'll show up.
I'd love to be order them in batches at a time. I can easily think of 10 movies I'd like to have around the house, not worry about it, and when I travel, or am stuck home sick, they are already here and ready to watch.
And nobody cares that they are just sitting for months at my place.
Steve
Re:I think it's outstanding! (Score:3, Funny)
Not gonna work. Just think of how pissed off you get when your US$0.60 candy bar gets stuck in the coils and fails to drop...think of how hard you rock and beat that machine. The DVD machine wouldn't last a day.
Nobody cares about polution? (Score:5, Insightful)
It seems the polution comments are not getting modded up. Why? How many billions of these things are going to be produced? Where does plastic come from for the most part (hint - we just had a war over this stuff)? And recycling? Just how easy is it separate the thin metal film from the plastic? Besides that, if these things are reactive to air - the article mentions that they begin to expire as soon as their opened - that would suggest some sort of strong plastic/foil packaging.
Scrap the crap - just put it up for download.
Re:Nobody cares about polution? (Score:5, Insightful)
In my household, we go through a couple of good-sized garbage bags a week. Even if we rented fifty movies every week it would hardly make a noticeable addition to our trash output. Even if you only count the nondegradable trash, an average movie watcher's rental consumption will not come close to touching the amount of other stuff they already throw away.
Suicidal DVD's (Score:5, Funny)
So, I oblige. *Inserts DVD into DVD-R*
I don't call it ripping...I call it saving lives, one movie at a time.
The Stakes are Open (Score:3, Interesting)
No really. If it's a software thing, shouldn't be too hard. If it's physical, like reacting to a catalyst, there is most likely some way to treat the discs so that they will remain usable longer...
Great! (Score:5, Insightful)
More disposable crap to fill up the landfills with. I'm sure glad our kids are going to have to solve the problem of a throwaway society.
I guess it'd be too much to ask them to make the discs out of something degradeable or to include a mailer for recycling - but instead, they place the burden on the consumer to recycle the discs by asking us to mail the discs in off our own volition. Something I'm sure we all have time to do.
In other words, these discs will NEVER get recycled.
Seriously, as the alpha-geek crowd, we should do our part to dissuade everyone we know from even thinking of buying these.
They keep missing the point. (Score:5, Insightful)
How long is it going to take for companies like this to realize it? turn-around traffic is way too important to rental stores for disposable media to work. IIRC, Blockbuster claimed that a full 1/3 of their rental business comes from turn-arounds.
For those unfamiliar with the term, it refers to a customer returning one video and renting another, usually on impulse, in the same visit to the store. Obviously, if there's no returns, there's fewer opportunities to visit the store. Thus, fewer rentals, impulse or planned. Needless to say, that's a Bad Thing when rentals are your business. And how much of an impact is a constant flow of disposal DVDs going to have on inventory management?
It was a loser with Circuit City DIVX. Earlier generations of self-destructing media were losers. No matter how much they improve the materials, it won't stop being a loser until they can make up for the lost traffic at Blockbuster and Hollywood.
Reaction to air confirmed (Score:3, Informative)
Will this affect release dates for regular DVDs? (Score:3, Interesting)
I know that's how VHS works, but I've been spoiled by DVD and I don't want to go back to that. For me DVD purchases are impulse buys. If I rent a movie first, I'm much less likely to buy it later on. If I'm forced to buy a 48-hr movie instead of buying the unlimited disc, I'll buy considerably less movies in the long run.
Damn damn damn! (Score:3, Funny)
End of the local rental store. (Score:3, Insightful)
Glad I don't own a rental store, this could be the end of the business.
Those who don't learn from the past.... (Score:4, Insightful)
-Restil
Great! (Score:3, Insightful)
But how about the expiring media we already have? movie companies expect you to buy new copies if the media gets damaged (happens eventually even if your carefull.. not to mention accidents and kids) or stolen (this is why i only have burnt cds in my car)
Media companies should provide replacement media free or at cost if you can show proof of purchase of the original.
workarounds: (Score:4, Insightful)
CD/DVD layer cleaners. Those Dr. Fixit things that clean scratched CD's. The chemical has to be exposed to oxygen, why can't you just scratch off the opaqueness? Kind of a reverse write-over-the-copy-protection-on-the-CD-with-a-s
Least cost-effective: Open the DVD in a vacuum and put it in it's player, in a vacuum.
Seriously though, unless these are recycleable, I hope they fail miserably. What a huge waste of resources. More crap to throw away. What irresponsibility. What happened to ethics? Corporate responsibility? I guess you save some gas not having to return them tho. It better be cheaper than renting, cuz I live a quarter mile from a blockbuster. I don't mind renting and returning every once in a while.
More chemistry to think about: Is it the oxygen that bonds to the disc that makes the disc opaque? Or does it bind and pull whatever off the disc causing it to be unreadable, kind of like an oxygen wash? Would another chemical binding cause the disc to not be opaque and never fail? I'm no chemist, I only have a rudimentary understanding of the underlying forces. Your thoughts?
One possible serious use... (Score:3, Interesting)
Consumers are inherently criminal. (Score:5, Funny)
And this is definitely a COMPELLING solution. The way I see it, every product should self destruct after 48 hours. Bought a computer? Well, a $2,000 computer should be the first thing to self destruct after 48 hours. The warranty card would read, "This warranty expires 47 hours and 59 minutes and 59 seconds and 999 milliseconds after you make up your mind to buy a computer, and not even this particular one!"
Bought a new car? They should attach explosives all over the car... don't worry, 48 hours after leaving the dealership, a buzzing sound will alert you and your passengers that you must exit the vehicle, and then the car will drive itself under automated control to a safe part of the desert before exploding. And yes, you still have to pay off the financing for the new vehicle. In fact, dealers will be extra innovative in this respect: You'll simply subscribe to receive a new car every 48 hours and your bank account will simply be debited for the $25,000 or whatever the MSRP is for each occasion. If you don't have that amount of money at the bank, the dealer will provide an alley for you to prostitute yourself in order to earn the money. In fact, it will become federal LAW that you MUST prostitute yourself in order to pay for self-destructing products, as it is the God given right of multinational corporations to enjoy eternal perpetually increasing profits, and it will simultaneously be illegal to prostutute yourself, thus putting you in a situation that you will go to jail no matter what you do, and you will have to subscribe to a new "eMafia" protection service to avoid such arrest. It will obviously be illegal to bypass any devices that make the car blow up after 48 hours, and if you do so, you'll get more time in jail than a murderer or a rapist. In fact, to make the justice system more balanced in light of today's enormous piracy problems, murder charges and rape charges will be reduced to misdemeanors, because those crimes aren't all that bad, but if you God-forbid copy an album so you can perform the horrendous crime against humanity, a thousand times worse than any genocide this world has ever seen, the criminal act of listening to an album that you paid 20 bucks for... you should be beaten nearly to death but simultaneously kept alive, and tortured, and made to suffer the worst of all sufferings of the world combined and then some, because you are the dirtiest, slimiest, shittiest, more horrible criminal this world has ever seen, and shame on you.
Oh yeah... Houses will be made to self destruct in 60 hours, to compensate for the fact that you need to move your belongings in before they self destruct.
48 hours means I can give the "DVD" to my friends. (Score:4, Insightful)
This could be a great rental-fee saver for my friends and I.
If I unseal the movie and watch it in 3 hours, it still has 45 hours of life left. I can then pass it on to someone else to watch because, unlike regular rentals, I don't have to trust them to return it.
I have a feeling video stores are not going to like this. Or do they get the majority of their money from people without friends?
- mib
Oh drats (Score:5, Funny)
It's not the air. . . (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm betting that the disk is made with photo-sensitive plastic, and that the envelope it comes in is sealed against light, not air.
To activate the disk, (to make it readable), you probably need to let it expose for a while, (like a Polaroid snapshot), and then 48 hours later, after the initial exposure, the chemical photo-alters beyond the range readable by the average disk player.
Not a bad system. --If you're a paranoid media company charged with keeping a stranglehold on knowledge.
If you want to crack such a system, you'll need to own a computer with ripping software. Luckily, this will remain a possibility forever, since the National Security State wants people to remain distracted with all the dumb movies and bullshit media designed to keep their attention away from the actual important things going on in the world.
The best way to lock down a geek? Give them a technical puzzle and 'forbid' them from solving it. You could sell pig-shit to a nerd if you encrypted it first.
-FL
Some more thoughts. . . (Score:3, Insightful)
I swear I must have paid more in late fees than I ever paid for video rentals. I bet I'm not alone. Late fees are an important revenue stream for video stores. Since there is no chance of them collecting late fees on these disposable disks, they will definitely have to charge each customer more per rental. And that's saying nothing about the actual cost of the disposable disk itself...
--Which I think is an interesting point!
Mind you, (when I last checked, and this was years ago), the average cost of a new video cassette of a recent movie release purchased by a video rental store was about $100. --All those rows of the latest Bruce Willis film represent a one or two thousand dollar investment for your local Schlock Buster. This expense will clearly not be an issue with a disposable medium.
Which is interesting! The video rental market, if this meidum is adopted, will transform into something resembling the book or direct comics market, where disks are paid for by the retailer at a discount on the 'cover' price, which is then paid in full by the customer.
--And here's the best part; There will probably be some system whereby disks are returnable after a set period of time if they don't sell. (Talk about time-sensitive media!) Which means that the selection in the average video store will become even worse. Yay for that. Now, more than ever, our media libraries will be as limited as people's memories. People will watch what they are directed to watch. (You can have your car in any color, so long as it's black.)
Hopefully, this will only spur on the media pirate market, which will almost certainly NOT sell self-destructing media. --In this sense, China is a good example of the free market driving in a sensible direction. Go out to a Chinese mall sometime and look at the pricing scheme on DVD's and VCD's. Pirating is rampant, with stolen disks costing only about $5 each. Strangely enough, the official media companies, (in Asia at any rate), don't seem to be suffering much, still making lots of movies with huge sales. --They have been able to compete, selling new and offical disks for about $8. Which would you rather own? A half-assed copy or a well made real copy for a couple of dollars more? Instead of buying no DVD's when I last visited a mall, I bought 4, one of which was an official disk. That's exactly $8 more than I would have normally spent.
And this is exactly the way a free market is supposed to work! Pirating is the American way. Too bad the American is no longer the American way. --Through state sanctioned monopolies and the whiney, patent-based outlawing of competetion, the US has managed to become a communist state, (and without any of the benefits of communism, no less!)
What a joke.
-FL
This will never fly, (Score:3, Interesting)
They may be outside the capability of the average consumer, but if anyone figures out a way of doing it cost-effectively in volume, then there's a business opportunity there;
Step 1: buy a self-destructing rental for $5,
Step 2: run it through your process which you've got down to $4/disc
Step 3: sell it for $15.
Step 4: Profit!
Sure, it may be of dubious legality, and will be made definitively illegal in the U.S.. But that will not stop some shady organizations from trying to espablish a huge grey market in the U.S. or elsewhere!
You think that's unrealistic? Well, disposable camera producers are fighting a similar problem. Disposable cameras typically get returned to the manufacturer for recycling. But several "businesses" started buying used camera bodies for $.10 each directly from photo developing places and re-loading them with film and re-selling them on the grey market. The big disposable camera producers are pissed off about this and fire off lawsuits left and right when they find someone doing this, but there's not much more they can do. Everyone involved is just trying to make a profit: the manufacturer can try to buy back the camera at $.15, but someone will offer $.20, and how much profit do you thing those camera manufacturers really make per unit?
Simply DON'T buy these products! (Score:3, Insightful)
was that MOST people avoided it. If you ever
see a product you want that is only available
in this new EZ-D format, contact the company
and tell them that you are not only not buying
it, but that you will not buy any of their
other products either, until they stop using
that system. When enough of us do that, they
will have a simple choice; stop using the
system and have out money, or continue to use
that system and NOT have our money. I believe
that like DivX, they will choose our money...
Sweet! (Score:3, Funny)
Put some windex on it! (Score:4, Funny)
Seriously, does anyone think that some little startup has so completely exhausted the realm of human knowledge in proving there are no countermeasures? I doubt it.
There's nothing like 5 billion people looking for a Something-for-Nothing win to subvert a concept like this.
Exposure to air? Unlikely. (Score:4, Interesting)
After being exposed to light, the disk then takes approximately 48 hours for the chemical agent to cure. It's probably some derivative of silver nitrate (used in photographs) and will opaque the disk, and the laser will then be unable to read it.
Just my
Actually this could be a GOOD THING! (Score:4, Insightful)
Yup, as others have posted, here is a list of things that this would be useful for.
Seems like a good idea to me. Just make sure they don't degrade until you open the package and it's OK with me.
This won't kill the regular DVD's that are for sale.
Not so great for video games as you generally want more time then 48 hours. But I don't rent games to play to win. I rent to try it out before I buy it. If it sucks, I don't buy a copy. If I find I really like the game I buy it. There's a whole lot of crappola PS2 titles out there so I've been burned before and I don't have time to read all the reviews and keep up on the latest one hit wonder game title. I also don't have 48 hours to play the game non-stop, I have a job and girlfriend so that's out.
Re:Capitalism (Score:5, Insightful)
Heres how I'd do it: (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Heres how I'd do it: (Score:3, Interesting)
I disagree (Score:5, Insightful)
Speaking as someone more than 30 miles from the nearest "good" rental shop, I really hope this catches on.
Re:OK for rental companies... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:My real issue here is... (Score:3, Insightful)
The nifty fringe benefit may be to eventually destroy the "fair use" argument used by those defending cracking of their security algorithms. If you defeat the protection on the disc (using one or more of the techniques al