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Harry Potter, Macrovision and Economics

markthebrewer writes "Apparantly Warner Home Video have released Harry Potter and the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone without any of the usual Macrovision copy-protection systems. Looks like its just a trial, but someone's done the maths and decided it may be cheaper not to copy-protect videos after all. Find the full article in the New Scientist." There is certainly something desperate about macrovisions response to this development. Does anyone see macrovision as a real barrier to copying anymore? What a bunch of snake oil salesmen these people are. In related news, I'm marketing my own personal copy protection device.

9 of 413 comments (clear)

  1. Maybe they're getting a clue... by eyegor · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    If they price something reasonably people will buy it instead of stealing it.

    I know I prefer to have the real product rather than a copy (not that it's especially hard to circumvent Macrovision anyway).

    --

    Don't anthropomorphize computers, they don't like it.
  2. Re:Good. by fishebulb · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    my win2k rarely needs to be rebooted, not an uptime as good as timmy my router which i will forget where it is occasionaly, but still good none the less

  3. Re:Good. by rodgerd · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    (OT) I call bullshit. Win95 can't have an uptime of months.

    (OnT) Macrovision execs must be shitting themselves. Like the bogus software protection industry that mostly no longer exists, they're watching their empire go up in smoke if the big boys walk away.

  4. Re:Good. by FatRatBastard · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    True enough. Win2K is the most tolerable version of Windows I've ever used. But its still damn annoying when IE goes down and makes the box unstable. Granted, it doesn't happen *that* often, but often enough to get on my nerves. Plus, hibernate and my Sony laptop do not play nicely either. About 10% of the time it requires a reboot.

    Having said all that I still think if you have to use Windows then 2K is the way to go. Its head and shoulders above NT, and not as bloaty and moronic as XP.

    Now if I could just convince the guys I work for to use iBooks....

  5. Re:Good. by AJWM · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    win95 router box up for months

    Bullshit. The clock overflow at 47 days locks it up solid. But yeah, if that's all it's being used for it may well last the 47 days.

    --
    -- Alastair
  6. What is Macrovision? by Bobzibub · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Pardon my ignorance, but is it what makes the image on DVDs appear to fade in and out when connected to our old TV via the VCR? (It was the only way we could connect it and keep DirecTV as well.)
    We returned our DVD player because of this.

    Anyone know of a list of players that don't have it/can be defeated?

    Cheers,
    -b

  7. Sorcerer? Philosopher? by Karma+Sucks · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Do Americans not know that sorcerers and philosophers are not the same thing? What the hell is going on here? Why are there two different titles for the same movie? This seems ridiculous and arbitrary.

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    (Please browse at -1 to read this comment.)
  8. Restart explorer, not windows. by autopr0n · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    You can just restart the explorer program (by using the alt+ctl+delete popup) rather then the whole OS.

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    autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
  9. Re:Good. by TheSHAD0W · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    If it were a standard dial-up, hell yeah! They have the best national access I've seen. Sometimes I go on the road, and I need every POP I can find. If it weren't for their proprietary access software, I'd join in a nanosecond.