Self-Destructing DVD's Coming Soon

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.

Comments

So what?

[DarkHand]

Is this really a problem for people who have access to DeCSS and a DVD burner?

Re:So what?

[AEton]

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?

[drinkypoo]

Of course, if you have a DeCSSing DVD player, then you can just make copies and play them anyway. The fact is that decryption tools like DeCSS are mostly necessary if you wish to copy CSS encoded DVDs on your computer, for use anywhere else. You can copy the VOBs and play them just fine with the right software. It's making a SVCD or VCD or DivX or what have you, or making a DVD which is playable in ordinary devices, that requires DeCSSing ahead of time, rather than at play time.

Cool idea for rentals

[Azureflare]

I like the idea for rentals, I hate having to return stuff to the video store. I have doubts whether people will actually "recycle" the used-up dvds though. Personally, I do recycle, but I wonder if other people who don't like recycling will simply toss 'em, and then we'll have a massive trash problem on our hands...

The solution is scavenger robots, that search for used-up dvds =)

"Hey give that back! I was using that as a coaster! GNggghhhh!!"

Open Season

[Euphonious Coward]

So now they have discs that you not only can copy, but must copy before they evaporate.

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.)

Trying to put rental places out of business?

[Maul]

Obviously, nobody is going to pay full price for a DVD that self destructs. This is meant as a rental replacement. However, something like this could put rental places out of business.

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?

[HeghmoH]

Why should I care?

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?

[nightcrawler77]

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.

Re:Capitalism

[XxtraLarGe]

Capitalism at its best means that we consumers have the ability to reject this stupid idea and cause it to fail....

Re:Ways to crack it

[narfbot]

What happens under different atmospheric or weather conditions? Will it, in some places, never work when opened, or in another, they will never destruct? Are you sure it's caused by reacting gasses or some maybe some kind of timer?

Nobody cares about polution?

[anagama]

This is just a cheap excuse to avoid digital distribution. Downloading the movies would be cooler, and more enviro.

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?

[HeghmoH]

Of course nobody cares about the pollution, think about this for one second, it's not a very large problem.

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.

Great!

[vought]

Duh...I want DVD...two dollah at checkout register...works once...what a bargain!

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.

[Keith Russell]

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.

I disagree

[poptones]

I think widespread use of this tech could really drive the sale of huge-GB hard drives.

Speaking as someone more than 30 miles from the nearest "good" rental shop, I really hope this catches on.

Re:Ways to crack it

[Goldberg's Pants]

You just have to hold your breath a REAL long time...

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:Mission Impossible

[mesach]

I dont see Blockbuster or any rental places carrying this, in fact they might be against it.

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

Re:Environment? Market?

[DennyK]

Can't speak for the 799 others, but I'd like this. If I could pick up a 48-hour DVD for a few bucks, that'd be a good deal to me. I don't have pay-per-view, I hate making two trips to Blockbuster for a single movie, and Netflix is a bad deal unless you rent at least four or five movies a month. There just aren't that many movies I'd like to see. Plus, since you don't need to have a rental system in place, they could stick these things anywhere: 7-11, grocery stores, Wal-Mart...all places I usually go anyway. I'd love to be able to pick up an occasional movie "rental" when I stop for gas or groceries, without having to worry about returning it by such-and-such a date. It's like DivX without the expensive equipment, the invasive privacy issues, or the hassle. Pretty cool stuff, actually.

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

48 hours means I can give the "DVD" to my friends.

[mib]

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