Slashdot Mirror
Disney Licenses MS Windows Media DRM
securitas writes "CNet/ZDNet reports that Walt Disney has licensed Microsoft's Windows Media DRM technology for use in online movie distribution via the Internet. Reuters reports that Disney plans to sell movies online in late 2004 or early 2005, while AP reports that the multi-year license for Microsoft's digital rights/restrictions management and copy-protection software will let Disney distribute content on mobile phones, PDAs and portable media players (mirror). The companies are expected to officially announce the deal later today (Monday)." Conspiracy theorists, start your engines; kidding aside, this is something to watch, as these are two titans of industry.
If you think that Microsoft, Disney, or most other large corporations have not violated the sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, you should probably read it. The word 'monopoly' has been bandied around specifically to confuse the issue. Section 2:
"Attempt to monopolize" etc. Section 1 discusses restraint of trade - which this could most certainly be percieved as a step towards, dependin g on how Microsoft and Disney deal with the DRM issues - and with their track record, it's not looking good.
Creating a barrier to entry is what the industry is trying to accomplish with mandatory DRM. If you have to pay a $50 license for DRM, and it's illegal to distribute something (software, os, hardware, or all three) without it, then the Free Software world - and, perhaps, open source - is essentially relegated to irrelevance here in the US. And in any country that would hope to do business with US and the IMF/Wold Bank. Bleah.
Thinking outside my Head
How long do you think it would take Disney to setup a Pixar knock-off?
I don't think the question is setting up a Pixar knock off. If Disney wanted a fully 3d animation studio I'm sure Eisner could put it on his personal platinum card and have it bought this afternoon. So let's say they do that, what then? The problem is that Disney almost never produces any original ideas. Most of their work has been adaptation of existing stories. Outside of their distribution agreements with Ghibli and Pixar(oops), There aren't manny original stories that they can claim. Oh, and before you tell me that the Lion King or Disney's take on Atlantis were original, you had better check here and here.
Politics, Culture, Food?
Disney wasn't on the decline in the 80's. It was on its DEATHBED. Michael Eiser and the late Frank Wells were brought in to help rescue the company back in 1984, which evidently was a takeover target. Animation, which they finally killed off this past year, almost died then, after The Black Cauldron. The Little Mermaid turned things around, of course, shepherding an almost decade-long era of big profits.
The point is, back in 1984, when Disney almost ceased being Disney, they had theme parks and the merchandising, and that would have done was provide the corporate raiders with more pieces to break off after buying the company. Unless Disney can continue producing more properties for its library and for the distribution channels that it paid so much money for (cable and ABC) its future growth is in question. Look at MGM as an example of where Disney does not want to end up - anemic, and perpetually on the auction block.
Microsoft has posted a press release.