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Microsoft Licenses Analog Anti-rip Technology

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the sharing-is-for-communists dept.

photojournaliste writes "CD copy-protection specialist Macrovision is to work with Microsoft to ensure their respective DRM and anti-rip technologies are interoperable, the two companies said this week. Sounds straightforward enough, but the deal runs deeper. Microsoft agreed to license a number of Macrovision's patents, in particular those relating to analogue copy protection technology and more recent extensions to that system that cover video-on-demand, pay-per-view content and support for the US 'broadcast flag', which determines whether consumers will be able to record digital TV broadcasts."

18 of 270 comments (clear)

  1. New Name by R0UTE · · Score: 5, Funny

    I hope Microsoft take over Macrovision, then we can have Microsoft and Macrosoft. Microsoft can deal with insecure software and Macrosoft can deal with securing copyrights, what a world it will be then!

  2. song in your head by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm sorry but that song you can't get out of your head is in violation of copyright laws. We are going to install a little chip now to ensure we are compensated.

    1. Re:song in your head by klang · · Score: 5, Funny

      ..can't that little chip just turn off the damn song?

      Now THAT is a service I would pay for!

  3. What is this television thing by exnuke · · Score: 5, Funny

    What is this television thing anyway? Does it involve moving away from my computer?

    1. Re:What is this television thing by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Funny
      What is this television thing anyway? Does it involve moving away from my computer?


      It's just like your MPEG porn only there's multiple streams all available from a single input source.

      There's not much selection though. :-P

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  4. great wedding by imr · · Score: 5, Funny

    The master of the eye-killer blinking videotapes gets in bed with my unfair lady of blue screens of death.
    If there have any offsprings, shoot'em.

  5. Re:Buy now, only legal until July 1 by bdcrazy · · Score: 2, Funny

    Anybody else read that a couple times and read it as Riscombabulator Remodulator Requirements?

    --
    Tonights forecast: Dark. Continued dark throughout most of the evening, with some widely-scattered light towards morning
  6. Microsoft anti-rip technology by Pan+T.+Hose · · Score: 2, Funny

    It sounds almost as funny as Microsoft security.

    --
    Sincerely,
    Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
    "Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
  7. Maybe I'm a dim by CaptainZapp · · Score: 3, Funny
    But I'm still unclear about the concept of DRMing analogue signals.

    I mean heck! At one point you have to disseminate an analogue signal to which we are able to listen to.

    Methinks that the only feasible technology is to pour tar into the ears of every citizen on earth.

    And that really seems a bit intrusive.

    --
    ich bin der musikant

    mit taschenrechner in der hand

    kraftwerk

    1. Re:Maybe I'm a dim by ajs318 · · Score: 4, Funny

      No ..... the ultimate rights-management solution is PharmaGard (TM). Unlike conventional scrambling and encryption technologies, which work by unscrambling the picture and taking a leap of faith that nothing can intercept it on its way to the screen, with PharmaGard (TM) there is never a recoverable, unencrypted signal: the final decryption takes place in the viewer's brain.

      The secret of PharmaGard (TM) is a special pill, containing a phenylethylamine-type {= ecstasy-like} drug that you have to take before you watch the film. The first few minutes of the film are neurolinguistic programming -- basically, reprogramming your mind so that, under the perception-distorting influence of the drug, it unscrambles the picture -- embedded into an advertisement sequence. There is no possible way for the viewer not to see this sequence if they are going to see the film, so this advertising space would be worth a fortune. As long as the drug's effect lasts, the film appears unscrambled through your altered perception. When it wears off, your eyes go back to normal.

      Anyone can copy a film protected with PharmaGard (TM). But only people who have taken the special drug can watch it. If viewers invite friends to watch with them, their friends will have to take some too. A stash of pills are provided with the movie; if you want to watch it again, you have to buy more of them from your local retailer.

      PharmaGard (TM) also provides built-in age-restriction. The pills for different-certificate movies are formulated slightly differently. The pills provided with an "18" film will contain an additional substance which reacts with Human Growth Hormone at the levels found in under-18-year-olds to induce undesirable side-effects e.g. nausea, breathing difficulty, loss of balance &c. There will be less of this substance in a "15" film pill to account for the fact that a 15-year old's body will contain a higher level of growth hormone; but the "15" pill will not be a powerful enough psychedelic to allow the consumer's brain to unscramble an "18" film.

      --
      Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
  8. Excellent! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    My wife'll be all over anti-rip technology. She was just saying last night that if I let one more fart rip, I'd be sleeping alone.

  9. What do I say now? by Hobadee · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well, normally I would make a comment stating that it's a bad thing to make a deal with the devil, however in this case, we have 2 devils making deals with each other.

    --
    ...Had this been an actual emergency, we would have fled in terror, and you would not have been informed.
  10. DRM and Star Trek: TNG by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    You know, I just realized why, in TNG, they never listened to anything but classical music and never watched anything other than plays.

    Copyrights and analog locks trapped all modern culture in outdated media that ended up being lost to the ages.

    And people say that series lacked foresight.

    All I needed to know about digital rights, I learned from Star Trek.

    1. Re:DRM and Star Trek: TNG by Grishnakh · · Score: 2, Funny

      I thought it was because the crew and officers of the starships were paid so poorly that they couldn't afford the exhorbitant license fees on modern (post "Steamboat Willy") content, so they just stuck with stuff that was free.

      This also explains why the Federation doesn't seem to have much of a civilian presence, and only Starfleet ships are out running around: everyone is slaving away at mindless jobs planetside to make enough money to pay their license fees.

  11. Re:Broadcast Flag by TheoMurpse · · Score: 2, Funny

    Japan doesn't have a problem with obesity

    That's because Japanese food tastes like rubber. I'm here. I'm eating it. I'm crying. I saw a cooking show where kids put CORN into a chocolate cake. My TV still hasn't recovered from the foot I put into it for showing me THAT travesty.

  12. Re:How long before ... by dar · · Score: 3, Funny

    I've never seen this MythTV before. I don't think it exists.

    --
    My other Slashdot ID is much lower.
  13. A New Hope. by Java+Ape · · Score: 2, Funny

    I read the headline as

    ...ensure their respective DRM and anti-rip technologies are inoperable,. . .

    The day suddenly seemed brighter, and hope arose in my heart. Then I read it again - (*SIGH*).

  14. Re:How long before ... by karnal · · Score: 2, Funny

    your house gets raided for that math lab

    Quick! Erase that white board!!!!

    --
    Karnal