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Macrovision Releases DVD Copy Protection
msblack writes "The Los Angeles Times is reporting that the good folks at Macrovision have unveiled a new system that will thwart 97% of existing DVD copying software while maintaining compatibility with existing DVD players. Macrovision claims that DVD copying results in $1 billion loss for studios out of $27.5 billion in sales. With piracy resulting in only 4% loss, why are the studios making such a big deal? The article also reports (mistakenly) that the market is pressing 100s of billions of DVD annually. Who's buying all those DVDs?" I'm skeptical of their claims, since historically Macrovision's anti-copying measures have been little more than easily circumvented snake oil, but maybe this time they've got their plan down.
The problem here is that if their system stops 97% of ripping software, then everyone using that 97% will immediately switch to the other 3%.
It takes just one copy transcoded into an easily-copiable digital form, and their system breaks. And as the legal copies become more fragile and easily damage, that 97% will soon start looking for ways to get unencumbered copies...
Call me old fashioned, but I like a dump to be as memorable as it is devastating - Bender
Guess what, if you can view it you can copy it. It only has to happen once and the data is back in the digital domain.
The DVD at some point puts out a stream of video and audio that goes to the display device.
Simply plug that into a Video/Audio input on the computer - and you can copy the darn thing, regardless of copy protection.
The only copy protection scheme for DVD's that is ever going to work is to overwrite the data with random noise - making the thing totally unviewable on a TV set.
Ill place bets that THEY will eventually dream this up as being 'a great step forward' one day soon.