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Blu-Ray To Punish Users for Modifying Hardware
datemenatalie writes "As reported on Engadget, consumers should expect punishment for tinkering with their Blu-ray players, as many have done with current DVD players, for instance to remove regional coding. The new, Internet-connected and secure players will report any "hack" and the device can be disabled remotely. As the article asks, "Are they talking about PVP-OPM techniques and rejected HDMI keys, or something else far more sinister? Because apparently "A hacked player is any player that is doing something it's not supposed to do," which open to a pretty fair amount of interpretation--most of which egregious.""
Verification systems that require any work on the consumer end will never work 100%. It's just too easy to get around.
And why am I buying the assinine secured player instead of the grey market Chinese one, exactly?
Physics is nothing like religion. If it was, we'd have an easier time trying to raise money!
I think that the concept of Regional Coding is largely dead now anyway since they tend to release everything at the same time to avoid piracy. Regional Coding was really a violation of WTO rules anyway.
I don't like the idea of hardware that reports back to base. If we go in that direction our TVs will report us when we channel flip to avoid commercials.
YOUR TV HAS BEEN DISABLED. SKIPPING COMMERCIALS IS THEFT!
#37:
#7:
Between 'em, these two posters say it all.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
Heck, if something in my house that needs to be plugged in doesn't have a missing screw, then I automatically know it's broken.....I have to get inside and give it "more power". My wife insists that certain "toys" of hers are off-limits, but little does she know what 9 volts can do compared to 1.5.
If I open something up and tinker with it, then fine, I void the warranty. But for companies to think they have the right to monitor what we do with their products to the point that they can deploy countermeasures just has to be stopped.
I think it's time for www.{stop|avoid|donotbuy|FU}blu-ray.com sites to start popping up. As previous posted stated, hopefully this will go the way of divx (the old crippled DVD players divx that is).
Now of course this would have been a nice way to kill off the floppy drive...have it phone home when it detects user-modified DSHD.
"Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
Why did the parent post get moderated as a troll? Someone with modpoints, please undo that injustice.
Granted, the parent post is making a joke, and whether you think it's funny or not, it speaks to the fact that once we relinquish control of our hardware to a 3rd party, there's a precident for things this silly.
If your Blu-Ray player can tell on you and disable itself because you've violated some sort of EULA, that same sort of mechanism could enable governments to turn off your hardware when they decide your doing something with it they don't think is kosher.
"Gosh honey, I shouldn't have tried to play that Fahrenheit 9/11 Blu-Ray disk. GD Patriot Act 3."
One of the reason's I pick at Microsoft is because they aren't developing DRM to protect their own content so much as they are striving to expand their business to get a piece of every entertainment industry transaction.
KFG
Because the companies are the ones who buy the laws, not the consumers.
This is why it is, in fact, illegal for the consumer to tinker with the product that that consumer has purchased. (So long as you aren't a believer in that whole "a legislative act contrary to the Constitution is not law" thing.)
The companies can do things like write a law which completely alters the fundamental balance of copyright law, and pass it directly to Jesse Helms who drops it into congress where it passes unanimously on a voice vote because not one single member of congress has read it. The consumers... well, maybe if they write enough letters and make enough noise for enough months they can convince a congressman to give a speech in their favor, which will be written into the congressional record and then forgotten about. If the same group makes enough noise for over a decade maybe a law on the subject they've been agitating about will be put up for debate, though God knows what it will look like by the time it gets through committee.
I mean, okay, in theory the consumers are the ones 'buying' the laws, because the consumers are the ones who vote. However
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts