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Sony Cutting Back on UMD Sales
Karsten writes "An article in Variety claims that Sony is cutting back on UMD releases. While comedies are doing well, other genres simply aren't getting much traction." From the article: "Some have reasoned that sales may have slowed recently because of a shortage of new titles in the last month and because users may be illegally copying films from DVDs onto a memory chip the PSPs can read. Sony is hoping to combat online piracy starting in March when it begins selling movies online via its Connect digital media store. Users will be able to download a pic and watch it on PSP without a disc."
Of course it couldn't have anything to do with people not wanting to buy the same movie twice at nearly the same price, once for home theater use and once for portable use?
The latest news about them bundling UMDs with DVDs is a step in the right direction, at least.
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
One thing that many folks are confused about is the legality of copying DVDs that you own.
To the best of my knowledge (not being a lawyer and all that), it's not legal right now - when you break the copy protection found on the greater majority of DVDs on the market, technically, you're breaking the law in the United States. The specific law being broken is the DMCA.
There are a couple of points to make:
1. They can screw right off with that law, I'm putting my movies where ever I damn well please.
2. There is a neat little exemption in the DMCA about devices that are obsolete. I hope these new High Def player break compatibility with the old formats (yeah, high hopes), because as soon as the tech is obsolete, we get to crack the encryption "legally". Frankly, DVDs are, and will be, "good enough" for me for quite some time.
The other thing to consider here is that UMDs and downloadable movies are essentially new ways to re-purchase content. This process isn't always bad, but in this -case- is very bad. Unlike the move to DVDs, Sony wants us to pay MORE for LESS quality... and pay multiple times.
Sony is trying pretty hard to un-do some damage that they've unintentionally done with the PSP. By providing users a capable media player that works with writable media, they've broken their business model. They've made customers happy, but happy doesn't buy corporate jets.
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Lets not forget that copying a DVD is a little less clear cut in the US because of the DMCA which makes bypassing a copy control mechanism illegal...
Read the law. You can find it here. There is no blanket prohibition on bypassing copy control mechanisms - this is a big, big misconception about the DMCA. In fact, there are both specific and non-specific instances (i.e. basically the same provisions as in earlier fair use definitions) in which bypassing technological copy control mechanisms is explicitly allowed.
Whether or not format-shifting would count is not clearly laid out in the law, anymore than it is in earlier copyright laws. According to the DMCA, the Librarian of Congress is supposed to review cases like this every 3 years to determine whether they would be legal under the DMCA's provisions or not.
The entire purpose of this part of the DMCA was not to stamp out fair use, it was to specifically prohibit circumventing technological measures that were implemented in order to prevent copyright violations. But the bottom line is (or is supposed to be) that if you're not violating copyright law, you are allowed to circumvent these technological measures. The DMCA was not supposed to take away your fair use rights.
How the law has been used and referenced since it was enacted may be another story. But that is the way the law was written, and I'm confident that if it was actually tested in court (and format-shifting has not been, to my knowledge), that both the letter and intent of the law would be followed by the court.
The last 4 dvd's I ripepd and converted to Divx for my home on demand system had no CSS encryption on them.
Finding DVD's that pay the money for CSS and Macrovision "protection" is getting less and less. The makers know it's useless to put that "protection" on there as it is trivial to go around it.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.