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RFID To Track Play of DVDs And CDs?
jayp00001 writes, "A Taiwan-based maker of DVDs and CDs for major studios is about to begin putting RFID chips in disks. The eventual aim is for DVD and CD players equipped with an RFID reader to prevent copied or out-of-region disks from being played."
Because when it starts getting that hard to be honest..
I buy loads of CDs from other countries, mainly US & Japan and if this will stop me being able to play them then sorry guys, I'm going to start to explore other avenues..
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
and everyone pays for a more expensive RFID-capable CD/DVD player because...?
Costs more, does less.
As long as they include a warning label on the CD case (like the 'copy protected' ones), so we can choose not to buy it that will be fine.
This means a new standard, and new players all round. It's no longer a DVD, and I'm certainly not running out and buying a new player for it.
On another, rather important, note, they mention it for HD-DVD. HD-DVD doesn't even _have_ region encoding, so they can't tell me the disc is from the wrong one; that's why I want HD-DVD rather than Blu-Ray.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
With RFID chips embedded maybe we won't have to peel three seperate stickers off the DVD case.
That would be nice.
HD DVD doesn't have region encoding YET, but they're planning to add it via firmware update.
Until someone figures out how to disable the chip? Or reconfigure the dvd drives to work around them?
I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
Open up DVD-drive, cut wires to RFID-reader. Now every DVD will seem like it doesn't have an RFID-track, thus will work as a "legacy disk". Next innovation, please.
It will play in your DVD player. It will not play in new players with a mismatching region code. When your DVD player breaks (or when you upgrade to HD), you will buy a new player. The only way to protest is to stop buying, and that ain't gonna happen. People have money to burn and they will buy to fill the void between sleep and work with entertainment.
If suspect that this crap won't go very far as I suspect that it won't be difficult to circumvent.
No problem, I'll just wait for a CD-R+RFID-R writer. Sure, the discs will cost $8 a piece at first, but the price will go down eventually.
So they're gonna drive by each and every house in every continent with their scanners?
Or put one in every airport, every department store, every port?
And the cost for all those installations will end up in the DVD we buy. Great idea, jerks.
(Oh wait, TFA also says its the DVD players that will check the DVDs and reject it if its in the 'wrong' geographical region, but why would you need RFIDs for that? Why would a player need to scan thousands of tags per minute?)
I can explain it for you, but I can't understand it for you.
Options:-
1) Cover the disk in foil
2) snip the RFID reader in the player making it recognise legacy disk
3) destroy the RFID tag in the disk using LARGE electromagnet
4) refuse to buy one
thinking about point 3... I have used the technique before to destroy a RFID tag on thing I purchased. Aside from the problems of small popping when the foil in the tag melts, it seems to be a good way of destroying lots of tags. A strategically placed electromagnet and a sensor and you could hit every one that passed!
Signature v3.0, now with 42% less memory usage.
I've bought thousands of cds. I also have hundreds of records and various other forms of music media. And music isn't cheap! I refuse to buy into music stores such as iTunes because I feel it's ludicrous to have to pay what adds up to almost the same price as buying the physical disc to have digital copies of music files that are encoded lower than I would have encoded it myself if I had the disc. But, I swear, the second they pull a stunt like this, I'm out. See ya. I'll still buy cds from all the independant artists I love, because I'm sure they'll avoid this like the plague. But it looks like the only option will be music services such as Yahoo! Unlimited that charge me $60 a year to listen to whatever I want. Now if only I had broadband in my car, I'd be set...
Wise men say, "Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."
This sounds like just another stupid application of RFID. For the all the effort involved it would be simpler to just embed a hidden track and read that.
DVE readers and the like will have to be able to play normal DVDs or CDs without the
chips or older ones without. Just put a little aluminum foil over the reader and
these RFIDs will not do anything. Reports on the net indicate the foil in a potato chip
bag is thick enough. Aluminum paint might do too.
Same goes of course for DVD drives should manufacturers start fiddling with those also
(though that would be rather expensive in a device that is down to $40 or less each).
In that event, I have to ask a simple question:
Will the revenue previously lost to piracy be fed back to the consumer? Will we see cheaper CDs anywhere?
Of course not. It's basic fucking economic theory that you can charge more if you segregate a market. Piracy be damned, fair-use my arse - this is just a desperate attempt to control the market, which can only lead to higher prices for legitimate, law-abiding consumers.
Bastards.
Meta will eat itself
the application of this will most likely not be the one they named, i can imagine that public libraries can use this to track their stock of dvd's and cd's. RFID comes in flavours, like read-only, so rewriting the tag wouldn't be possible, burning the chips memory with an overdose of energy would kill it however.
We're inches away from the RIAA/MPAA declaring that all content can only be viewed or heard on a pay per view basis at any of their convenient 'media centers'. We're taking a huge leap backwards to the days when movies were shown in dirty 5 cent halls. Maybe we should invest in good digital to analog reader-writer technology and bring back 16mm home movies and reel to reel.
I believe people dont wanna buy a DVD RFID reader capable, but anyways. How many days to a hack or solution for this protection?
This really should be in the Comedy/Entertainment section.
[% slash_sig_val.text %]
I am not sure how many years it has been, but I have yet to replace a DVD player and my last VHS player lasted 10+ years (different stock from todays fare).
As the new disks can not be changed in such a way to break them on 'old' players there is just going to be 'legit' players and 'old' players, note: 'old' players can not be classed as non-legit.
This is all based on the fact the goverments do not do something stupid on the behalf of the movie companys.
ERR 411[Max number of witty sigs reached]
To the people saying that a person could just "cut the wires" to the RFID reader module inside vis drive:
Ever heard of system-on-chip?
I can tell you right now that it is extremely doable to put the necessary rfid reader circuity inside the drive controller ASIC and connect it to a simple loop antenna by a couple of pins (remember it only needs to have a range of an inch or so).
The controller chip could even scan for the correct impedance to prevent people from breaking the antenna trace, or (this is a good one) have a 'verification' RFID somewhere inside the drive case:
If the RFID reader part of the controller can't read the unique id of it's matching verification RFID (remember nowadays it's possible to have a small pseudo-PROM area of an ASIC) it won't let you use the drive..
We are seeing the end of the consumer-hackable hardware era; modern hardware can and will prevent all but the most dedicated hardware hackers with expensive logic analyzers from making unauthorized copies.
NOBODY WANTS REGION CODING. (except the publishers)
. The people who actally make the films really don't care. They get their royalties if the disc is bought in the US, Europe, Taiwan or anywhere else. They really just want to make a living doing what they love.
The end users hate region coding. It means they often have to wait, often end up with an inferior version, and basically reduces consumer choice while increasing their costs.
The manufacturers don't like region coding. It makes their players considerably less popular. They go to considerable lengths to find ways around the region coding requirement. Multi-region is a key selling point of a player to anyone with any interest in importing discs. They're going to do the ame thing to try to get around RFID chips. Or anything else you might like to try. And they're really not going to be happy about having to increase their costs to add an RFID reader. These companies are working on tiny margins. No matter how cheap, RFID readers will eat into this.
... I can read it. If it is encrypted and my player can read it, I can still read it. No matter what they try to do, unless they can come up with some sort of scheme where the complete key management is happening over a closed network that your player is mandatorily hooked up to 24/7, there is no way that this will prevent piracy.
What they will do is make the incentive bigger for criminals to copy these disks, and they make the incentive bigger for curious people to try and hack the protection of these disks. They will also piss the general disk-buying public off by creating disks that will more often not play rather than play.
No winners here... is that my problem? Last time I have seen a Hollywood movie is so long ago I can't even remember.
Sure, it will eventually be gotten around, but it will probably require shady imported DVD players, a firmware update, or additional hardware for when you make the disc. Although they are a bit late. With Blu-Ray and HD-DVD already out the door, it would be _BAD_ to implement it and piss off customers who already have a device. Maybe next gen though.
In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
let's see, there's an RFID tag in the disk, the player won't play the disk of the RFID isn't correct, now there's a few options
-legacy disks won't play (people won't like it, but I can see it happening)
-legacy disks will play, the fact that RFID is needed sits as data on the disk
both things will be fixable with a programmable RFID chip, provided their code isn't too complicated (which it can't be, since they're delevering the encrypted content, the algorithm AND the key, just obfuscated)
you can also mod the player (I can see the US outlawing this).
things that will work only with option 2:
cracking the disk image before burning it or simply cutting the RFID chip in the player or wrapping it in tin foil.
How big are we talking? Commercially-available bulk eraser, or bigger?
Information wants to be free.
Entertainment wants to be paid.
You just want to be cheap.
wrap the transceiver in aluminum foil (don't cut the wires 'cause then it will know it's been tampered with).
Actually, if they're smart, they will encase an RFID tag in the housing of the player aswell. That way they'll know that the transceiver is working (reads it's own RFID tag, then the disc tag)
And then add an optical marker to the disc so that the player knows this particular disc is supposed to have an RFID tag even if it can't find one.
So much wasted effort.
I wonder how long it will be before all players phone home to narc on your listening habits.
And rip the car keys out of everyones pockets as well as fry their credit cards! GO ANARCHY! :)
It's only paranoia if your wrong...
What happens when I try to legally copy my DVD (for backup purposes)?
Ever see what a couple kids can do to a DVD? They don't intentionally destroy them, but it happens. Sometimes they just "miss" the DVD player or whatever and it ends up getting scratched up. I like to back their DVDs up so I don't have to buy them replacements.
And the destruction of the RFID tag is going to occur without damage to the probably even thinner layer of metal that holds the actual media content because?
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
The chip + RFID goes in your brain - you need to hold one of the MPAA's special decoders next to your head while you watch. That way they can make sure you're watching the ads as well. Better yet, the installation (which will eventually be a legal requirement) takes only a few minutes and and should cost less than a hundred bucks!
...in return, the audio and video industries will supply the same DVD/CD selection to all regions and at the same prices, without making the discs more expensive?
Ah, thought not.
I don't pirate music or video at the moment, but if this comes into play suddenly that avenue becomes more and more enticing. I'm sick of having DVDs only come out in the US for certain things like TV shows, or have an album or film come out abroad with better quality sound or extra features, or find that I'm paying twice the price for the same product over in the UK.
Start noticing how many arguments in favour of "free market" really translates into "no regulation of mighty suppliers allowing them to screw the customers". The litmus test of if something really supports free competition should be "does the customers really want this?". Region encoding fails this. DRM fails this.
When you are sure of something, you probably are wrong (search for "Unskilled and Unaware of It").
New chip to thwart DVD piracy is a long way off and faces considerable challenges
The manufacturer is making some big claims about this technology, for bootlegging prevention, not region-encoding. TFA states that this tech is for mass-market (stamped, not burned discs: your home videos will still be accessible) disks to prevent 3rd party mass copying and that it would "eliminate optical disc piracy in the entertainment and IT sectors." Ha! I don't know how this is possible - even if you could force the DVD player manufacturers to put this tech in all their new players, there are already millions upon millions of DVD players out in the wild.
So, yet again, this will only tread on the fair use rights of honest people without preventing the criminals from continuing to make illegal copies.
"I forgot my mantra."
If they lock some bonus content out for players that will lack the RFID reader - they will definitely sell new players(they dont cost a lot more than a few CDs/DVDs anyways)
yeah, that should do it.
A place I worked at a couple years ago had problems with people "deactivating" the RFID tags on sales tags using a similar device to a bulk eraser. As long as you can induce sufficient current to destroy the aerial traces, or the silicon you are fine. I don't think it would do much for any electronics nearby though. The CD should be fine!
Signature v3.0, now with 42% less memory usage.
One of the reasons given for region encoding is the different standards between regions, paticularly the PAL standard used in most of the world and the completely rubbish NTSC standard used in the US. If everything was on PAL discs you'd have loads of US consumers complaining that they don't look right on their TV sets (and in the PAL world complaining about the massive drop in quality).
If you want to get rid of region encoding we need on TV standard.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
Either it won't play old DVDs and home movies at all (in which case noone will buy these new drives), or it will have some extra track or encoding that indicates the presence of an rfid chip.
People figured out how to get rid of CSS, what makes the studios think that this will be any harder?
Amazing how they invest so much money in this stuff, when it's not likely to last longer than a few months.
The RFID destroyer would be no larger than a small matchbox. There is no need for a MASSIVE (as in size) electromagnet, only a small, strong, directed em pulse.
The RFID-Zapper project uses a camera flash coil to induce enough current in the aerial to kill the silicon. I have tested something similar using a CCFL backlight inverter coil.
RFID-Zapper
Signature v3.0, now with 42% less memory usage.
Yes - by your new definition of the word "stealing", which now includes playing out-of-region disks.
On another, rather important, note, they mention it for HD-DVD. HD-DVD doesn't even _have_ region encoding, so they can't tell me the disc is from the wrong one; that's why I want HD-DVD rather than Blu-Ray.
This statement needs to be changed to say that HD-DVD doesn't have region encoding now. The fact that it is not being imposed now does not mean that it won't be imposed in the future. A web search can provide some interesting comments on this.
The thing that I find most interesting about HD-DVD is that the whole idea of PAL or NTSC discs is going away. At least so far it appears that HD-DVD's standard will be 24 fps video and it will expect the hardware (HD-DVD player and TV) to correctly display the image in whatever format is necessary.
Putting a sticker on the box 'OMG don't copy this or use it in another country': $00.00.01
Putting a small header info on the DVD that says 'this is region, like, erm, 1': $FREE?
Putting an RFID chip on the disc to do exactly the same thing: $national debt of the US - (national debt of the US - $00.15)
For everything else, you can always get vencture capitalist funding
1: take buzz word
2: take unrelated area of 'interest'
3: ??? O'RLY
4: Venture Funding (synonyms: profit, new car, new wife...)
really stupid. However you implement a feature that will tell the box you bought 'this DVD is special' someone will sell for $10 a device to make the disc box thingy think all the DVD's are special, and they will be filled with a warm fuzzy feeling.
I named my DVD player Colin after I deregioned it, on account of its unnervingly chipper mood.
Up Colin, UP!
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
Well that does it. From now on I'm going to put all my new CDs and DVDs in the microwave for a few minutes first.
This guy's the limit!
This is utterly fucked as a copy-prevention system for DVD, or even for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.
Right now, there are millions of people in the world with their completely legit home movies on home-recorded DVD writeable discs (of assorted formats).
Right now, there are at least tens of thousands of people in the world with shop-bought HD-DVD and Blu-Ray movies. There are probably hundreds of millions of people with shop-bought DVDs.
All the above people will want their discs to continue to work, even if they replace their players due to age. So these hypothetical players must have an ability to play video streams off discs without embedded chips. Which means they'll play pirate movies without chips as well.
This only has a hope in hell of working for region-locking, and there they hit one rather serious problem. ALL the hardware manufacturers know that outside the US, you'll make a lot more money selling a lot more players if you ensure that your region-locking settings are just barely secure enough to avoid the wrath of the DVD Standards Committee, but not enough to stop it being fairly open knowledge how to disable them at home. The public want region-free, and the public get region-free.
For instance, it's pretty much known that the "standard" Toshiba handset hack will work to disable the region locks on the legacy DVD portion of their upcoming HD-E1 and HD-EX1 HD-DVD players, and they aren't even in reviewers hands yet.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
How playing "out of region" DVDs is bad?
... but I live in Canada. Why would it be bad for me, or the producers of the media, for me to BUY a copy and have it shipped here?
Suppose I'm a fan of movies made in France
What they really should call that is "out of monopololistic control zone."
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
If they want to allow "new DVDs" to play on old DVD players, and old DVDs on new players, they're facing problems implementing the stuff in a way that wouldn't be trivial to circumvent in a pirated disc played on consumer players. Specifically, they'd need all DVD disks to contain a data block whose contents would be signed by secret key available only to the content owner. The block would be always verified with a public key on the player and the status of RFID availability and related data from the block. (Failure to verify that disk contents are authentic would prevent playing - obviously contents and usage of this block should have been carefully designed in the original DVD standard with DRM in mind to make it actually effective.) This data would be combined with tamper-safely stored key on the hardware to encrypt a challenge sent to crypto-RFID on the disc, would be processed, challenge sent back and verified. This would be the only reasonably bulletproof method to implement this stuff in any way I can see.
I don't know about DVD standard in depth required here, but even if the data block with mentioned properties exists on all DVDs nowadays, there are problems. And I don't believe one exists. The protection method described here wouldn't provide any protection against fully software-driven decoding without *very* cumbersome safeguards on computer hardware. Of course, they want to push such hardware. Only way for these things to work properly (if DRM can work "properly" at all) is to design these things from scratch. Fortunately the content owners don't have the power to ban existing CD and DVD players or even phase those formats out of the market overnight... but if they had, they'd certainly do it.
Well I smell the slow, painfull death of disk based distribution coming sooner than expected. RFID will not save the industry, it will siply cost everyone involved billions of dollars. In the end, once consumers realize that they can no longer access their music or movie because the rfid tag is dead, they will abandon ship and start downloading. It may be legal services, it may be illegal means, but either way they will stop buying disks.
I'm not buying any new players until after the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray competition is done with. Come to think of it, I'm pretty much not buying any more movies either right now. Of course this reduces the pressure on me to upgrade to an HD TV. And at this point, I probably won't get an HD TV until after the format war is settled unless my current TV dies.
Obviously, it is. It is "illegal copying", not stealing. These are materially different. These are so materially different that you should sit down and think carefully through why I'm saying the following until you get it (and shut up about the topic until you have gotten it): When you are labelling illegal copying as stealing, you cannot think clearly about it.
See my previous comments on Slashdot if you need hints. Oh, and I'm one of those "content creators" you want to "protect".
Doubting the existence of evolution is like doubting the existence of China: It just shows that you're uninformed.
Another option is to make noise in the system. Use a carosel to play the first track or chapter of a disk 24 hours a day. If enough noise gets introduced, the system will be useless.
Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely unintentional side effect.--Linus Torvalds
The company I work for develops an RFID system used in libraries. We use small donut-shaped tags that fit around the hub of the libraries' CD/DVDs. We've used several different RFID designs (different readers, different RFID ICs attached to different antennas) designed in house and off-the-shelf. We're lucky to get 6 inches of read range, let along 6 meters. The metal on the discs themselves often hurts performance; especially on cd/dvd boxes contain multiple discs. Multiple tags in very close proximity often cause the tags to "couple", rendering then useless. We had to develop special boxes that would keep the dics far enough apart and attach secondary booster antennas in the tray to even hope to get reliable reads and extremely short distances. Worry about RIFD tags on the boxes, not on the discs.
I am in the same situation, I have my same 32" normal CRT, not even a flat screen, lasted me for years, I have no plans on getting a larger TV, or even HD till HD content is standard. That being said, although my TV currently functions just fine, as does my old no name brand DVD player, the TV is being wierd, its randomly turning off every now and then. So I may end up getting a new TV, who knows, but it will still not be an HD thats for sure.
I came, I conquered, I coredumped
...from the off-center weight of the chip... makes the drive hum and vibrate enough to scare consumers.
A few damaged DVD players might put the kibosh on this scheme.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
And what exactly has this to do with RID chips in DVDs?
Yeah, I'm just itching to buy into a new technology that can have its capabilities reduced after I've bought it. Remind me to sign the EULA with disappearing ink, seeing as how that's what they're using to write the feature list...
Pi Ran Out
...that the actual sales of the protected disks are not detectably higher than the sales of the unprotected disks, while the extra manufacturing costs are a meaningful nibble out of the profit.
Of course, I have always wondered whether the push to DRM is actually driven by any clear-headed, realistic, cost/benefit analysis based on good, real data... or whether it's an irrational emotional response on the part of media executives. Or the result of very good, misleading sales pitches by the vendors of DRM technology.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Actually you do want to consider an HD TV at that point. Unless you think it'll be more than 5 years befoe you'll be buying an HD TV.
What I don't get is why can't the people who manufacture the hardware just tell the MPAA/RIAA to just get fucked. I'm certain that the manufactures know DRM is a dead end and know customers like me hate this crap. When I buy a new player/recorder I want it to do something that adds value to my music/movie experience; not hobble it with restrictions (reduced resolution or forced hardware upgrades etc).
"I bow to no man" - Riddick
It still needs some way to acquire the RFID info, even if it's capable of decyphering it. If the sensor is on the chip, ok, wrap the chip up in tinfoil.
Some way or another, it has to read the RFID chip.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
If they could somehow make you pay per view, they would. But it's more like 5 bucks, not cents.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
You see, the first batch to be produced will be of films which haven't previously been released on DVD - so you can't make a direct comparison (except possibly "it did so well in the cinema, how come nobody's buying the DVD? Must be the pirates....") and I really doubt there will be two side-by-side versions in the shops which are identical in every way except for the RFID chip.
The customer's role in the free market is that of the chooser. He chooses the manufacturer whose products meet his expectations and thus this manufacturer gets money, stays in business, can make better products, etc.
This role can only be fulfilled if he has any kind of choice, though. And, no matter where you look, today, that choice is lacking. You cannot choose between the HDDVD-Player with or without DRM. It is FORBIDDEN to manufacture a HDDVD player that circumvents DRM (or doesn't implement it).
Free market is broken. Let's hope someone realizes and fixes it before it's beyond repair.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
The main quote that interests me is the one from a senior guy at Toshiba promising never to do this. So I'm not that worried. The steering committee for the format continue to discuss the idea of future players having region locking, but it's not part of AACS, so they can't force it on currently-available players.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
How will they be addressing the uneven weighting this sort of addition will create? Unless they counter-balance it with an equally weighted "slug" on the opposite side of the disc, it could potentially render devices sensitive to disc wobble unable to read the data stored on these discs.
8==8 Bones 8==8
How about using this in a non-evil way? Like using an RFID scanner to track your CDs. You can detect if the box contains the wrong DVD (not the one written on the label). Or answer the "what DVDs are in my suitcase" question.
I wouldn't say making copies is illegal. But I hadn't assumed that the "other alternatives" the original poster mentioned were making copies of legally-purchased ones.
One of the many things I hate. thingsihate.org
If the disc itself can withstand a EMP pulse, just build yourself a RFID Zapper.
\
I say slashdotters should start a new campaign against this.
"The Terrorists will win if you buy RFID DVDs! Think of the children!"
I often have trouble remembering which way is out of bed in the morning.
Can someone say SLIPPERY SLOPE? Nice thinking things out before you post.
immediately after buying one of these DVD's or CD's whip out some duct tape and tape each disc case publically to show them your opposion to the RFID chip. seriously though, I agree with stopping piracy but the article also said out of region discs as well that means if you move you lose your entire DVD collection soemthing I'm not sure anyone has mentioned yet. why can't I watch a movie I've legally bought in North America in Europe?
But if the consumer can obtain that companies goods for a fraction of the cost by purchasing it in Singapore, India, or China. . . well, that just can't be tolerated! It's an act of piracy to get things from another region because they are cheaper! The government should do something!
Region coding is one of the most transparently hypocritical piles of corporate BS there is. If the price they want to charge people in well-off nations like the US and the UK won't sell anywhere else in the world, Boo Hoo for them. They just haven't remained competetive in the global marketplace, and need to accept their new place in the world economy. If you want to make it more affordable for people world-wide, then make it more affordable for everyone world-wide. Region coding is bad, it artificially segregates the market.
If fate makes you a motorcycle, you become a motorcycle.
Soon they will need you to plug up to a lie detector test before you can watch a movie.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
stupid, stupid, stupid. I feel theres nothing else to say.
Wow.. out of all the stupid ideas out there.. lets update on a current already going out of date format by adding another minimal secuirty none realistic device to it. The main flaw with this is that the format they wish to secure is already going out of date. The main reason why it is still so big is because everybody already has hardware that enables them to play it. By using cds and dvds which are already going to brake way to blue-ray and other hd formats comming out the cd and dvd are going to go the way of the dinos. Nobody is going to be willing to buy another DVD player or CD player just to play a new CDs and DVDs with RFID tags. Not to mention the cost of equiping a DVD player or CD player with a RFID writer and reader.. ON THE FUN NOTE THO! Wouldnt it be nice to make a few modifications to your walkmen and have a mobile RFID read/writer you could make do what you want? Think of it.. The madness!
Hey there, this is lightfingered Lenny, your freidnly neighbourhood housebreaker, I used to have to case my joints pretty thoroughly but soon all I'll have to do is walk down the street with an aggressive RF scanner and I'll be able to see which houses have expensive consumer electronics gear in them.
Because my reader is so adaptable, I'm also going to branch out into ID theft with my mate Frankie the Forger.
Its a good job that people don't think too hard about security before implementing things like RF devices, otherwise I'd have to go back to working hard for my crooked living.
I wonder when car makes take ideas from Hollywood and "enhance" their cars with region encoding features. For example your US-bought car would stop working when it's built-in GPS receiver would detect that you are trying to drive it in Europe. Sorry dude - this is not a Fair Use, not authorized - buy a new car ... .. how come region encoding is legal ? - I would expect the fair use clauses in US law to easily defeat it ... if not we can expect it in other products, watches, clothes, food, furniture when GPS tech will be cheap enough ...
Not buy the player.
It's true no man is an island, but if you take a bunch of dead guys and tie 'em together, they make a good raft.
Assuming they're not going to EOL the millions of existing RFID-free DVDs, it should be a simple matter to destroy the RFID chip at which point it will be just another DVD. Perhaps a very short (1-2 second) cooking in a microwave would destroy the chip without destroying the media? Something will be found to disable the chip, of that I am sure.
I wouldn't worry too much about this. If anything, it seems like Ritek is about to sell a whole bunch of nothing to the labels via a dazzling display of techno-marketing buzzwords. So, now we just sit back, relax, and have a good chuckle as this whole thing blows over.
It is "illegal copying", not stealing. These are materially different.
Actually, no - Failure to obey region coding doesn't even count as copyright violation. It doesn't break ANY laws (except, in just a few countries, if you circumvent the access control mechanism involved) whatsoever.
Industry cartels (generally illegal, but somehow they've gotten away with this in the movie and video game industries) have NO authority of enforcement whatsoever. Thus the "need" for various forced region coding schemes on their part in the first place.
OK, I read the article and still have no idea how this will deter copying. If I place an RFID enabled movie into the DVD burner on my computer, rip the movie and then burn the result to DVD-R, how will the RFID player have any idea that I am playing a copied movie? Are they suggesting that future DVD players equipped with this technology will only play discs that contain an RFID chip, meaning all of my legacy DVD movies or burned home videos on DVD would be useless on such a player? Such a player would be next to useless and would be immediately returned to the store after the consumer returns home and pops the first legacy DVD into the player that won't play.
If that is not the case and the RFID enabled players will play legacy/burned DVD movies just fine, then the entire RFID protection system is useless.
The logic of how this would work utterly escapes me.
Does this mean I can use my Chinese CD/DVD collection as a US passport?
"If your parents never had children, chances are you wonât either." -Dick Cavett
I suppose it depends on where they put the RFID. I was thinking they'd put it in the central plastic hub.
Bork Bork Bork!!
So what happens if a large company who makes desks and things does a massive cock up and exports a whole load of desks to the the wrong country. Its all more of less flat pack build it stuff isnt it ? Hows a few guys in a wherrhouse meant to know which is for japan and which is for the US / UK etc.. when they have a whole loads of boxes that all say the same thing and contain the same thing. I am sure it will be intresting when some kid in class gets region flipped by his portable cd player. When the teacher asks whats wrong he could replay my CD player things i am in Japan etc...
ok then. You do that, and I'll make sure your company's content doesn't get played on any of my hardware - legit or not.
>Their making undesirable changes to the product
>is reason enough for you to steal it,
Why would you ever have to do that? It would be much easier to, for example, make a copy of of it instead. In many cases that would actually turn out to be legal (as oposed to stealing it).
This one's easy; just put a counterweight of equal mass on the disc, opposite the chip...
"I like systems, their application excepted", George Sand (French)
I'm guessing, it involves a black magic marker. . .
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
True enough. I wouldn't care what they do to DVDs for security if they were consistent in their idea that the content is 'licensed', and not bought. If they were, I could get a replacement for the disk that my kid destroyed for the price of the plastic and the postage.
Region coding does nothing to stop piracy, and copy controls hamper fair use. What's not to like about a new layer of "protection"?
Yep, it's true, brands like Teac, Tokai, S&V etc they all have cheap DVD players that all do the same thing and do it well for the price you pay. The big-brands still need to sell DVD players or they'd miss out on a huge market. Buying anything with a big-brand label on it has it's advantages:
Yeah, I may work at a retailer, but I still buy brands like Teac. That doesn't mean that everyone else will. People aren't "stupid" for buying big brand items, but this doesn't make them "smart" for not buying Teac.
It all depends on what you want out of what you buy.
Vobcopy, deploy!
The drive in my set-top DVD player is going out. [aww] Luckily it can be replaced with a standard DVD-Rom for a computer. [yay!] Unfortunately, it's pretty hard to find 1x drives these days, so the new drive is going to be pretty loud. [aww]
all you have to do is color over the chip with a black felt tip marker...
Won't it be funny when the first RFID enabled DVD player comes out and the hack to play copied (non tagged) disks is to simply leave a legit disk on the top of the player for it to detect...
Watch the next DVD ad you see on TV. Seriously.
..AAs') claims that content is merely "licensed." They know better, and as a consumer, you should know your rights as well.
Do thet say "license the movie today?" No. It's "Own Lion King on DVD today." "OWN Narnia on DVD today." "Own the original trilogy on DVD today."
Please stop parroting those idiots' (read idiots' as:
They (the content producers themselves) re promoting the indisputable fact that you OWN the copy of that content. The only thing you CANNOT legally do with it is infringe on copyright law, aside from the exceptions provided for by the fair use clause.
If the content were a work for hire, it might be a different story, depending on the basis of the contract under which you had them create the content for you. No, DVDs are commodity goods, and when you buy it, you OWN it. Period.
$.02
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
This whole thing has been around before. About a year ago, a similar announcement made the rounds with similar uproar. The fact that much of this proposed technology is so pointless (I mean, DVD's are already region coded, and it probably COSTS studios far more than it helps.) gives one pause.
This whole thing has the smell of an unproven technology (remember "Dark Noise"?) and a developer who is desperate for someone - anyone - to invest in his "snake-oil", hopefully raking in as much cash as possible before the studios discover that the technology is worthless.
This won't work. For example, I almost always play legally owned or rented DVDs. The rest are burnt from my DVD burner. An RFID-aware DVD player wouldn't be able to tell if my DVD-R contained videos of my nephew or an illegally downloaded movie.
Likewise, this won't work in overseas markets where pirated DVDs are common. Enterprising pirates will just manufacture DVD players that are immune to the system.
No, I will not work for your startup
Region encoding is absolutely worthless. Think about it: Someone buys a CD in Asia, and pirates it. Now if they do a direct copy of the CD, it can't be played in players in America. But if they rip it and reencode it, [b]which they are going to do anyway[/b], then it doesn't matter. All it does is piss of legitimate customers.
I perfectly agree with your sentiment as to region coding, I just don't agree that was what I and the guy I replied to was talking about. Well, I can't really know what *he* was talking about, but it didn't seem to be region coding, and I know I wasn't :)
Doubting the existence of evolution is like doubting the existence of China: It just shows that you're uninformed.
Eivind.
Doubting the existence of evolution is like doubting the existence of China: It just shows that you're uninformed.
Let the blacklisting of RFID players begin!
quia potentia mens mentis