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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.
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.
Until someone figures out how to disable the chip?
Put it in the microwave. Oh wait....
Anyone quoted by a reporter knows how little they understand
Don't believe what you read is the truth.
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.
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
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.
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.
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...
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!
New chip to thwart DVD piracy is a long way off and faces considerable challenges
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.
Then you're in violation of the DMCA and may well be arrested. Have you been asleep for the last six years?
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.
You'd still sell the different format discs, encoded for the appropriate country. Just not the region coding. I don't think it would matter though. Australia (PAL) and Mexico (NTSC) are in the same region. And Europe (PAL/SECAM) is in the same region as Japan(NTSC). There have even been a few NTSC region 2 encoded discs sold in Europe. Many people in England import US discs, and they don't complain about the drop in quality.
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.
...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!
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.
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