A Chip on DVDs Could Prevent Theft

Dieppe writes "A simple chip added to a DVD disk could prevent retail theft. According to the AP article at MSNBC, the chip would be activated at the register to make a previously dark area of the DVD clear, and therefore readable. Could this help to stem the tide of the approximate $400 million dollars in losses from brick and mortar stores? Game console DVDs could also be protected this way too. Could this help to bring the prices down on DVD games and movies?"

Comments

"A Chip on DVDs Could Prevent Theft"

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not theft! It's copyright infring... oh wait.

Re:"A Chip on DVDs Could Prevent Theft"

[Daengbo]

This "protection mechanism" will be broken, just like every other one has been. If it only need to be activated, professional criminals will have access to the tools necessary to activate the DVD player. It will be useless and only aggravate the life of the consumer, so it will come and go just like other protection systems.

Re:"A Chip on DVDs Could Prevent Theft"

[Daengbo]

I wasn't confused. The mechanisms are strikingly similar, though. The chip is activated at the register and the DVD is now readable. Professional thieves will have access to the method of activation because that's what they do. Thieves have tools related to their trade. Steal a set of DVDs just like you always did, activate them, and sell them (or, more likely steal them and fence them to a man who has the tools). It will stop the theft of DVDs for only about 15 minutes, all the while introducing another level of complexity and failure into the legal purchase process.

Re:"A Chip on DVDs Could Prevent Theft"

[CmdrGravy]

There's been a number of occasions when I've bought stuff and the staff have forgotten to remove the security tags or they haven't been deactivated properly. At the moment that only means you might set off the alarm on the way out of the store or in other stores but with this system it may mean you get home and find the DVD is unplayable which means a trip back to the store for a replacement.

Re:"A Chip on DVDs Could Prevent Theft"

[jimicus]

Which isn't going to be particularly easy if you meet a clerk who is under the impression that the deactivation process is 100% perfect and the only way you could possibly have a DVD which is unreadable is because you stole it.

Re:"A Chip on DVDs Could Prevent Theft"

[packeteer]

This whole idea is a misunderstanding of basic economics. The price of anything is based on the maximum price the seller can sell it for while maximizing the number of items sold. Basically, the cost of producing goods has nothing to do with what they are sold for. You first determine the most money you can make by selling an item, then you decide if the profit margin is thick enough for you. If you determine that people wont pay enough to make up the cost of the item you don't sell it. If you find out they will pay what it costs and then some you will almost certainly sell it.

It's that simple. Theft and fraud do not bring the price of goods up. When shopping carts are stolen from the supermarket it does not raise the cost of food. If they could have possibly raised the price before they would have already done it. Theft cuts into profits but it absolutely does not raise the price for the consumer.

Hahahah

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

"Could this help to bring the prices down on DVD games and movies?"

No, but it could raise the profit margin.

Preemptive Strike!

[dj_tla]

Article should read At home, using a cheap Chinese device, the chip is activated and sends an electrical pulse through the coating, turning it clear and making the disc playable.
China thanks you for creating another black market for it to thrive in.

Reduce... prices?

[straponego]

Oh yeah. That's what they're working on. They got a dozen guys on it. They got 'em working in shifts!

/me wanders off, cackling

Why steal retail?

[fugu]

Wouldn't it just be easier to download the movie instead of risking getting caught shoplifting? =p

Re:Why steal retail?

[adona1]

Absolutely not. Some of us prefer to have a physical media, a printed cover, DVD extras and the like. I can't be having with any of this fiddling with codecs, badly burnt discs, questionable quality...and above all, the illegality. Downloading a film deprives the studios, the actors and the crews involved in making a film.

So that's why I always steal the DVDs from stores :)

Will it lower the cost?

[wtfbbq]

No, people that steal wouldn't buy if they couldn't steal. The price of the dvd themselves + the burning is very cheap and the theft is really only worth the physical amount. People that steal likely aren't going to be buying if they couldn't steal. If they can't steal physically they will turn to downloading or getting a blockbuster membership and turn to ripping/burning. If anything, this added ability will just make the checkout lines in Best Buy take longer. Oh, it will also increase the production costs and the machine that will 'validate' the dvd will likely INCREASE the cost. I'm not an endorser of people stealing, but I doubt this would have anything but a negative effect. Hell, if the 'validation' fails 1 outta 100 times the whole system will likely collapse and it will just be a huge waste of money.

Cop Math

[rueger]

Retail theft of entertainment products, including video games, accounts for as much as $400 million in annual losses, according to the Entertainment Merchants Association.

I just love those numbers. I'm much more concerned about the estimated $120 million in lost productivity resulting from time spent dealing with broken shoelaces, and the estimated $275 million in annual losses to people who are shortchanged by hot dog vendors.

How about a moratorium on all numbers that were pulled out of a PR guy's ass?

Re:LOL

[Strilanc]

A drop in the price isn't worth it. You know how every once in awhile someone walks out of the store and the alarm goes off because a cashier didn't deactivate a tag correctly? Imagine that happening, but you only find out after an hour-long drive home.

History Says: Prices will go Up.

[Domo-Sun]

it should lower the markup on the DVD's because they don't need to recoup their (real world physical) losses due to theft.

Isn't that what the record industry said when CD's came out?

"The price will come down."

Then, they changed it to, "Well, you're getting better quality. That's why CD's are so expensive."

How is this any better

[Gregory Cox]

than putting an empty case on the shelf, and having the shop assistant put the DVD in the case/exchange it for a full case at the register? Is that too difficult for stores to do?

Re:Sorta cool

[networkBoy]

Mine did.
When I contacted Disney about a replacement disk at cost (not retail) I was told "tough shit". When I pointed out that had they not used rip-guard and other countermeasures to me making a backup, and as such I expected them to make a good faith effort to replace my damaged disk, they said "tough shit, buy a new one". When I pointed out that the disk was over a year old and out of production, they said "tough shit, try e-bay". So I did and I found a really inexpensive (Chinese "overrun") authentic disk.
See if I buy Disney media anything ever again, it's off to TPB and netflix + anydvd + dvd decrypter.

Back onto the topic at hand, TFA mentions that this tech is applicable to other products as well, I wonder how soon till the regularly missed activation gets consumers pissed about coming back, and gets the customer service reps numb to the issue, such that freshly pilfered merchandise can be activated at the customer service desk rather than the register?

One of my mates worked at Office Depot. Someone stole a display computer, walked it over to the service desk, made up some bogus issue with the ($2000) PC, balked at the estimate, and carried "their" PC out the door, with the staff holding the door for them!
Same thing will happen with this tech.
-nB