Warner Bros. Accused of Pirating Anti-Pirating Tech

psycho12345 writes "German firm Medien Patent Verwaltung claims that in 2003, it revealed a new kind of anti-piracy technology to Warner Bros. that marks films with specific codes so pirated copies can be traced back to their theaters of origin. But like a great, hilariously ironic DRM Ouroborus, the company claims that Warner began using the system throughout Europe in 2004 but hasn't actually paid a dime for it."

Comments

Do as I say---

[Darth Sdlavrot]

not as I do.

Re:Do as I say---

[WrongSizeGlass]

not as I do.

Indeed. Like most other entities that try to force everyone else to "play by their rules" or "see things their way", their own rules don't apply to them. This is just like that gaming company that was using someone else's DRM-crack in their own game. I call shenanigans!

Re:Do as I say---

[mcgrew]

Like Sony "stealing" GPL code for it's XCP music CD rootkit malware. These lying theives are all alike, it seems.

Re:Do as I say---

[Golddess]

That's all well and good, except no where in TFA does it state they were using it anywhere before they learned of it in 2003*.

To correct your analogy, it'd be like Ted looking at OMG DRM Pawnies Organizer X from this other company, thinking "hey, this is pretty good", and then using it without licensing it.

*Actually, TFA doesn't say much of anything. Medien Patent Verwaltung filed suit against WB, but they listed one of WB's patents as the infringing patent, and now they will be refiling with the proper patent listed. So we don't really know at this time if they really are infringing on a patent of Medien Patent Verwaltung's.

Re:Do as I say---

[commodore64_love]

Well that's how feudalism works - one set of laws for the serfs and another set for the masters. We need to go back to the ideals of the revolution, where everyone was treated equally under the law. WB should be fined several million dollars.

Re:Do as I say---

[Shakrai]

We need to go back to the ideals of the revolution, where everyone was treated equally under the law. WB's executives should be tarred and feathered.

Fixed that for you :)

Re:Do as I say---

[Anonymous Coward]

Well that's how feudalism works - one set of laws for the serfs and another set for the masters. We need to go back to the ideals of the revolution, where everyone was treated equally under the law. WB should be fined several million dollars.

Close, but not quite. Warner Brothers should be abolished because no abstract entity should have the rights and privileges of being a human being if it cannot also be punished in the same way (including imprisonment and death).

Re:Do as I say---

[ekgringo]

Actually, using the MPAA's example, wouldn't it be more like $100k per person per viewing?

Re:Novel?

[benjymous]

You don't have to worry about giving people bad directions because they're dead-end streets, so nobody will route down them. Nobody is going to be hurt by these little streets in any way.

"Take the third left"?

Is that including the road on the left that's on the map, but doesn't exist in reality.

Re:Watermarking!=Piracy

[SharpFang]

This is novel in a way that the watermark is not spatial but temporal - it only minimally affects the surface of the image, but instead as the image changes over time, the watermark does too, containing much more information than the few points it presents per frame, and being much less obtrusive. Rather original and novel approach.

Re:Novel?

[Anonymous Coward]

Easy fix: only add fake dead end streets to read dead end streets, so the fake dead end only comes into play if your directions tell you to go to the end of a dead end street and continue on.