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Warner Bros: New Program To Digitize Your DVDs
shoutingloudly writes "Warner Brothers has just announced a new 'Disc-to-Digital' program to convert your DVDs into digital files that you can play on your internet-connected computers. As the helpful Public Knowledge graphics demonstrate, all you have to do is find a participating store, drive there, pay again for your movie, wait while it's ripped for you, drive home, and hope it works. This will surely have tech-savvy movie fans saying, 'Brilliant! I've been looking for an excuse to uninstall this free, 1-step DVD ripper that I can use in the comfort of my own home. This is much better than DMCA reform.'"
In exchange for paying a bit more you might get a higher resolution copy (DRM encumbered and stored in "the cloud"). The launch process is absurdly cumbersome, but: "Later on, Internet retailers like Amazon.com will email customers to offer digital copies of DVDs they previously bought. Eventually, consumers will be able to put DVDs into PCs or certain Blu-ray players that will upload a copy, similar to the way people turn music CDs into MP3 files." Will the video distributors ever offer DRM-free files that you own? The music industry doesn't seem to be any worse off than they were when they insisted upon DRM.
Wow, what a deal.
Seriously, who the hell is in charge at Warner Home Video these days? When DVD first came out in 1997, Warner was one of the leaders in DVD's. They offered the best extras, were the first to make anamorphic DVD's their standard (meaning my first Warner DVD's still look pretty good even on a HDTV), and were real cheerleaders for the format back when a lot of people were saying things like "Why would Joe Sixpack want to give up his VHS tapes?" and "Laserdisc looks so much better" (I kid you not, those were prominent arguments against DVD in those days).
But in the last few years, their home video department has went to shit. Their support for early HD-DVD and blu-ray was weak. Their blu-ray discs these days are almost as annoying with the upfront/unskippable trailers as Sony. Even their extras seem weak these days.
You used to be cool, Warner.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
It's already digital.
DVDShrink, VLC media player, MakeMKV...take your pick.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
There are analog DVDs?
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
I didn't see Handbrake on that page of search results from Freecode so I thought I'd offer this up as well. Fairly simple interface, runs flawlessly on Windows 7 and Ubuntu for me. Open source and easy way to get DVDs into m4v format. Plus there are preset resolutions for things like iPhones, iPods and I found the resolution for a PSP. So basically I spend my flights with circumaural Sennheisers and Futurama or MST3K playing on my PSP -- the worse part about that setup being that Sony's memory card cost me a ton. So far it's ripped the blu-rays I've put in just fine as well.
Rip them to m4v and host them with PS3 Media Server and then they're good to play over your network to your PS3 or XBox 360 (and probably any other UPnP compliant device).
Do I feel guilty that I have shelled out $35+ for each of the 22 sets of MST3K and each season of Futurama and then violated copyright to move said shows onto any device capable of playing video? Not one fucking bit. Go ahead and do your little song and dance, I've got my shit figured out (thank you open source!).
My work here is dung.
Let me guess -- deCSS is for criminals, because it allows people to rip DVDs on their own, without paying for the privilege, and without requiring an Internet connection to watch?
Palm trees and 8
DVDs are already digital.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
then why am I allowed to watch it as many times as I want? It seems like being able to have unlimited free viewings of the movie would infringe on some sort of DRM protections. I'm surprised they are not arguing that I need to pay per viewing as if I kept going back to the theater. After all, those who own a DVD of a movie will not go back and buy more copies, thus taking business away from movie producers the MPAA studios honest hard-working people.
"The music industry doesn't seem to be any worse off than they were when they insisted upon DRM."
Yeah... because don't use it anymore. At least, most of them have wised up and have dropped their DRM schemes. Where they did have DRM, they lost money.
Now if only some of the game makers would similarly wise up. Like you, Ubisoft.
And all this time, I thought the first D in DVD stood for "Digital". Apparently, I was wrong - it probably stands for DRM.
Heaven forbid the target market for a service should get to voice complaints about the service being marketed to them. What a day to run out of mod points.
my.mp3.com's matching was a decade+ ahead of its time. You inserted your CD, it matched it, and then gave you access to mp3s you could stream wherever. Of course, it was so far ahead of its time that it was sued out of existence. Nice to see it only took them, and iTunes Match, a decade or so to catch up and re-do it.
This idea ranks right up there with the "Jump to Conclusions" mat. Nice job Warner Bros.
DVD's are already digital. No "digitization" is required.
...people who own standard DVDs will have the option of getting a high-definition digital copy for an extra fee.
Oh right. "HD." Is that upscaled-DVD "HD" or barely 720p "HD"?
Eventually, consumers will be able to put DVDs into PCs or certain Blu-ray players that will upload a copy, similar to the way people turn music CDs into MP3 files.
Yes. That already exists. Except they want to put it in the cloud, so the movie you bought, then paid extra for to have in non-physical form, can still be completely controlled by them. Sure, that'll work. /sarcasm
"None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
If they let you take it home, then you could give it to your friend, so he could also pay for a wonderful "cloud" copy.
So I am thinking they will confiscate your DVD. Ha ha.
Will the video distributors ever offer DRM-free files that you own?
It is the position of the movie industry that you are renting viewing rights with any movie purchase and nothing more. So no, they will never, ever offer files that consumers "own". Some people will actually take them up on this "offer" but it won't be very many.
Everything important has been proven for you already:
-Distribution
-Payment
And yet you guys still think you won't make money because at best you regard your customers as thieves and regard your media as a fungible asset instead of a service.
If you made it cheap and easy for me to buy and download stuff you'd not only tap into the much broader market that's already there but you'd corner the lazy factor AND potentially crush the real thieves who press fake DVDs and pass them off as legit.
Stop being afraid of taking the next step. Go for the Win.
...but they just can't kill the beast (that is the extant movie industry).
Anyone remember when you could get self-destructing DVD's that had an oxidizing layer that only made them good for a few days? That flopped, then IIRC Disney bought and tried to resurrect the tech.
Anytime these somebody at one of these companies gets an idea on how to put a fence around their users, they try it. The general idea seems to be if you throw enough shit at the wall, some of it is bound to stick.
Every time I hear of one of these crackpot schemes I don't know whether to laugh or cry, but I do get an image in my mind of Daffy Duck going "mine, mine, mine, mine" as he shrinks away.
The music and television references in the above are there because I want them to be. Issues a takedown if you must!
Silence is a state of mime.
No Thanks...
"I bow to no man" - Riddick
Good finally, I have a use for my DIVX disks besides coasters.
Or you could just fire up iTunes and have it rip the DVD for you. Oh, wait, no you can't because the consortium including the company launching this service refuses to provide a DVD license to companies producing software that does this and lobbied for laws that make it possible for them to go after companies that do.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
You would have wasted mod points on an AC post? And here I thought Warner Bros was the idiot of the thread...
Just how much bandwidth do they think we have? Almost all home internet packages are capped, and don't get me started on how long it would take to upload a Blu-Ray. So in addition to paying their extra fees, I might have to pay for the extra bandwidth needed to upload my own movies as well... It's a nice idea, but not thought through very well.
Yeah, I know this post really adds nothing new to this discussion, but I just have to say it. Fuck you, Warner Bros.! I'll rip my DVD's--you know, the ones I paid for--on my own computer, in the comfort of my own home, on my schedule, and I'll watch them anywhere I please. And you know what, if I take a notion, I'll even set up a media server and stream them all over my house. And you won't see one extra penny from any of this.
Oh, and I'll show others how to do the same thing.
You guys had a golden opportunity here. You could have offered digital copies of the movies people already bought for a reasonable price, maybe as a streaming option, but no, you not only decided to charge them, but you went out of your way to make it more inconvenient than it would be if they simply do it themselves. You really are a bunch of geniuses. Please tell us where you got your MBA's so we can all go there and develop the acute business acumen that you obviously possess.
Sorry, wasn't paying attention, too busy downloaded non-DRMed copies via Bittorrent. What were you nattering on about again?
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
DIVX killed Circuit City. Now they wan to kill Best Buy.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Well, that's the thing: Slashdot isn't the target market for this service.
What part of you don't OWN anything just refuses to get through anyone's head around here?
You do. You own a copy. You don't licence it. It's yours.
You don't have the right to copy it but that has nothing to do with ownership of the copy. This is a legal restriction whereby copyright law gives exclusive rights to copy to the copyright holder.
You can do want you want within within the law. You can watch it, you can watch scenes out of order. You can watch it with friends and you can even sell it on. No licence agreement can prevent any of this because none of this involves making a copy.
Middle school children can come up with business strategies more sound than this. But they should at least get some sort of meaningless award for their efforts.
The MPAA and RIAA have been playing the shell game of leasing and owning content with consumers for years. They might have finally stuck their foot in it.
The RIAA is currently going after digital music re-sellers with the argument that consumers licensed the music use and do not own the asset for re-sale. Recently musicians have taken notice of the case because they get a one time payment for each sale. Treating the sale as a license means they are being grossly underpaid.
Now Warner is going to legally re-define your DVD from a sale to a digital license. I have a feeling many of the hundreds of people involved in creating each film will have an opinion about this.
If I own a copy 5GB of data, I'm NOT going to re-download it every time I want to play it. What if my internet access is capped?
I pay when:
I buy the DVD
When they rip it for me
When I download it
When I download it again
When I download it again again
When they want fees for hosting it for me (betcha they will)
Can someone remind me whats in it for me?
Hasn't this business model been tried before, and quashed by the M/RIAA? Perhaps even somewhat famously? Perhaps even more than once? Perhaps even with a much simpler interface that didn't require driving to the store?
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
Do you have a copy of that license I signed? I seem to have misplaced it.
When you exchange money for "something of value", you now have complete control of that thing.
You own it.
You control it.
You can do with it what ever you please.
This has been the case since barter was invented.
When that "something of value" is a so-called license to use some other thing, then it comes with some form of license agreement.
Read any of them and in there you will find a clause that grants one side of the bargain an exclusive right to change the agreement without notice.
If one side has that right, then the other does too.
Even if the agreement says otherwise . Fair is fair, after all
. So...
Whenever you click the "Agree" button, say out loud, "I can do whatever I bloody well please." then agree to that.
There is no need to inform the other party.
They may haul you before the courts, but at least you can do whatever you bloody please with a clear conscience
You can alter all the notices etc on all of the physical media you buy too.
Very liberating!
After seeing 3 decades of this crap, I am astonished the studios still haven't got a clue how people use entertainment.
Once a consumer views a movie it is a rare event to watch it again beyond the first week, unless you have kids.
No. You're fucking wrong.
Signed,
Common Fucking Sense.
Deal with it, or die with your business model.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
I don't think so. I bought a movie on VHS, paid full price for the same title on DVD, then they want even more for a Blu Ray edition. Same with music, I've bought albums on vinyl, then CD, doubtless they'll have their hands out again if 24/96 files ever get released. Yet, they complain about piracy. I'm not adverse to paying a small fee for an upgrade in quality but I'm sure as hell not paying full price over and over again.
Decisions that made the company cool were made by people with real talent. Now the next generation of executives has just inherited (through nepotism and such) the empire, rather than earned it. Since they didn't have to earn it, many meritless executives wound up with tremendous power over the organization. So, it rots from the core.
This is just a normal part of the lifecycle of a large corporation.
Well, if they were running out.. D:
Here all this time I was using handbrake and clicking the encode button!
Judging from Sony's Rootkit fiasco and the content industry's push toward pay-per-view, tethered content, and self-destructing media I no longer trust any application or service from content providers.
Eternity: will that be smoking, or non-smoking? I Corinthians 6:9-10
Not so, they have very explicitly gone on the record as offering ownership rather than renting. "Own" is their word, not mine or my interpretation, in their "own it now on ____" advertising. It's the software industry that has made the weird radical moves of avoiding saying that "sales" have occurred, claiming that "title was never transferred," trying to trick people into looking at their products as services, and so on.
This is a pretty self-destructive industry (their favorite thing to do is tell customers, "We don't want your money, so fuck off and let the pirates take care of your DRM-free needs," but they're not so self-destructive as to retroactively change their position on what happened during previous transations, admit the advertising was fraudulent, and refund decades of sales.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
I've always been bothered by the needless complexity of a lot of disc ripping software. Sure options are nice, but seriously: storage space is dirt cheap these days (minus a certain flood induced shortage) just give me a damned rip button that rips a file of similar quality to the original. Thus I recommend MakeMKV. Extremely awesome software. I have no idea where they get off trying to charge $50 for it, but you can use it for free forever as long as you don't mind reinstalling it every 30 days.
Nero recode did this with an addon that would allow you to do a h264 rip...of course we all cracked and used it anyways....
NOW my xvids gets converted to half size at near same resolution and i traded them all....
YUP SHARED OUT too late....this is like 2002 all over again.
When it comes to this sort of thing, they won't even tolerate the existence of 50K appliances marketed to the 1%.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Let's see here. Rather than takes Valve's approach to things (they are actually successfully competing against 'free,' which is the technological equivalent of making a river flow upstream), they instead take the most ass-way possible to providing 'backups' to customers.
It's like they have some form of a powerful character disorder, where they can see others profiting (legally) through content distribution systems, but can't quite grasp the concept that they need to deliver the content, with minimal fuss, at acceptable pricing, to their customers in order to get some green. Their attempts to create 'new' systems compares favorably with the "Supervisor" sketch from AQHF -> they aren't really new, but for some reason the people creating them think they are. "That's it boys, the problem with the previous system isn't that the customers hated being treated like dogs, it's that the interface wasn't shiny / restrictive enough!"
Allow me to help you with the right DRM system design, since you seem to be suffering from an inability to figure it out yourselves. 1.) The customer should be able to access said content in an off-line mode, without having to provide a fingerprint / urine analysis, 2.) the content should be downloaded to the customer's machine (f*ck streaming), 3.) (and this is key) ensure that you actually keep said content updated (studio releases a change to a scene, because they left a mic visible somewhere? automatically send that out), 4.) ensure pricing (monthly, seasonal) deals (actual deals, not the pathetic jokes that you wish were deals); why? because it undercuts the people who might be setting up factories to stamp out that stuff on DVDs (because you know from finance & accounting, that you can erect a barrier to entry to a market by ensuring that any new players will never be able to recoup their investments; and you can even do that without having to pay off DC), 5.) do not piss off the customer, do not piss off the customer, do not piss on the customer, 6.) while I am sure that you have many other wonderful products you think that customer might be interested in, do not make them mandatory to watch before the customer can watch said purchased content (if you haven't heard the amount of b*tching that goes on whenever you sit through 30 minutes of previews at the theater, or 15 minutes on a DVD, you need only open your window...).
I am John Hurt.
I don't think they intend for anyone to use this. It seems to be there to legally counter the argument that "there is no legal way to format shift our content" that proponents of DMCA and copyright exemptions might make.
They assume that I'd actually want to own any of their DVD's. Does anyone still buy DVD's? F@$ck the WB. They're a dinosaur and dino's are supposed to be extinct. Too late to update your business model now.
"We are just a war away from Amerikastan. When god vs god the undoing of man." Dave Mustaine
Nice to see that other naysayers are out in force here.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
I do not find it at all coincidental that the Studios announce such a thing so closely to the closing of the initial round of comments for Exemptions to Prohibition on Circumvention for the DMCA by the Librarian of Congress. Part of the reply the MPAA put forth against Class 10 was that there was not an overwhelming burden affecting the market. Of course, that would be flat-out HOGWASH, as the opposing commenters in the Class pointed out...but looookie here! There is a service that does just that! No need to approve such exemptions!
Hopefully the Librarian of Congress does not fall for this onerous slight-of-hand. (However, I am not exactly confident of that.)
Scott
"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid."
That I've only bought a license to the media that I've bought then what is the point in buying it? If they're insisting that all the media I've paid money for I don't really own, that I have to use it on their terms then why the fuck am I spending money on any media at all?
Think about it this way, if you lost the ability to use the internet (Mobile or otherwise), what would you do?
Watch a movie? Well no because Time-Warner have put your movie collection into the cloud.
Listen to some music? No because you've subscribed to an online streaming service, or put all your music into the cloud.
With movies, music and other media. People simply want to own their collection. After all, they paid top dollar for it, some people get pretty boastful about their media library, they like the idea that in their theatre room there are thousands of movies, television shows, documentaries and what-not on tap ready to watch. How far are these media cartel group have their heads jammed up their own arses not to come to this basic realisation? Consumers have been afforded this luxury for almost half a century in one form or another, why would they want to backtrack now?
If you want to make your product economically unviable and restrict the ways in which a paying customer can enjoy their purchase, then piracy will always be the better option and if you want to hang on to these bullshit notions of licensing and rights managements, so be it but I won't afford this cartel and iota of sympathy when profits turn to losses and jobs turn to redundancies.
And if I sell one of these DVD's that I took into the 'magical' Kiosk say at my tag sale...can the purchaser now do the same? What if I buy a used movie? Am I SOL? (that's a rhetorical question because we are ALWAYS SOL when it comes to DRM...)
My kids have barely seen a DVD, and when I tell them how to play them: (1) go over to bookshelf, and (2) pick a DVD clamshell, then (3) insert into.... they have already lost interest, and are watching the same show on the PC from some preripped source (maybe hulu or whatnot)
Ripping is even more involved, and would likely not happen, and I agree, Rather than ripping, we usually just find a ripped version to download. It usually starts playing in seconds, and is downloaded in minutes. We have a large collection of DVDs, probably over 1000, and they have not been touched for a long time. The DVD player is stored away in closet, and replaced with a PC (the PC was cheaper than the 1080p upconverter)
don't cut it off www.mgmbill.org
Whoa whoa whoa, folks! When I posted this story, I certainly didn't intend to spark a discussion of various means of violating 17 USC 1201(a). I expect you all to (a) call your lawyers, and (b) consult your nearest spiritual adviser for immediate legal and moral correction. (In all seriousness, thanks to Unknown Lamer for crediting me with the link to freecode. It's a way more diverse and cross-platform list of rippers than I would have included. I just figured that nobody needed my help.) Also, don't forget to tune in to hear the results from the triennial DMCA exemption proceedings, as administered by the Copyright Office. As PK notes in their post, they've filed for an exemption to make it legal when end users rip DVDs for personal use. While the process has been better in recent rounds, don't hold your breath. When Oscar Gandy and I did an analysis of the first two rounds, we condemned the process as a Kafka-esque exercise (pdf) administered by a captured agency. (OK, that's enough of a self-promotional victory lap.)
Do you geeks ever stop crying about anything? If you already own it and find the service unsatisfying just don't use it.
(first world) Problem solved!
Right, because it is perfectly legal to make digital copies of your own media for personal use.
Wait, actually it IS legal, except companies like Warner Brothers have been trying to make it illegal via laws like DCMA.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
At first, I thought this sounded like iTunes Match, but for movies - load disc copy of movie into PC, receive rights to the original high-definition video file stored on Warner's servers. An easy and painless way to "launder" your collection of DVDs, no questions asked, with the kicker that each digital file is going to be DRM'ed and watermarked to prevent you from seeding it to The Pirate Bay. I'm sure most users would consider this a fair trade, even with an associated yearly fee, as they are getting something of value for very little effort - but it turns out I was wrong, and this is the most retarded idea they've come up with yet.
And what's your fucking point again? The law clearly states that you can take the damned 1s and 0s and move them somewhere else for your listening/viewing pleasure.
They'll also back up your movie to this magical black box that has tape in it. Yeah, *video* tape! Can you imagine? What sorcery is this? Even duct tape can't do that! The backup isn't quite as high quality as the DVD, but what peace of mind isn't worth that, eh?
If the magic tape back up fails, they will send you a printed flip book of the movie and an out of work actor to do the voices as you flip.
and i thought the 'digital copy' codes that ship with dvds/blu-rays was a fail idea. this takes the cake (and eats it, too, apparently).
...
Just like i never used anything that even smelled like DRM, this too i will skip over like yet another turd i don't feel like stepping in.
If they are hell bent on this scheme why not at least make it convenient, like this:
0. put your dvd in your dvd drive
1. go to http://www.somewebsite.com
2. input credit card info
3. have some applet rip it, upload it and DRM it
4. give you a link to it.
The MPAA is fighting three things in human nature, ... er ... like bits on a DVD.
** humans expect things to become cheaper over time, especially things that appear to have unlimited production
** we want to pay a "fair price" for the content; we don't want to steal it.
** we want to feel like we own it and can use it in the way **we** like; not with what seems to be arbitrary restrictions.
** we want the solution to be easy
Any solution to the problem needs to address each of these requirements.
* Convenience - it needs to be easier than driving to a store or ordering from Amazon for delivery in a few days.
* Any more restrictions than an MPEG2 file will fail. Content needs to be without DRM. Many people will never own Bluray devices over this situation. I will not until the DRM is easily removed. I don't own any Bluray devices today. DVD quality is good enough.
* Easy - if I can download the content, marked with my personal data somehow, and burn it myself, legally, this is a win-win.
* Costs - not shipping DVDs around the world for sale will be cheaper. Not having to buy and print DVDs will be cheaper.
"Buying" a new release DVD at 480p for download at $4 seems like the right price. Allow 1 download of prior purchases every 3 years to limit the "stream it" crowd and prevent wasted bandwidth. Encourage proper data backup methods. $5 is too much, especially without any physical media provided. If I need to provide the media and bandwidth myself, it needs to be cheaper.
A movie that is 2 yrs old should get cheaper ... $3.
Every year older drops the price $0.50 to a minimal $1 price. There are some really bad movies from the 70s and 80s that I'd happily pay a $1 to download - most never made it to DVD - even a VHS transfer would be appreciated.
They could sell a monthly package of downloads to get people subscribing. I'd probably pay $20/month if I could keep the movies. 8-10 DVD downloads in a month with 3 as "new releases", so 5-8 would be older movies.
The netflix model does not interest me. It leaves me missing the "I own it" part in the same way that I want to own a house or a car and not rent or lease them.
Most people I know who rip DVDs do it after purchasing and put it on a media server so their kids don't touch the DVD anymore. That prevents DVD failures due to tiny fingers and contact scratches.
If they want to charge a buck or so for the labor of digitizing the DVD, burning it onto a new memory stick, handling all the plastic, etc., that's fine. I probably won't use the service, but it's reasonable. On the other hand, if they want to charge me a higher price for a license to view the intellectual property that I've already paid for, no, that's Piracy and I want no part of it :-)
Meanwhile, I've bought DVDs that have some stupid Macrovision copy protection on them, and I can't play them on my Tivo's DVD drive because my TV has a built-in VCR, and something about it triggers the copy protection so the picture keeps dimming in and out. Is there any easy way to get rid of it by ripping it onto my PC and then burning a DVD myself, or does the copy protection slip through that?
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Wow, they can digitize my digital versatile discs? That's, like, so versatile!
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
I'm getting to the point that it's hardly worth even renting the things anymore there is so lettle worth watching these days, much less thake home and rip.
To clarify: copyright law has things to say about performance rights as well. For instance, you can't play the DVD in a public place, nor charge people admission to come watch it in your home. This is copyright law, not license agreements.
To play MPAA's advocate: you could also argue* that what you bought was the CSS'd data: you make a copy every time you view it, as it is streamed to some CPU and decoded into data that can then be converted to a viewable analog. THIS copy is made under license, not under sale doctrine, as the decoder is licensed from the MPAA/DVD Consortium, and the DMCA prevents you from circumventing it without their permission.
*You wouldn't, but the MPAA companies probably would, given the chance.
Can I take my DVD to $BIGBOX and pay them just upload it to a torrent so I can download it later?
Ya know, I might just pay them to seed it for me and save my bandwidth.
-- I have a private email server in my basement.
Uhm... I've digitized all my DVDs already. With Hawkeye
Now if they would provide this service for VHS tapes I might actually be interested.
http://www.glasswings.com/
there were so many thousands of people who had uploaded their own music, whether it was indie bands or classical pianists, to mp3.com, and it all got completely obliterated, just wiped clean off the face of the internet.
people say 'oh, once you put something on the net, it will never disappear'. its not true. just not true.
it made no business sense, it made no logical sense. it soured a mass of people on a lot of things having to do with business, music, and the web. of course, now things have changed - and in the end, you cannot stop an idea whose time has come.
warner bros. (through their retail partners) is offering to break drm on non-warner bros. titles?
will disney, sony and others now sue warner bros. for copyright infringement?
let the games begin.
I'm sure that this will be a PITA like all of the others. Just a few days ago, I tried out the Digital Copy feature of a Blu-Ray / DVD video I got, thinking it might be easier than just ripping the DVD.The goal was to get the movie that I bought onto my iPad. I got the video into Itunes after a hitch or two but then I got stuck in DRM hell since I had sync'd my iPad with a different computer that I had. If I wanted to proceed with this computer, it would remove another movie I had bought. I ditched this process and just ripped the DVD. Sheesh.
Is that what caused it?
I had one of those TV/VCR combos in college and had the problem with the video dimming as well. I never linked the copy protection to the dimming. I just assumed with 100s of hallmates with computers, TV, microwaves, and even a few beowulf clusters the electrical infrastructure just couldn't handle the load. I figured that cheap TV just didn't have good enough RF filtering.
"pay again for your movie"
Err... no thanks.
"wait while it's ripped for you"
So, Warner doesn't already have copies of the files that are on the DVDs they sold me? Maybe THEY should pay ME then.
If they want to charge a buck or so for the labor of digitizing the DVD, burning it onto a new memory stick, handling all the plastic, etc., that's fine.
Why would Warner Bros. be using a Memory Stick? I thought Memory Stick was more of a Columbia Pictures thing because Sony owns both Columbia and Memory Stick, and everyone else would use SD or USB.
With this insane scheme, movie studios can claim that there now is a viable legal alternative to piracy
None of this works for any film not yet released on DVD. There are still films that take a year after theatrical release to hit DVD, such as Hop or any other film with a holiday premise. There are still films that haven't been officially released on DVD at all, such as Song of the South.
[Media companies that sell media to us] have forgotten that they are there to serve us.
Not necessarily. I can think of three replies to that:
They can set up shop in all the old Blockbuster stores that are about to close.
so shouldn't video cassette recording be replaced by DVD recording?
My Philips DVD recorder says yes. Mostly I use it for videos of video games because it'll do the right thing with the non-conforming 240p video output of pre-Dreamcast video game consoles, unlike some DVRs that choke on 240p.
i used [VHS] for archiving
Technically that might be illegal, or at the very least not the sort of clearly fair use that Sony v. Universal was about. And even otherwise, why can't you do the same with DVD+R?
How is this not like self-inflicted anal rape?
There are 2 groups of people you can make fun of on the Internet without fear of attack. The illiterate, and the Amish.
Never forget the "Holy Grail" of media publishers has /always/ been "pay per view" and "Copyright in perpetuity". The problem is in the last 50 years they have been allowed to get much closer to their ultimate goal.