Sean Parker Is Going To Great Lengths To Ensure 'Screening Room' Is Piracy Free, Patents Reveal (torrentfreak.com)

Napster co-founder Sean Parker has been working on his new service called Screening Room, which when becomes reality, could allow people to watch the latest Hollywood blockbusters in their living room as soon as they premiere at the box office. This week we get a glimpse at the kind of technologies Parker is using to ensure that the movies don't get distributed easily. From a report: Over the past several weeks, Screening Room Media, Inc. has submitted no less than eight patent applications related to its plans, all with some sort of anti-piracy angle. For example, a patent titled "Presenting Sonic Signals to Prevent Digital Content Misuse" describes a technology where acoustic signals are regularly sent to mobile devices, to confirm that the user is near the set-top box and is authorized to play the content. Similarly, the "Monitoring Nearby Mobile Computing Devices to Prevent Digital Content Misuse" patent, describes a system that detects the number of mobile devices near the client-side device, to make sure that too many people aren't tuning in. The general technology outlined in the patents also includes forensic watermarking and a "P2P polluter." The watermarking technology can be used to detect when pirated content spreads outside of the protected network onto the public Internet. "At this point, the member's movie accessing system will be shut off and quarantined. If the abuse or illicit activity is confirmed, the member and the household will be banned from the content distribution network," the patent reads. [...] Screening Room's system also comes with a wide range of other anti-piracy scans built in. Among other things, it regularly scans the Wi-Fi network to see which devices are connected, and Bluetooth is used to check what other devices are near.

Comments

Re:Reasons why this will never fly:

[tlhIngan]

That's the real killer - who wants to pay $50 for a movie; even if yo have a nice theatre setup? Sure, some people may but I doubt it will be enough to be profitable. Merely making the movie available at the same time doesn't replicate the theater experience.And before commenters get all snarky about people talking, texting, etc. in theaters do you think it will better at home?

First, this system's price is for those who already spent $30K+ on a theatre setup, so they are only targeting the few people who have a really nice set up already.

Second, $50 is not a lot of money to see a movie. With ticket prices already around $12 per person, that's only a little over 4 tickets (and most people who build theatres at home seat 6-8 in two rows). Add in parking, gas, snacks, etc, and you're looking at a good $60-80 for a night out with the family. If you have a few friends over for dinner and a movie, $50 is cheap to watch the latest movie as it hits the box office.

And yes, you get nice comfy seats as well.

And texting/chatting is far better when you know everyone and can shush them or chase them out of the theatre. Or pause the movie and then shame them in front of everyone. And if you're that guy that can't get rid of his FOMO and ruining the enjoyment of the movie for everyone else, you'll probably find yourself invited over to watch movies less and less.

Personally, I would love to get such a unit. But I don't have a dedicated theatre room, nor can I afford the unit itself

Sounds like a pain in the ass for non-pirates

[Cajun Hell]

Why pay these guys for a movie that has lots of ways to break, most of them totally unrelated to piracy attempts? Save yourself some hassle and just download a pirate copy. Not only will you be able to watch the whole movie (a feature unavailable to most paying customers), but get this: it's also FREE!!

Face it, Sean Parker is still a pirate. He is creating a service whose entire purpose is to further encourage piracy and educate the public that piracy is the only convenient and reasonable way to get to see movies. I hope MPAA's members falls for it. They're just the kind of people who are dumb enough to.