Petteri Pyyny
10 Jun 2003 15:29
Japanese electronics giant Matsushita (better known by its brand names, such as Panasonic) is trialing a DVD rental system that should be "pirate-proof". The technology combines physical DVD disc and file downloads from the Net.
The concept doesn't sound very user-friendly. The technology, which is developed by Matshushita and four other Japanese companies, forces (as far as we've understood) users to use their PCs to watch the movies instead of their existing stand-alone DVD players.
In trials, one of the participating companies, InterPia, will hand out "teaser" DVD discs that contain movie previews and trailers. Users can then purchase a full movie by inserting the disc to their PCs and downloading the movie from Net and paying for it. After the movie has been watched, it will delete itself -- viewing the movie again means that it has to be downloaded and paid again.
So, basically it sounds -- despite its "sexy" branding as "pirate-proof DVD" -- just like any other Net-based movie rental system, such as Movielink.
Source: ZDNet