Jari Ketola
17 Feb 2005 13:42
Macrovision has developed a new, stronger DVD copy protection that it says will make it more difficult to rip protected DVDs. RipGuard will thwart most of the DVD ripping software currently on the market.
According to Macrovision RipGuard protected DVDs will play in "nearly all" current DVD players. The company, however, failed to be more specific about the number of players the discs do not work with.
"RipGuard is designed to... reduce DVD ripping and the resulting supply of illegal peer to peer," said the firm.
Recently the movie industry has followed the path taken earlier by the music industry -- "stronger" copy protection and lawsuits agaisnt alleged pirates.
Both the music and movie industry fail to realize that the only ones affected by the new copy protections, which are little more than non-standard discs, are the legitimate customers. Pirates and hackers will always find a way around the protections. And the copies spread in P2P networks do not originate from private individuals. They always originate from (semi) professional pirate groups.
It's been fun buying 10-15 movies per month. I guess it'll come to an end once the movies stop working with my players.
Source: BBC News