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Re: [dvd-discuss] Disney Does Self Destructing DVDs



On Monday, June 16, 2003, at 08:48  pm, microlenz@earthlink.net wrote:

> Sorry to reply to myself but it occurred to me that if the access 
> control works
> by oxidizing then an anti-oxidant or stabilizing compound would be a
> circumventing device.

Of course the ultimate anti-oxidant in this case is one of the many, 
easily available DVD ripping tools. It seems as though Disney is just 
daring people to add the trivial skill to rip and view DVD's from their 
hard drives (like they have recently done with their audio CD's). Even 
without this goofy strategy of provocation from Disney, existing forces 
were already moving people in this direction. Hard drive sizes soar 
while prices inexorably decrease. Today it costs about $1/gigabyte so 
about $5 to $7 per DVD. When the price drops to less than $1 per DVD 
will consumers think twice about preserving their DVD's this way?

If the Lion King is only available in this pseudo-rental method any 
parent knows a single 48 hour period is never going to be adequate. 
That title alone could be the catalyst to millions learning how easy 
and economical it is to rip to a hard drive. If that drive is shared on 
a current 100 megabit home ethernet or even a 50 megabit 802.11g 
wireless network it will be playable on any Mac or Windows machine in 
the house. Since their internet connection is orders of magnitude too 
feeble to allow general sharing it obviously has a fair use appearance 
to anyone whose opinion is not for sale.

So software tools and players, hard drive sizes and prices, home 
network speeds are all moving into place together with "natural" 
impediments to non-local sharing. How can Disney not see that they are 
playing with matches? Am I missing something obvious here?