A STORY stating that the Beast of Redmond had developed a technology which enabled DVDs to be played only once was much vilified on the Net. Some claimed it was a pure hoax. But the story's originator - The Business - has named now named its source. Step forward one Alistair Baker, md with Microsoft in the UK. He claims that Microsoft's DRM software now gives the owner of content "total control over how it is viewed". That could mean that not only could the content be viewed only once but that the content could also have an expiry date and/or time of day. Why would anyone want to introduce one-play DVDs, you might ask? To sell new hardware, of course. Baker describes the typical playing device as a "new DVD player from manufacturers like Toshiba supporting high-definition DVD and running Windows CE." Now the British paper was inundated with emails and letters from hackers pointing out various ways around such DRM software. Granted even the dumbest of PC users could point a handycam at the PC's screen and retain a copy. But that's not the point. Most users would simply not bother. Instead it indicates just how paranoid the major owners of content have become given that they would treat such an offering seriously. Particularly since the Beast is the supplier of the world's most ripped-off software. The INQ also sympathises with those who are environmentally concerned. It's bad enough having PCs which destroy CDs by the dozen, every time you try to burn something. But a technology which is so wasteful the CD deliberately gets used only the once? ยต The Inq Another example of the boundries of DRM. This is giving too much control to the authors of the media, users should be able to play it how and when they want.
i dont like the idea of that, software for example, if they decide to make a once play only cd with new software on it and then your computer crashes...or you have do do a re-install of the OS, that would mean you would either a)have to send off for a new copy of the software which will mean wasted time and money (plus more cd's = more environmental damage as described above or b) not have the software anymore...honestly i think its bad points outweigh the good points
This won't take off it's already been tried and failed. Disney tried doing something like this a year or so back that you were able to rent a disc and a day after the packaging was opened the oxygen would destroy the disc. Besides the movie studios have already decided that Blu-Ray/HD-DVD players will be required to be plugged into a phone line and if a particular player is compromised they are able to terminate all players in that line or from that manufacturer. I'm thinking the only place this technology might have a place is in screener copies of movies. It would help eliminate piracy as once the person intended to view the movie is finished it disables itself so it doesn't get ripped and shared.
Yeah I can see what you're saying, and I didn't know about the Disney thing...if it failed then honestly I don't hold out much hope for this idea.
Here's the article about Disney dropping the idea. It seemed like an ok idea, eliminating having to remember to return a rental but at $7 a disc was a bit on the high side and after all what are you going to do with a bunch of dead discs.
