[Kosh]

http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/08/01/03/2339248.shtml

"When I called them they confirmed my worst fears. In order to access the Watch Now service, I had to give Microsoft's DRM sniffing program access to all of the files on my hard drive. If the software found any non-Netflix video files, it would revoke my rights to the content and invalidate the DRM. This means that I would lose all the movies that I've purchased from Amazon's Unbox, just to troubleshoot the issue. Because my computer allows me to send an unrestricted HDTV feed to my monitor, Hollywood has decided to revoke my ability to stream 480 resolution video files from Netflix. In order to fix my problem, Netflix recommended that I downgrade to a lower res VGA setup."

Of course we all know that only genuine content doesn't work and pirated copies are so much better.

[WMCoolmon]

It would be nice if someone would do something about this crap that didn't force you to become a criminal.

I wonder how long it is before the only people who are able to easily afford the movies are the people that get paid to star in them.

[Nuke]

they just need to offer a better product than the pirates.

[WMCoolmon]

They can't. It'll always be cheaper for the pirates to copy a show that's already been produced than it will cost to produce a show, especially on the internet. I can easily copy a DVD that the content cost over $50 million to make. The only extra cost with the equipment I already have would be the cost of a blank DVD and a couple hour's worth of extra electricity.

If I were giving it out over a website, subtract the cost of the blank DVD and about 3/4 of that extra electricity. Now I just need a few dollars' worth of bandwidth.

Even if this were a boxed set, it would still be cheaper to make a cheap replica of the boxed set than it would be to design and create the boxed set as well as the show that it came in. So unless you're giving away plastic replicas of show characters, it will always be easy for somebody to duplicate your work with a little ingenuity, a home printer, and an (HD-)DVD burner.

The problem is not that the big companies are offering a poor product compared to the pirates, it's that the product that they are offering incurs so many costs that it's just not worth it, even without pirated copies.

However the impact of that cost is entirely relative based on your income and lifestyle. *shrugs* So apparently the people that Netflix and the MPAA/RIAA are targeting as consumers can afford to blow $25 on the latest release of Whatever, and can afford to replace their entire media library after it's been nuked by an unsupported program. That seems unreasonable to me, but I guess it's what people are willing to tolerate from the MPAA/RIAA.

[Nuke]

why do you think i listen to black metal and watch independent films?

[Ghostavo]

What makes a non-Netflix video file illegal? Anyone can film a video and put it on the computer.

I say it's a shenanigan. There's no way this could ever happen, and if it did all it takes is for one user to be invalidated for having a home video on his PC for the companies involved to be in a mess of trouble.

[Kosh]

What makes a non-Netflix video file illegal? Anyone can film a video and put it on the computer.

I say it's a shenanigan. There's no way this could ever happen, and if it did all it takes is for one user to be invalidated for having a home video on his PC for the companies involved to be in a mess of trouble.

Never say never when it comes to DRM

[karajorma]

they just need to offer a better product than the pirates.

Agreed. One major reason why I don't buy DVDs is I'm completely sick of waiting 2 minutes for the FBI Warning and menu to get to the point where I can actually watch the movie I paid for. The major reason I want no CD cracks for games I buy is I'm sick of running something, watching it bomb out and then having to find the CD. Something especially a PITA if I haven't played the game in a while but still had it installed.

What the companies never seem to realise is that the bigger a pain in the arse they make all the warnings against piracy and copy protection the more incentive they give to circumvent it.

[Nuke]

flipping disks is something id expect to do on a 486. but not on a computer with a half a terabyte of storage. all games these days get fully installed on the hd , so the cd requirement is pure bs. so i keep a bunch of disk images on my hd to be mounted with  daemon tools, so i can load a cd with a couple clicks. every drm system gets killed somewhere down the line. cant stop them hackers.

[Flaser]

Piracy the better choice!

-Take your games, music, videos and pictures with you anywhere on your choice of storage!
-Play your stuff on anything! Linux, Windows, PC, portable - whatever floats your boat, if you can convert you can convey!
-Maximum compatibility! Hey if it didn't work, people wouldn't be sharing it!
-It doesn't bother you with unwanted ads and irritating reminders that you could have taken - THIS! choice!
-Guaranteed operation all the time, your access to the media is in your hands, not some outside arbitrary software or company.

Once again,

Piracy, the better choice!

[captain-custard]

stick all ur vids etc on an external hard drive and dont plug it in when it scans

[DeepSpace9er]

I had a subsciption to blockbuster total access, where for $17 a month I could rent 3 DVDs online and when i returned them to the store I would get 3 free rentals from the slips. I was renting on average 30 movies a month for $17. Then they raised the price, cut the 3 free unlimited rental deal, so it wasnt so lucrative and I stopped doing it. It was cheaper than pirating movies, seeing as most of them wernt worth watching more than once anyway.