Tim Almond

Protect DVD-Video - A slap in the face for PC and Media Center owners

The movie industry seems determined to continue on a course where it happily erodes the rights of legitimate users, all in the name of securing profits.  The latest example of this comes in the form of a DVD copy protection technology called Protect DVD-Video which actually prevents a DVD being played on a Windows PC using Windows Media Player, Windows Media Center Edition or any software players based on DirectShow.

Well done. Lock out legitimate paying customers. That will make them happy.

As with most copy protection mechanisms, a way round it is never that far behind.  SlySoft have a product called AnyDVD which works in the background to automatically remove the copy protection of a DVD movie as soon as it’s inserted into the drive.  The other day they released an updated version of AnyDVD which effortlessly bypasses Protect DVD-Video.

Here’s exactly why this copy protection is stupid. Because now, instead of the user just playing the movie, you’ve forced them to go out and get a piece of software that removes the copy protection. Not only that, it removes the standard CSS encryption too, unlocking the content of the disk.

So instead of having users watching movies with what they’ve got, they’re now armed with the knowledge that they can make their own copies. Which might mean something fair use-like, like transferring to their iPod, but it might also mean that they might do exactly what this copy protection was designed to guard against - and start copying media.

—–

Tags: Technology //