5 ms·

I stopped buying DVDs back when I stopped being able to skip the 15 minutes of commercials and 5 minutes of copyright notices, because apparently I need to be w

I stopped buying DVDs back when I stopped being able to skip the 15 minutes of commercials and 5 minutes of copyright notices, because apparently I need to be warned in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, etc. I'm not paying to be advertised to. I'm not paying to be threatened with FBI notices. So my solution is I'm just not paying.

gchpaco 15y ago
I remember discussing with friends of mine whether or not it would be reasonable to have a DVD player that, upon encountering unskippable content, automatically skipped it. None of us could come up with any difficulty there.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- zoul 15y ago
  As far as I know DVD is a licensed technology and the companies that produce DVD players probably have some draconic measures in the license to prevent them from doing this. I think there used to be some players with an easily accessible factory settings, and the info about how to tweak the factory settings conveniently leaked, but I’m not sure how that worked in the end.
  - nodata 15y ago
    They can't use the DVD logo if they do that. That's it iirc.
    - papercrane 15y ago
      They also can't license the patents related to DVD playback.
      - onemoreact 15y ago
        I am not 100% sure you are allowed to limit who can use a patent in that fashion. IANAL, but requiring non monetary compensation may not be allowed. http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/matters/matters-9208.html http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/matters/matters-9208.ht...
    - zoul 15y ago
      DVD is a huge cocktail of patented technologies. You either license it properly or perish by the lawyers, that’s my understanding of it.
  - MichaelApproved 15y ago
    ReplayTV tried something like that about 10 years ago with automatic skipping of commercials. They were sued into bankruptcy. http://news.cnet.com/ReplayTV-puts-ad-skipping-on-pause/2100-1041_3-1015121.html http://news.cnet.com/ReplayTV-puts-ad-skipping-on-pause/2100...
  - gchpaco 15y ago
    In my fantasy world where we did this, it would be hacking apart VLC or something similar (which already, sensibly, ignores this dross); not so much the physical hardware (fingers wanted to type harmware, huh) because of the problems you cite.
MetalMASK 15y ago
what's ironic is that the MPAA Anti Piracy Ad made the ONLY thing that's good about watching pirated movie is that you don't have to want the ad....as pointed out by comedian Dara O'Brian: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bxqt0siy34 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bxqt0siy34
MatthewPhillips 15y ago
> I'm not paying to be advertised to. I'm not paying to be threatened with FBI notices. So my solution is I'm just not paying. So, I take it you feel entitled to the content one way or another? Your way or the highway, right?
- pork 15y ago
  Not at all. He feels that he has the right, as a lawful paying customer, not to be threatened and preached to. Imagine if you sat down at a restaurant, and the server lectured you about dining-and-dashing before serving you. It's his right to be pissed off about sanctimonious bullshit from the MPAA
  - dhimes 15y ago
    I think I understand why the copyright notice needs to be un-skippable. But the ads/previews/whatever-else-you-may-want-to-call-them have pissed me off since they started putting them on VHS (LONG time ago). I don't like paying for ads.
  - MatthewPhillips 15y ago
    I understand, these are the grandparent's conditions for purchase. Someone else might have a different set of conditions. What the grandparent is asking for, then, is prices (and the product itself) to be set per-purchase, per-customer. This does not scale to Hollywood movies.
    - HeyLaughingBoy 15y ago
      No, he's not. He is simply saying that they have made the product unpalatable so therefore he is not going to consume it.

gchpaco 15y ago

I remember discussing with friends of mine whether or not it would be reasonable to have a DVD player that, upon encountering unskippable content, automatically skipped it. None of us could come up with any difficulty there.

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
zoul 15y ago
As far as I know DVD is a licensed technology and the companies that produce DVD players probably have some draconic measures in the license to prevent them from doing this. I think there used to be some players with an easily accessible factory settings, and the info about how to tweak the factory settings conveniently leaked, but I’m not sure how that worked in the end.
- nodata 15y ago
  They can't use the DVD logo if they do that. That's it iirc.
  - papercrane 15y ago
    They also can't license the patents related to DVD playback.
    - onemoreact 15y ago
      I am not 100% sure you are allowed to limit who can use a patent in that fashion. IANAL, but requiring non monetary compensation may not be allowed. http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/matters/matters-9208.html http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/matters/matters-9208.ht...
  - zoul 15y ago
    DVD is a huge cocktail of patented technologies. You either license it properly or perish by the lawyers, that’s my understanding of it.
- MichaelApproved 15y ago
  ReplayTV tried something like that about 10 years ago with automatic skipping of commercials. They were sued into bankruptcy. http://news.cnet.com/ReplayTV-puts-ad-skipping-on-pause/2100-1041_3-1015121.html http://news.cnet.com/ReplayTV-puts-ad-skipping-on-pause/2100...
- gchpaco 15y ago
  In my fantasy world where we did this, it would be hacking apart VLC or something similar (which already, sensibly, ignores this dross); not so much the physical hardware (fingers wanted to type harmware, huh) because of the problems you cite.

MetalMASK 15y ago

what's ironic is that the MPAA Anti Piracy Ad made the ONLY thing that's good about watching pirated movie is that you don't have to want the ad....as pointed out by comedian Dara O'Brian: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bxqt0siy34 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bxqt0siy34

MatthewPhillips 15y ago

> I'm not paying to be advertised to. I'm not paying to be threatened with FBI notices. So my solution is I'm just not paying. So, I take it you feel entitled to the content one way or another? Your way or the highway, right?

pork 15y ago
Not at all. He feels that he has the right, as a lawful paying customer, not to be threatened and preached to. Imagine if you sat down at a restaurant, and the server lectured you about dining-and-dashing before serving you. It's his right to be pissed off about sanctimonious bullshit from the MPAA
- dhimes 15y ago
  I think I understand why the copyright notice needs to be un-skippable. But the ads/previews/whatever-else-you-may-want-to-call-them have pissed me off since they started putting them on VHS (LONG time ago). I don't like paying for ads.
- MatthewPhillips 15y ago
  I understand, these are the grandparent's conditions for purchase. Someone else might have a different set of conditions. What the grandparent is asking for, then, is prices (and the product itself) to be set per-purchase, per-customer. This does not scale to Hollywood movies.
  - HeyLaughingBoy 15y ago
    No, he's not. He is simply saying that they have made the product unpalatable so therefore he is not going to consume it.