4 ms·

> Intel's just using Hollywood's fear of piracy to sell new computers, ignoring the fact that the pirates are still pirating movies without any problems. It's m

> Intel's just using Hollywood's fear of piracy to sell new computers, ignoring the fact that the pirates are still pirating movies without any problems. It's more funny than sad. And it's even more sad that the most computer illiterate, "honest" people are the most vulnerable to this strategy. People that want an honest way to watch movies have the most problems watching them.

jrockway 12y ago
Yes, this is truly the sad part of DRM: the people that actually pay for content are the ones whose experience is most degraded. Pirates don't have to buy monitors with HDCP. Pirates can watch their collection when the authorization servers are down. Pirates can back up their media. Pirates can take screenshots. (Though I've never had this particular problem even with "DRM'd" media on Linux.) The list goes on. The content industry wonders why they can't stop piracy. Maybe they could start by providing a product that's as good as what the pirates get.
- organsnyder 12y ago
  The most egregious: Pirates can skip the FBI warning and previews. We got a portable DVD player to add to our arsenal of distractions for our toddlers on long road trips. One of the DVDs we purchased—an Elmo sing-along—prohibits the viewer from skipping the five-minute donation plea that plays before the menu. This is especially frustrating because the kids will inevitably bump something requiring playback to be restarted (even with the button lock enabled, the disc door can still be opened) at least once an hour. Whoever made the decision to set the "unskippable" flag on that track must have absolutely no familiarity with their customer base. For the vast majority of parents, I'm sure the effect is exactly the opposite of what they intended: if I was ever considering donating to Sesame Workshop, I'm certainly not anymore.
  - userbinator 12y ago
    The problems with DVD DRM are nicely summed up by this rather popular image: http://i.imgur.com/GxzeV.jpg http://i.imgur.com/GxzeV.jpg
    - TeMPOraL 12y ago
      Yeah, exactly. I'd also add this xkcd as a general comment about DRM: http://xkcd.com/488/ http://xkcd.com/488/.
  - hobs 12y ago
    Do what I did for a few friends, rip them and edit them to remove that crap.
- roghummal 12y ago
  Example: If you rented "The Interview" on Google's video service (in HD) and played it back on a software/hardware stack that didn't have the latest DRM(1), you were limited to SD. You paid for HD. You got SD. Of course, you could go pirate a full HD copy of the movie and play it back anywhere. The effectiveness of these inconveniences is overwhelming. (1) I'm not positive it was even possible to redeem an HD rental in HD. I don't know anyone that didn't get forced to play in SD.
  - catkin 12y ago
    I always get forced to watch Google Play movies in SD and I have a late 2013 MacBook Pro. It's the main reason I use iTunes more than Google Play.
  - knodi123 12y ago
    when I rented it, HD and SD cost the same amount. but your point is taken
  - devin_lane 12y ago
    I looked into this and you could get HD on locked down devices (phones, tablets, TVs), but not computers, regardless of operating system. This was weird to see given that EME made it into Chrome recently and now Netflix works without silverlight. I ended up renting it on Youtube, then googling for an HD copy. Found one hosted on Google Drive (!), which produced quite a chuckle.
- ekr 12y ago
  > Though I've never had this particular problem even with "DRM'd" media on Linux The intel video driver on Linux is open-source. I am sure there would be forks disabling this functionality in case it would be implemented. I find it outrageous that there's software that disables a functionality like screenshot taking, that's malware to me. I own that framebuffer, not intel.

jrockway 12y ago

Yes, this is truly the sad part of DRM: the people that actually pay for content are the ones whose experience is most degraded. Pirates don't have to buy monitors with HDCP. Pirates can watch their collection when the authorization servers are down. Pirates can back up their media. Pirates can take screenshots. (Though I've never had this particular problem even with "DRM'd" media on Linux.) The list goes on. The content industry wonders why they can't stop piracy. Maybe they could start by providing a product that's as good as what the pirates get.

organsnyder 12y ago
The most egregious: Pirates can skip the FBI warning and previews. We got a portable DVD player to add to our arsenal of distractions for our toddlers on long road trips. One of the DVDs we purchased—an Elmo sing-along—prohibits the viewer from skipping the five-minute donation plea that plays before the menu. This is especially frustrating because the kids will inevitably bump something requiring playback to be restarted (even with the button lock enabled, the disc door can still be opened) at least once an hour. Whoever made the decision to set the "unskippable" flag on that track must have absolutely no familiarity with their customer base. For the vast majority of parents, I'm sure the effect is exactly the opposite of what they intended: if I was ever considering donating to Sesame Workshop, I'm certainly not anymore.
- userbinator 12y ago
  The problems with DVD DRM are nicely summed up by this rather popular image: http://i.imgur.com/GxzeV.jpg http://i.imgur.com/GxzeV.jpg
  - TeMPOraL 12y ago
    Yeah, exactly. I'd also add this xkcd as a general comment about DRM: http://xkcd.com/488/ http://xkcd.com/488/.
- hobs 12y ago
  Do what I did for a few friends, rip them and edit them to remove that crap.
roghummal 12y ago
Example: If you rented "The Interview" on Google's video service (in HD) and played it back on a software/hardware stack that didn't have the latest DRM(1), you were limited to SD. You paid for HD. You got SD. Of course, you could go pirate a full HD copy of the movie and play it back anywhere. The effectiveness of these inconveniences is overwhelming. (1) I'm not positive it was even possible to redeem an HD rental in HD. I don't know anyone that didn't get forced to play in SD.
- catkin 12y ago
  I always get forced to watch Google Play movies in SD and I have a late 2013 MacBook Pro. It's the main reason I use iTunes more than Google Play.
- knodi123 12y ago
  when I rented it, HD and SD cost the same amount. but your point is taken
- devin_lane 12y ago
  I looked into this and you could get HD on locked down devices (phones, tablets, TVs), but not computers, regardless of operating system. This was weird to see given that EME made it into Chrome recently and now Netflix works without silverlight. I ended up renting it on Youtube, then googling for an HD copy. Found one hosted on Google Drive (!), which produced quite a chuckle.
ekr 12y ago
> Though I've never had this particular problem even with "DRM'd" media on Linux The intel video driver on Linux is open-source. I am sure there would be forks disabling this functionality in case it would be implemented. I find it outrageous that there's software that disables a functionality like screenshot taking, that's malware to me. I own that framebuffer, not intel.