Anti-piracy warnings: why punish honest customers

[Kyo28]

There's a thing that has been boggling me since the time of DVD-releases already. A lot of DVDs and now also Blu-rays start with anti-piracy related screens (warnings, something even a mini-advertisement). Worse, sometimes these can't be skipped and you need to wait until they're over to start your main feature or access the main menu.

So my thoughts are: why punish the honest customers? We honestly buy our blu's and yet we're the ones forced to watch such messages. Pirates just edit these messages out before burning their illegal copies. So the message completely misses its intended audience (the pirates)

I'd rather they just put a small disclaimer on the inside of the blu-ray case and be done with it.

Any thoughts?

[micks_address]

Yes its like preaching to the converted... and i'm sure if people are pirating dvds - they probably strip out all the warnings/trailers anyway and just include the film

Originally Posted by Kyo28

There's a thing that has been boggling me since the time of DVD-releases already. A lot of DVDs and now also Blu-rays start with anti-piracy related screens (warnings, something even a mini-advertisement). Worse, sometimes these can't be skipped and you need to wait until they're over to start your main feature or access the main menu.

So my thoughts are: why punish the honest customers? We honestly buy our blu's and yet we're the ones forced to watch such messages. Pirates just edit these messages out before burning their illegal copies. So the message completely misses its intended audience (the pirates)

I'd rather they just put a small disclaimer on the inside of the blu-ray case and be done with it.

Any thoughts?

[YodasFootPowder]

My guess is they simply put it on everything from VHS to DVDs, to Blu-rays so no matter when someone gets caught distributing movies they can't say they didn't know it was illegal as there are warnings on any original copy they could have gotten their hands on. They likely don't allow you to skip them for the same reason. Someone can't claim they accidentally skipped it and didn't see it, etc, etc... overkill I think, but still necessary.

[quexos]

It's worse than that. Think about DRM, Pirates easily circumvent music, PC games or DVD movies' DRM so they don't have to bother with it but when you buy any of those, you get to be sometimes heavily troubled by those (The most famous example to date is probably the almost virus-like DRM in the PC game "Spore" said to install some almost unremovable application in your PC bearing on your CPU). But if you get the pirate version not only it comes free but on top your PC will be fine.

The music industry seems to be understanding this and finally does not use DRM anymore. The other entertainment industries seem to be slow to understand this so too bad for their sales figures.

[Marquoz]

Let me be able to skip them, flash them up, pause it for a second and then let me skip. Don't make me have to sit through all of them including the studio splash screen. I want to watch the movie not warnings and a splash screen telling me who distributed the movie.

[Ferris]

They force you to watch it so if you're found pirating something (God knows how they'd prove it) they can prosecute you. If the warning was skippable or not put on videos (regardless of the format), then that video could be copied or displayed publicly without getting approval from the producer/distributor.

It stinks, but it's life. It given me time to butter my popcorn.

[vamsilak]

Maybe thats how pirates got into business of piracy
keep watching the fbi warnings to temp to see what happened if they do it
maybe fbi warnings itself hypnotizing these fellows like the circles on the screen
hey who knows they still see the circles behind the bars when they drop the soap
its kinda annoying especially on disney movies
they have alot of trailers and fbi warnings

[Diablo829]

Originally Posted by Marquoz

Let me be able to skip them, flash them up, pause it for a second and then let me skip. Don't make me have to sit through all of them including the studio splash screen. I want to watch the movie not warnings and a splash screen telling me who distributed the movie.

What I wish is at least the ability for the player to remember you already watched it once and skip it when you play the disc again. The only annoying thing about Band of Brothers is the 10 minutes of anti piracy warnings shown in every conceivable language before EVERY friggin episode.

[toef]

Originally Posted by YodasFootPowder

My guess is they simply put it on everything from VHS to DVDs, to Blu-rays so no matter when someone gets caught distributing movies they can't say they didn't know it was illegal as there are warnings on any original copy they could have gotten their hands on. They likely don't allow you to skip them for the same reason. Someone can't claim they accidentally skipped it and didn't see it, etc, etc... overkill I think, but still necessary.

Ignorantia juris non excusat

[LynxFX]

Originally Posted by toefer

Ignorantia juris non excusat

Exactly. Copyrighted material is copyrighted no matter what warnings are put in place. The FBI warnings are redundant and unnecessary. If they want to have them, stick them at the end along with the authoring company.

[OrlandoEastwood]

You can't stop piracy like you can't stop a person from eating MacDonalds. I hate the piracy warnings, but after 2004 it seems that all the studios went FBI warning crazy.

[jadedeath]

Originally Posted by YodasFootPowder

My guess is they simply put it on everything from VHS to DVDs, to Blu-rays so no matter when someone gets caught distributing movies they can't say they didn't know it was illegal as there are warnings on any original copy they could have gotten their hands on. They likely don't allow you to skip them for the same reason. Someone can't claim they accidentally skipped it and didn't see it, etc, etc... overkill I think, but still necessary.

That's probably hitting the nail on the head right there.

There's probably quite a few people out there that went to court over it and claimed that they didn't know that pirating was wrong.

It's the chicken and the egg scenario, it's also the same reason why we have to put warning labels on everything, so the the simple idiots out there know that you're not supposed to put your hand on a hot stove.

Logan

[Kyo28]

Originally Posted by toefer

Ignorantia juris non excusat

Originally Posted by LynxFX

Exactly. Copyrighted material is copyrighted no matter what warnings are put in place. The FBI warnings are redundant and unnecessary. If they want to have them, stick them at the end along with the authoring company.

My thoughts exactly. They don't to put warnings on the discs to enforce their copyrights. Without any notion of this on the disc or case, companies' copyrights are protected by law.

The only thing they've succeed in with these warnings so fare, is to irrate law-abiding, paying customers. I've even ripped one of the my own DVD's I bought, removed all that warning crap, burned onto a DVD-9 and just watch that burned DVD instead of the original. It's almost like they want us to pirate.

If they want to stop pirates, don't put such messages in but instead develop stronger encryptions or make it so that when the disc gets ripped, the video is distorted. Much more effective and at least paying customers like us aren't bothered by it.

[toef]

I don't mind it, but I just wish I could skip it. In a way I like it because it's become part of the movie watching experience to me. You know a movie is starting when you see the FBI warning.

But at least on a VHS I could see it while fast forwarding through it, whereas now I have to sit through it for however long it lasts.

Almost every time I start watching a movie, I start hitting the Menu button, hoping that maybe one day I'll find a DVD/BD that lets me skip it. So far no successes.

[EricJ]

And then the other theory, ie., that since FBI and Interpol regulate anti-piracy, they likely made posting disclaimers mandatorily part of complying with trade law...

(That said, can ANYONE explain that "I am OZ!" anti-piracy PSA on recent Warner disks??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A6gFVygN7Y
I gather Warner's trying to stereotype the "homemade" image of pirates, and warn garage pirates with "Don't mess with a studio that can crush you!", in case they think they can't be sued for millions...
But doesn't it water down the message when they keep cutting the Oz clips right before "You ought to be ashamed of yourself!" or "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!"?)

[STARSCREAM]

I hate these as well. All movies should go straight to the menu.

[Marquoz]

Why don't they just put a label on the outside like they do for the "Security Thingy Enclosed" where it says "Piracy is ILLEGAL" that has to be broken before you can get to the disk. Then by breaking the seal you accept that it is illegal to pirate it etc. etc. etc. and we don't have to see the warnings for the hundred millionth time.

[jamclaur]

Well the same thing can be extended to say that the people that DO the pirating are MORE THAN LIKELY the people that are WORKING for the company. Those new DVDrips are NO WAY coming from any cam. They are coming from INSIDE.

[Sussudio]

and how would they know who the honest people are

someone might want to burn a movie after watching it, who knows

i agree they're annoying, but they're 1 minute of your life. get off the couch, walk away and do something, come back 2 minutes later if it bothers you that much

[OrlandoEastwood]

Originally Posted by STARSCREAM

I hate these as well. All movies should go straight to the menu.

I know the Tropic Thunder and Zoolander DVDs go right to the menus.