The HD Boycott Begins Now

[thunderhawk]

The HD Boycott Begins Now

This is important. I really want you to understand what’s going on with the video industry’s push towards HD. Under pressure from Hollywood, they are engineering a complete removal of the concept of fair use. They are setting up systems that will completely control how, when and where you can use content that you buy. Even worse, they can retroactively change the rules!

Today the AACS (aggressive automatic consumer screwing*) organization announced availability of the interim version of their system for protecting content providers from their criminal customers. Their noble intentions are pretty well summed up in this choice excerpt:

The AACS specification accelerates the ability of consumers to enjoy exciting, new, flexible entertainment experiences and storage options, while continuing to provide the traditional, straightforward playback mode, for the next generation of prerecorded and recordable optical media such as Blu-Ray and HD DVD. Additionally, AACS is designed to create unprecedented flexibility, portability and security for entertainment content to be enjoyed on networked home, portable PC or CE devices.

I especially love their mention of a ‘traditional, straightforward playback mode‘. I bet it pained them to have to include any way to play the content at all. Rest assured they have top minds working on making sure nothing will be straightforward in the future.

Further, if you download the AACS agreement itself, you find the frightening concept of the ‘analog sunset’ (it’s on page 82). This is where device manufactures agree to not make analog devices after certain preset dates.

Both HD-DVD and Blu-ray have embraced this draconian system, and the studios are salivating at the prospect of you never actually being able to own content again.

My reaction to this abomination is simple: no way in hell. I will not buy any product that uses this crap, and I hope you’ll join me in that boycott. Let these morons see the early adopters staying away in droves.

Please pass this on; post it on your blogs, ‘digg’ it; slashdot it; whatever it takes to stop this insidious plan.

Here is the AACS announcement

P.S.
*I got some complaints about not giving the ‘official’ full name of AACS. Well, OK, if it’s that important to you: Advanced Access Content System. There; feel better?

P.P.S.
At the advice of a reader I looked up an article from 2004 about DRM, written by Cory Doctorow of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Absolutely brilliant description of the problems of DRM. You’ll find it here.

Source: http://writersblocklive.com/part-156

[Gorkab]

Originally Posted by thunderhawk

My reaction to this abomination is simple: no way in hell. I will not buy any product that uses this crap, and I hope you’ll join me in that boycott. Let these morons see the early adopters staying away in droves.

I fully agree, even if any protection can always be broken !

[zombie]

There's no way in hell I'm NOT buying a Blu-ray player this spring. I may be in the minority here, and at other online HT forums, but I have zero interest in copying discs or playing them on a pc. The BDA has confirmed that I won't need an internet connection to play BDs so I will buy right away and enjoy watching them on my HDTV just as I have for DVDs. These scare tactics don't work with me. I believe you don't need backups of your movie collection if you handle the discs with care. BDs even have a far better scratch resistent protective layer. They aren't toys for pete's sake! The music industry has taken a beating due to online mp3 sharing, God forbid the movie industry learn from this lesson. Many of the companies involved are one and the same ya know.

Sorry thunderhawk. I agree a lot of your posts but I don't share your opinion this time.

[Rob]

The only time I ever watch dvds is when I'm at home. I have no need to transfer films to other mediums. The same will be true of Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. Why would I want to watch a 1080p film on a 7" screen with only stereo sound?

[Knight-Errant]

I'm boycotting this boycott.

I want HD movies. I take care of my discs and don't copy them anyway (I'm not able to copy regular DVDs anyway!)

[Gorkab]

This is not about handling but being able to play a movie we bought in any conditions we want and without having to buy anything new except the player itself !

[Alex Pallas]

i'm only going to get playstation games and one or two movies. most of the movies i'm interested in are from the 90's or earlier anyway with titles that won't get an HD treatment anyway.

[Alex Pallas]

Originally Posted by n2blu

There's no way in hell I'm NOT buying a Blu-ray player this spring. I may be in the minority here, and at other online HT forums, but I have zero interest in copying discs or playing them on a pc. The BDA has confirmed that I won't need an internet connection to play BDs so I will buy right away and enjoy watching them on my HDTV just as I have for DVDs. These scare tactics don't work with me. I believe you don't need backups of your movie collection if you handle the discs with care. BDs even have a far better scratch resistent protective layer. They aren't toys for pete's sake! The music industry has taken a beating due to online mp3 sharing, God forbid the movie industry learn from this lesson. Many of the companies involved are one and the same ya know.

Sorry thunderhawk. I agree a lot of your posts but I don't share your opinion this time.

good point but do you really see masses of people transferring 50 gb of material across the world wide interweb? take it from a person who has done alot of p2p-ing (mostly for live bootlegs), the bit rates people who download like to deal with are rediculously small. It would take a rediculous amount of time to download 50 gb, unless you're on t3.

[thunderhawk]

LoL all, I didn't write that article
I'm just the messenger you see Every newsarticle I posted, doesn't contain my opinion. I just copy/paste from my source..
What I can say is, the time I buy a Blu-ray Disc product, the AACS issue will be solved IMO lol

[Sony1]

Their are allot of people out there that will buy into the Boy-cott thing, the youth in Particular. They feel entitled to everything, even stuff that is on the internet, their was a survey not to long ago about illegally downloading music off the internet and most teenagers said that they download illegally all the time, and feel that music should be free to download. It's going to take some good Marketing and positive feedback from the consumers in order for this new generation of DVD's to survive. Let us not forget that their are many hackers out there that will put every ounce of energy into this AACS thing, just something to think about.

[Sidewinder]

Originally Posted by Alex Pallas

good point but do you really see masses of people transferring 50 gb of material across the world wide interweb? take it from a person who has done alot of p2p-ing (mostly for live bootlegs), the bit rates people who download like to deal with are rediculously small. It would take a rediculous amount of time to download 50 gb, unless you're on t3.

Let me ask you a question: Back in the days, when DVD was introduced, what kind of internet connection did you have? I think I had a 56k modem...or maybe even a 28k, nobody would even dream about downloading a 4Gb DVD file or even a 700mb divx.
But today these sorts of file sizes are no problem at all with broadband internet, I guess you see where I'm heading. And a HD movie can also be compressed like a DVD.
Actually I'm not interested in portable playback of HD movies or DVDs, but eventhough I wouldn't like to see the possiblities of honest customers shrinked in this manner.

Here in Switzerland (Germany also if I'm not mistaken) we have to pay a fee for every blank Cd (~0.06 Swiss francs) or DVD (~0.45.-) we buy. Why? Because we could burn our legally owned CDs for personal use!! So we have to pay again for a licence we already paid, the funniest part, when I burn Photos or make a backup I also pay fees for the music industry! How absurd is that? They even want us to pay these sort of fees for Flash-Mp3 players and hard disc recorders, soon we'll maybe have to pay a fee for a new PC...

Sorry if I went a little off-topic.

[rhiohki]

I'm not sure I will boycott HD or not. I have a feeling that these 1st gen players will either by likely easier to break AACS with or harder when the final AACS agreement follows through.

Which ever it is, I'm sure there will some with the know-how and more with a yearning demand for at least an ICT hack so that they can play the full HD resolution on their early generation HDTV(-ready) sets with only component inputs.

I know I am. I am not going to spend thousands of dollars more for a T.V. that I purchased just a few years back. Before I bought my HDTV-ready set, I had my good 'old CRT Direct-View Tube for 12 years. I plan on keeping my HD set as long as possible and if it takes some sort of boycott or some hack to come out within a reasonably short time after the HD content and players hit the market so that I can see the full HD resolution through my components, then I'm all for it.

[phloyd]

I agree that a boycott is a good way to make feelings known.

You should also send them emails and letters telling that you are purposefully not buying their products.

Everything in this industry is about money. They need to know that they are losing sales.

Cheers!

[Alex Pallas]

as far as the younger generation feeling that music should be free, my only response is that if mass bootlegging did happen and the big three were driven out of business this would do wonders for the music industry, giving it a much needed douche. even Sony was guilty of paying radio stations to play its music more. if the business behind music collapses, then all you will have left is the musicians that really want to do it. that doesnt justify anything, but when it comes right down to it thats how it would be.

[zombie]

Originally Posted by Alex Pallas

good point but do you really see masses of people transferring 50 gb of material across the world wide interweb? take it from a person who has done alot of p2p-ing (mostly for live bootlegs), the bit rates people who download like to deal with are rediculously small. It would take a rediculous amount of time to download 50 gb, unless you're on t3.

True for now but I keep reading how some of the studios want to be able to sell their HD movies online and that much faster transfer rates will soon be possible. So perhaps sharing BDs online now isn't much of a threat but in a couple of years or so it may very well be.

[zombie]

Originally Posted by thunderhawk

LoL all, I didn't write that article
I'm just the messenger you see Every newsarticle I posted, doesn't contain my opinion. I just copy/paste from my source..
What I can say is, the time I buy a Blu-ray Disc product, the AACS issue will be solved IMO lol

Sorry buddy! I totally missed the source link at the bottom of the article. I see it now, a bit too late. Glad to hear that wasn't your opinion though.

[Alex Pallas]

Originally Posted by n2blu

True for now but I keep reading how some of the studios want to be able to sell their HD movies online and that much faster transfer rates will soon be possible. So perhaps sharing BDs online now isn't much of a threat but in a couple of years or so it may very well be.

they're probably going to pull an itunes and imbed the video with some sort of kamazaki software, more disrespect to buyers. sorry but if i have the choice of buying movies embedded with bs software/spyware or downloading the movie "pirating" *arr matey* call me captian jack.

[thunderhawk]

I wonder how long it'll take the world to hack AACS...
The one who does, will face a few days in court and a new job lol

I don't know what I have to think about it. I'll probably take a while till I buy a Blu-ray Disc product so...

[GTP]

Give me 1080p, losless multi channel audio, and use all the needed space to make both as high quality as they can possibly be.
Also no phone or internet connections for any movie playback.....including rentals or borrowed discs.

Do this, and I will replace many hundreds of sd dvd's with Blu Ray.

[phloyd]

I draw the line at internet requirements also.

I can tolerate no analogue since I have bought HDMI... but no internet requirement and no marrying to hardware in any shape or form.

If it can't be used the way we legitimately use DVDs I will not be all that interested...