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

[drjtech]

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

October 10, 2006
Protect DVD-Video - A slap in the face for PC and Media Center owners Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes @ 4:38 am

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.

Protect DVD-Video is the brainchild of a company called ProtectDisc. Part of the copy-protection mechanism is a non-standard UDF (Universal Disc Format) file system which results in the IFO file on the DVD (this is the file responsible for storing information on chapters, subtitles and audio tracks) appearing to the PC as being zero bytes long.

The upshot of this is that if you have a DVD disc protected by Protect DVD-Video and you try to play the disc in a PC-based system using, say, Windows Media Player, the process will fail. Now, lets be clear here, we are taking about a genuine, legitimate DVD disc not working in a PC, not a pirated disc or a download via a torrent. Protect DVD-Video protects a DVD by basically making it un-playable in a DVD drive that's in a Windows-based PC (I've no information on whether this also locks out Linux users - I would imagine that it does).

Remember how I told you that Protect DVD-Video was the brainchild of ProtectDisc? Well, the interesting thing about this company is that it is run by Volkmar Breitfeld, who is also managing director of ACE (who market the FluxDVD copy protection). However, dig a little deeper and you find that Breitfeld used to work for the "other side" and is known for his work developing tools to circumvent copy protection, such as InstantCopy and InstantCD/DVD.

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.

"With this copy protection the film industry clearly overshot the mark", says Giancarlo Bettini, CEO at SlySoft. "The premium customer who spent a lot of money on his multimedia home cinema and who, for quality reasons, would never even consider watching anything else but an original DVD, is being slapped in the face. These customers with their shelves stuffed with rightfully acquired DVDs, can't watch their videos."

As usual, I don't have a problem with anyone protecting their intellectual property and making sure that they are paid fairly for their work, but I am dismayed when, time after time, they seem to blur the line between fair use and piracy. The more that legitimate users are being made to feel like they have been cheated out of being able to use what they've paid for, the more people are being pushed into looking for tools that allow them to circumvent copy protection … simply to use what they paid for. That sets a worrying trend that will ultimately make things worse for the movie and recording industry. Imagine if keys were outlawed and people had to turn to lockpicks to get into their own homes? Would that make us all more secure? I doubt it! The same thing is happening here. The entertainment industry is forcing ordinary users to look for tools to bust copy protection in order to use a product they’ve paid for, ordinary users feels abused and ripped off by a big, faceless corporation, and the next time they want a song or movie, they're less likely to pay for it and more likely to acquire it through other channels.

And to be honest, who can blame them?

[Xylob the Destroyer]

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

..."With this copy protection the film industry clearly overshot the mark", says Giancarlo Bettini, CEO at SlySoft. "The premium customer who spent a lot of money on his multimedia home cinema and who, for quality reasons, would never even consider watching anything else but an original DVD, is being slapped in the face. These customers with their shelves stuffed with rightfully acquired DVDs, can't watch their videos."...

unbelievable....
I will be pissed if my brand new copy of whatever movie doesn't work simply because of my choice of player!

[funnel71]

I wonder if a movie like this would play in my DVR. It's an LG 519, and its' core software is based on Windows Media Center. If you access the main menu, it looks just like a media center's main menu. I'd definitely be on fire about it.

[SingSing]

Well, ignore it and don't buy it, will always work.

[ViRaL1]

Won't bug me much. If it doesn't work, it's going back allong with the packaging and whatever else, opened.

[RabidDog]

Can it be called, and labelled as a DVD?
premium users will not buy the dvds and will wait the 6 months till it comes out on Cable/sky/MentoVision

[painkiller]

I gotta say - I'm with Viral1 on this one.

[Nitemare]

I agree also. As a parent, I'm never allowed near the TV. My kids are always on it. If I want to watch a DVD I'm sequestered in my computer room watching it on my PC. Any DVD that won't play in it will get returned with extreme prejudice.

[Ai Haibara]

Won't bug me much. If it doesn't work, it's going back allong with the packaging and whatever else, opened.

I thought most stores (at least in the US) had a policy now that you can't return opened DVDs/music CDs/video games/software, but only (if even that) exchange it for an unopened copy of the same title?

[CrayonEater]

That's too bad. It's defective merchandise. It is reasonable to expect that a DVD is watchable on any DVD player or computer. If not, it's defective merchandise.

[Snakebyte1]

I wouldn't get to worked up over this. Like the countless list of other products that claim to do what this does it will sink back into the sludge from where it came.

Should some distributor foolishly think of using it, might I remind them of "Sony and the Rootkit", and all that fun.

However, Snakebyte Inc has created a foolproof way to protect the content of any DVD or CD. Simply take the Copy Protection Device (aka nail) and applying pressure to the data side of a DVD or CD, gouge out large chunks over the entire surface. Your content will then be safe from pirates.

[Ai Haibara]

That's too bad. It's defective merchandise. It is reasonable to expect that a DVD is watchable on any DVD player or computer. If not, it's defective merchandise.

Hey, I'm all for being able to return it.

[VegasBud]

...Like the countless list of other products that claim to do what this does it will sink back into the sludge from where it came...

It only took a few days for all the ripping tools we use to adapt so they can now defeat this garbage. It is more worrisome in that it demonstrates they are increasingly willing to go farther and farther outside of the dvd standard in their mindless pursuit of "copy protection". With this latest giant stride into stupidity, a legally purchased dvd now has to be ripped to make it useable. That has got to end up biting them in the posterior, which appears to be where their brains are located.

[Rich86]

I've run into sales clerks refusing to take back an opened cd or dvd, but all the stores I've dealt with have backed off when I tell them the next copy of the defective disc will also be returned - and the one after that, and I will immediately file a complaint with the credit card used also, and so on, unless they either give me a properly functioning product, or return my money. Once I manage to convince them I'm being reasonable (about the product problem) and I'm not kidding about returning as many of them as they make me take, they relent.

The makers of these defective dvd's simply need to include a clear disclaimer on the packaging so we all can avoid purchasing them. Then the stores won't have to deal with irate customers trying to return opened products. A label something like:
"This only looks like a dvd - but it isn't really, because it won't play on all the equipment you use to play dvd's - so maybe you should leave it here on the shelf".

[yoda313]

This only looks like a dvd - but it isn't really, because it won't play on all the equipment you use to play dvd's - so maybe you should leave it here on the shelf".

Hmm....

Truth in advertising??? I don't see that happening anytime soon

[CrayonEater]

If it says Video DVD on it, I expect it to work like every other DVD. Otherwise, it is not a DVD and the maker used deceptive practices to make it appear to be one. So not only does it go back for being defective, but there is a deceptive marketing claim in there as well. Most states don't f--- around when it comes to that kind of thing.

[BJ_M]

a lot of dvd players are linux or windows based - like the bose media centers --as well as some dvd storage centers ....