DVD chips 'to kill illegal copying'

[Bronx]

DVDs will soon be tracked with embedded radio transmitter chips to prevent copying and piracy, according to the company which makes movie discs for Warner, Disney, Fox and other major studios.

The technology, which can also be used for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs, will allow movie studios to remotely track individual discs as they travel from factories to retail shelves to consumers' homes.

Home DVD players will eventually be able to check on the chip embedded in a disc, and refuse to play discs which are copied or played in the 'wrong' geographical region, the companies behind the technology expect.

"This technology holds the potential to protect the intellectual property of music companies, film studios, gaming and software developers worldwide," said Gordon Yeh, chief executive of Ritek Corporation.

Ritek is the world's largest DVD maker, and its U-Tech subsidiary will make the discs.

U-Tech and IPICO, the company behind the RFID chips used in the discs, announced today that production of the 'chipped' DVDs will begin at U-Tech's main plant in Taiwan.

U-Tech's global network of factories stamps out some 500 million pre-recorded DVDs and CDs a month for major movie studios, recording studios and video games companies.

After ironing out bugs in the manufacturing process, U-Tech will work with major movie studios on a large-scale test of an RFID-based supply chain management process at its manufacturing plant and distribution centre in Australia.

RFID readers will then be built-in to home DVD players to extend the anti-copying technology into homes as part of a digital rights management system.

U-Tech described this as the "real end game" for the chip-on-disc technology, which would "eliminate optical disc piracy in the entertainment and IT sectors" .

IPICO claims that its RFID tags can be read from at least six metres away, and at a rate of thousands of tags per minute. The passive chips require no battery, as they are powered by the energy in radio waves from the RFID reader.

"I have envisioned using RFID to improve product visibility and enhance security in the optical disc industry for some time," said Yeh.

"Launching the chip-on-disc system has made this dream a reality and holds the potential to protect the intellectual property of music companies, film studios, gaming and software developers worldwide."

Gordon Westwater, president of IPICO, added: "[This is the] first step towards new international standards to safeguard optical media, and the subsequent adoption of the chip-on-disc concept as a global standard."

U-Tech Australia, where the project will undergo a large scale trial, did not reply today to vnunet.com's request for comment on the new embedded RFID chip process and the precise schedule for its rollout.

Press relations staff at U-Tech's office in Taiwan refused to provide more information about the technology.

Source:
www.vnunet.com

[gotnotime]

Wil never work, a simple EMP pulse from a homemade electormagnetic device would knock these out or just a "white noise" generator tuned to the same frequency would block tansmissions

[canadateck]

Bull S***........or Better buy some stock.


My Take.......Will end up like everyone before them.

[gotnotime]

besides that you can still make copy from original in any current DVD player, then simply throw original in the trash. I can just imagine what it would be like with the MPAA secret police in their black cars following the DVD to the local Garbage Dump.... What a joke

[SingSing]

News says Sony is appling aptent on this too.
See: https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=308605&highlight=

[BobK]

IPICO claims that its RFID tags can be read from at least six metres away, and at a rate of thousands of tags per minute.

When they get within six meters of my DVDs they risk being shot for breaking and entering my house.

[classfour]

I'm with BobK on this one: If you're within 6 meters of a DVD in my house, you have definitely landed in a killing zone. LOL

They might want to improve the range on that. If you can read an electric (or water) meter just by driving through the neighborhood......

And to think: I've never (knowingly) bought Ritek media - now, another reason to avoid it.

[lordsmurf]

Ritek is the world's largest manfacturer? I don't think so. That should be CMC.

Ritek in charge of making something that works perfectly? Oh yeah, that's funny.

Add this to the list of things you see in a prelim press release, and then never hear about it again. Vaporware.

[canadateck]

https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=309307

[lordsmurf]

Yeah, it sounded fake. Or at very least, poorly written.

[verchad]

The Govt. wants to be able to monitor all forms of electronic communication, for homeland security alledgedly, yet they seem to have problems with this in court, yet the dvd manufacturers will be allowed to chip and track whatever dvds we buy?

So, say I take my dvd to a friends house to watch, will they bust down the door and say it is only for my and my family's personal use, not to be used anywhere else? Or follow me around as we watch movies in our minivan on vacation?

Let's implement this technology on all checks written to politicians so at any time we can actually see who there money is coming from, would they like that?

[beric3236]

I wonder if the privacy people will won't have a field day with this. I wonder what the execs at the top will say when the MPAA Police come around to their door? I wonder also if they are faster than rock salt?? Points to ponder. hummmmmmm

[painkiller]

Sheesh.

Some folks will believe anything.


From a practical standpoint, such an approach is flawed in a number of ways.

A few that I think of: balance of the discs, current population of dvds and players already on the market can't be replaced soon or fast enough to allow for this approach, which side to put the rfid (data or label), and on and on and on...............

[Xylob the Destroyer]

so my new DVD won't play in my old player because the player can't read the chip?
guess I'll not be buying your movies then....

[rayzray]

IF;; i line my home/room with lead,, will this "Stop" the Radio waves from leaving "My" Home?? will i be,, like,, kidnapping the Radio wave??

and,, then;; if i make a copy in "real Time" analog with S-Video;; will this bypass this insane tech??

[parallax1]

I like how it's all ready to go "after ironing out bugs in the manufacturing process"....which of course means it looks good on paper but doesn't actually work.

[gll99]

The conductors inside these chips had better be made of materials which are not affected by electro magnets or a simple swipe will destroy them.

Another option is some type of passthrough electrical charge which won't affect the disc but zap the chip.

I think it's too easy to design something inexpensive that would interfere with these chips. On the player side all they will spawn is another underground mod industry and pirated discs with the cloned chip technology but with all restrictions removed.
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In this case pirates will see this as a new market for them and an opportunity to make even more money. These companies will just spend money again on useless technology. The cost of course will be passed on to consumers with no real improvemnent to the product that they put out.

They would be wise to look around. I don't believe that discs are the long range medium for video so they shouldn't be wasting too much effort on protecting this transitional product.

All that said they still have to get around privacy laws and massive consumer resistance to such an unacceptable invasion of their privacy.

I would never buy..... Wait...... On second thought, I might buy 1 disc for a possible side benefit.... Leave a disc under the car seat and if the car gets stolen just tell the police to trace the disc. They may have no time to look for my car but according to the new laws enacted for the benefit of the MPAA and RIAA it is their sworn duty to find these discs.

[painkiller]

heh. A cheap LoJack.


Instead of calling the police, why not call Mr. Valenti and tell him someone stole your car with bootleg cd's in it.

They'd find your car in 30 minutes. Or less.

But then you'd have an explanation on how they were able to track that disk..............

[vico1]

I would never buy..... Wait...... On second thought, I might buy 1 disc for a possible side benefit.... Leave a disc under the car seat and if the car gets stolen just tell the police to trace the disc. They may have no time to look for my car but according to the new laws enacted for the benefit of the MPAA and RIAA it is their sworn duty to find these discs.

LMFAO!!!

a "chipped" disc=a cheap lojack!

[SingSing]

RFID is very very different from lojack. They are like comparing bar code scanner vs cell phone.

[rayzray]

can't we just "Jam" the Radio wave?? like in WWII or Wasington DC?? like,, what frequency would it use?? i am losing sleep over this!!

[yoda313]

Even if this was feasible and was going to be implemented what about the 100 million dvd players already on the market that have no such feature built in???

[handyguy]

Anything you see on the screen can be recorded. no chip can stop that.

[TBoneit]

My first take is and is isn't even April 1

Second take if they can get it out the door quick enough I could see it in HD DVD and BlueRay discs. Just think if you have the chip and your player isn't modded and supports the chipped discs, then you get full resolution playback. If your player doesn't support the chip then you only get the downrezzed playback since your player won't even see or be able to read the decryption key from the chip.

?

I could see Hollywood studios jumping on this technology. We've got to protect our very valuable intellectual property such as "Polar Express" and "Zathura" and "Heavens Gate", Well they think those need heavy protection. Stinkers that they were.

[BJ_M]

Anything you see on the screen can be recorded. no chip can stop that.

not true anymore with HDCP and Digital Cinema Encryption

[BJ_M]

double post - crap

[Conquest10]

Can't you delete a double post?

[yoda313]

Anything you see on the screen can be recorded. no chip can stop that.

not true anymore with HDCP and Digital Cinema Encryption

Well you can always do it with a camcorder........ except you'll have the screen flicker....

[gll99]

RFID is very very different from lojack. They are like comparing bar code scanner vs cell phone.

Facts just spoil the joke.
Haven't you heard of poetic license

[rayzray]

gee;; i have an S-Video cable and audio that i copy anything from TV or DVD or VHS onto my PC#2 DVD recording program;; and,, will i be able to copy this new tech this way??

i can even route it to another DVD recorder.. i just want my options.. (well,, i'll find a way;; i'll do it"MyWay"..!!