Anti-Burn Software.

[Matt Grunau]

The thing is, these days, mums and dads know how to pirate a dvd.

I dont know if I would go quite that far t. Most people around here probably could, or knows someone to ask about the correct software, but we are certainly not the "norm". We are, by large, technically savy with this specific medium. I didn't know what kind of software to do this with until a computer guru friend of mine actually asked my why I didn't have the software on my system and told me where to get it And that wasn't until a year or so ago, even though I have been in the biz for well over 5 years.

Not that I use said software, most DVDs out nowadays aren't worth the price of a DVDr. Those that are, I simply buy, because I want better quality and don't like the additional compression artifacts.

[Cryogenic Filmworks]

Copy protection is only as good as the next hacker. Eventually it gets hacked and software is created so people can get past the protection. The industry keeps creating and the hackers keep hacking.

[Egg Born Son]

I dont know if I would go quite that far t. Most people around here probably could, or knows someone to ask about the correct software, but we are certainly not the "norm". We are, by large, technically savy with this specific medium. I didn't know what kind of software to do this with until a computer guru friend of mine actually asked my why I didn't have the software on my system and told me where to get it And that wasn't until a year or so ago, even though I have been in the biz for well over 5 years.

No, mums and dads can do it. A few years ago you needed to know what you were doing. Now you just need to know how to download. Once you've got the rip program it automatically detects and circumvents the copy protection. Hackers will always be ahead of the DRM. What takes years to develop takes mere days to break through.

There is no point to copy protection. The best it achieves is creating problems for idiots like me who actually buy their movies. Only to have the remote control locked out to force me to sit through all their logos EVERY time and then experience a slight reduction in picture quality due to the headroom occupied by the useless copy protection. Then when your DVD player gets old it refuses to play legitimate DVDs due to copy protection. For a brief time I was ripping my legitimate DVDs (from the major studios in particular) to get a better experience out of them. Ridiculous! For a while Blurays didn't have any of these problems but the last two I bought locked out my remote control....get-ting ANGRY!!!

People who are going to rip media are going to rip media. People who are going to buy media are going to buy media (until they get so pissed off they start ripping). No copy protection is going to alter that. As suggested by others you are better off employing a business model that encourages people to buy the media, such as an event model (sell at screenings) or a merchandising model (get the DVD with a T-shirt). I've bought a number of DVDs that actively promote the fact they are not copy protected. Being asked to do the right thing doesn't leave a bad taste in your mouth with such an enterprise. You need to appeal to the base market (those that buy) because there is nothing you can do about the others.

Rant over.

[JeganRX]

There actually was interest (I'm not sure if it was standardized) in creating some consumer level CSS-like protection, but I doubt it would be as "effective" as commercial level CSS. Nevermind the fact that CSS is a relatively primitive encryption by today's standards.

[josh-ozirigpro]

Like a previous poster pointed out; the only people who are going to be damaged by DRM are the legitimate customers...
Just like the FBI Piracy warning notices that you have to sit through before you can watch your legally purchased movie (the pirated version would conveniently cut this part out).

The fact of the matter is, you could go to the cost and effort of putting protection on it and it will still get ripped within 5 minutes by someone who really wanted to get the data off there.
So, if the people who are capable of doing it will circumvent it anyway, then there's no reason to put an extra burden on yourself and your paying customers in the form of CSS/disclaimers etc.

[TheDingo]

Before you put your faith in any anti-piracy disc protection, I would test to see how difficult it is to crack the protection, otherwise your client might be buying into something that does not work.

For testing purposes, the most common DRM removal software is the SlySoft.com consumer software, which is supposed to be used to make legal "back-ups" of protected discs.

[JeganRX]

Before you put your faith in any anti-piracy disc protection, I would test to see how difficult it is to crack the protection, otherwise your client might be buying into something that does not work.

For testing purposes, the most common DRM removal software is the SlySoft.com consumer software, which is supposed to be used to make legal "back-ups" of protected discs.

In all practicality, decrypting CSS is a trivial process. Though it is "industry-standard" it has not mattered for quite some time. This is why Sony opted to try ARcoSS protection on newer discs, which breaks playback in some devices.

[OldCorpse]

A word to the wise: discussing piracy and the various possible procedures etc. are not something that's encouraged on dvxuser. This thread is going to get locked up in a hurry, so please desist from discussing this any further.

I would also like to point out that this is a thread from 2007 that was inexplicably brought back from the dead by Cryogenic Filmworks. Subsequently, Egg Born Son responded to Matt Grunau. Matt has been dead for years now (see sticky at the top of the Cafe forum), and there is no chance that he will be brought back to life to respond.