Feds considering allowing DVD-encryption cracking
Found on Ars Technica on Friday, 18 May 2012
Federal regulators considered testimony Wednesday here at UCLA Law School on whether to allow citizens and filmmakers to legally crack DVD encryption meant to protect the discs from being copied.
Clarissa Weirick, the general counsel of Warner Brothers Home Entertainment, testified against all the decryption measures.
"If we didn't have access controls, there might be the same kind of mass piracy we've seen with unprotected music," Weirick said about the copying of DVDs.
They said that there is no need to grant the public the right to make copies of their DVDs because the studios are streaming and selling movies online now, and that the public does not own the movies they buy on DVDs. They own the license to play it on a DVD, they argued.
Weirick might be a little out of reality right there. Pirates don't care about the encrytions: they are all broken and high quality versions are released which offer a by far better experience than on the DVD you can buy. No FBI warnings, no unskippable ads and trailers, no region codes. Just what the consumer wants: the movie. Weirick just does not want to let their customers use the product they bought in any way they want. Yes, bought, not licensed. They are afraid that, if cosumers can legally copy DVDs between different devices, the entertainment industry won't be able to sell "licenses" for the same movie again and again to the same customer. Today, the consumer seems to be the Boston Strangler for the movie industry.