Topic: DVDs and Blu-rays will now carry two unskippable government warnings

[idolminds]

SURELY THIS WILL STOP PIRACY!

Will the two screens be shown back to back? Will each screen last for 10 seconds each? Will each screen be unskippable? Yes, yes, and yes.

An ICE spokesman tells me that the two screens will "come up after the previews, once you hit the main movie/play button on the DVD. At which point the movie rating comes up, followed by the IPR Center screen shot for 10 secs and then the FBI/HSI anti-piracy warning for 10 secs as well. Neither can be skipped/fast forwarded through."

The idea isn't to deter current pirates, apparently (the new scheme requires all legal purchasers to sit through 20 seconds of warnings each time they pop in a film, but will be totally absent from pirated downloads and bootlegs). It's to educate everyone else. As ICE Director John Morton announced in a statement yesterday, "Law enforcement must continue to expand how it combats criminal activity; public awareness and education are a critical part of that effort."

Lets make piracy look more attractive!

[Cobra951]

I'm getting a box to log into ArsTechnica every time your your post pops up (?!).

I'm guessing drivers like AnyDVD and AnyDVD HD will only get more popular from here on out.

[idolminds]

Thats odd, maybe because I'm hotlinking the images? I'll take em out and see if that fixes it.

[Cobra951]

Yep!  No more dialog box.  I never did see the hot-linked images.  Thanks.

[W7RE]

option 1:
Put disc in the player
watch 3 trailers
watch 2 commercials
wait for the slow menu to load and animate
click on "play movie" and wait for another slow menu animation
watch 2 anti-piracy screens
watch movie

option 2:
double click
watch movie





Value and user experience will always be better than threats, warnings, and DRM. Give us THAT.

[Pugnate]

This is why I pay money to buy a movie.

[Cools!]

Joy.

[PyroMenace]

It sucks yea, but a 20 second wait before watching a movie... drives people to piracy? Is this what its coming to?

[Pugnate]

No. I've noticed that when it comes to piracy, for many, the tipping point is just a whisker away. Perhaps because getting an expensive product for free is so easy now, and all that stands in the way are personal morals...your own belief that your rights are being violated when you are going the legitimate route. You are the one policing yourself. It is a conflict of interest.

I guess it is easier to feel outraged then when the rewards are greater for being a pirate. And if you can convince yourself that you are doing it because you had no choice, then there is no guilt. You can have your cake and eat it too.

I am not speaking of people here, but most of the internet community in general. When it comes to games, while I haven't resorted to piracy, I have stopped buying games from companies like Ubisoft.

[Quemaqua]

I think it comes down to entirely different things for different people. And let's face it, most people feel ripped off these days by most companies. Everybody gets a little charge out of sticking it to the man. I don't pirate much, generally just out of curiosity if I think a company has produced something great but saddled it with a heap of horseshit. Mostly I just circumvent protection methods. I'll buy the product and then rip it to shreds until it does what the fuck I want it to.

But moves like this are stupid. They help no one and only irritate people. Is it really a big deal to have to wait? Of course not. But when you consider how much bullshit advertising is built into a lot of this stuff these days, I think this just feels like a slap in the face. If we've got enough time and goodwill to buy and watch your movie instead of stealing it, why are we being forced to watch ads for shit we don't want? Why are you reminding us about how ripping you off is a crime?

[idolminds]

Sure this is only 20 seconds, but usually there are also several trailers and "coming soon"s that may be skipable, but now I'm sitting there like a chump hitting the "next" button and waiting through FBI warnings. Every single time I want to watch Earnest Goes To Camp. Give me a break.

Thats part of the reason I like watching DVDs on my PC. With VLC it goes right to the menu, click, movie. Done.

[gpw11]

I think it comes down to entirely different things for different people.

This.  I just don't like paying for stuff and have an easy and pretty much risk free way of getting anything digital, I pretty much will do it in most cases.  Yet, for some reason I won't take money from a wallet I find or steal from a person or company even if I know I'm never going to be caught.  Given the option to empty out a bunch of stranger's bank accounts, I probably wouldn't.  Something in my mind distiguishes between the two.

I mean, obviously there's the fact that it's a lot more harmless to download a CD, movie, or the latest episode of Game of Thrones, but for some reason I also pay for the vast majority of the games I play.  What differentiates it there?  Who knows.