Can Odd Alliance Beat Pirates?

Found on Wired on Wednesday, 14 July 2004
Browse Technology

Movie studios, computer chipmakers and consumer electronics companies said Wednesday they are working together to build a new copy-protection standard that would allow home viewers to watch and share high-definition video among various entertainment and portable devices, but prevent pirates from making perfect copies.

The companies haven't yet developed the technology. But it would work with any future format -- including HD-DVD, Blu-ray and other formats in the works, said Steve Ballogh, business development manager with Intel's corporate technology group.

"There are some key decisions coming up in making HD-DVD and Blu-ray," said Richard Doherty, analyst at the Envisioneering Group. "And those decisions on how they protect content (and) make content more convenient were starting to make some people sweat."

Big words. Every hyped new protection has failed so far. As long as the content is accessible somehow, it will be possible to make copies. Personally, I highly doubt the new idea will have success even if several companies join forces; unless they come up with something completely unuseable and restrictive, which of course will make consumers angry (well, current protection tries show that they don't care about that).