About 1 and 1/2 years ago, they busted some VCD pirates that were already producing DVD copies. DeCSS isn't a problem. How do you copy it from your hard drive? (You could use your ATI/C-Cube card to edit it into 3 files and copy to CD-R?)...................................
e-town.com
DVD HACK NO REASON TO PANIC
Software lets you record DVDs onto a hard drive. But what then? 11/8/1999
By Roy Bassave
[Etown.com welcomes Roy Bassave, former video and technology reporter for The Miami Herald for 10 years. -- Ed.]
MIAMI, FL, November 8, 1999 -- I saw my first hacked DVD last week. It was a copy of "The Matrix," and it looked as good as a VHS tape. Whoopee.
That is, the video quality was nowhere near that of a legitimate DVD release. It also didn't have all of the interactive features found on the hot-selling disc, which has sold over 1.5 million copies to date.
I was able to view the copy thanks to someone I'll call "Deep DVD." This person had downloaded the software program that lets anyone make pirated copies of DVDs using readily available hardware. Anyone with a DVD-ROM-equipped PC can use this tiny program, called DeCSS, to unlock a DVD's encryption code and make a copy onto the hard drive.
DeCCS, which was created by hackers in Norway, has been the source of much agonizing and hand-wringing in the press, with people foretelling the death of DVD and making other similarly ridiculous comments. I believe that DVD fans will turn up their noses at these bogus copies -- if, that is, these bootlegs even make it to sidewalk vendors or flea markets. What's more, it's just too much trouble to make copies for your "friends," especially when legitimate discs are available on the 'Net for $10 to $15.
Now what do I do with it?
Although a hacked DVD may sound good to some, the reality for most is very different. Once a DVD has been copied onto a hard drive, it must go somewhere for it to mean anything. You can forget about sending it to a friend via the Internet, because the file will take up at least a few gigabytes. This dwarfs any MP3 file.
How about "burning" the file onto a DVD recorder? The blank discs used in such a machine cost more than most prerecorded DVDs. Another option is to compress the file and "burn" it onto a blank CD-R, which costs less than a buck. That makes fiscal sense, but why would you want to do this? You'd have to cut the video down from the MPEG-2 compression used on the DVD to MPEG-1. Then you'd see the 480 lines of horizontal resolution on a DVD reduced to the 240 lines you get on a Video CD or VHS tape. Boy, these hackers sure are smart!
I don't mean to make light of the situation, but I want to put it in some perspective. Others in the DVD software industry have the same attitude.
"No matter what, people will find ways to pirate things," said Christine Andres, spokesperson for Vivid Interactive, the top supplier of adult DVDs. "They copied PlayStation games, and Sony is still releasing games. They copy computer software, and that has not stopped new games from coming out. You release something and someone will always make copies of it. So we're not worried about it." In addition, the interactive features, such as multiple angles, on many adult DVDs are not found on pirated DVDs.
Andres strongly feels that DVD has proven itself to be a solid and affordable format. There are "many DVDs selling for as little as nine bucks, and that includes our adult products," she says. "We are always advancing DVD technology and moving forward to make it better. But we do tell anyone who makes copies of DVD for profit that it's both wrong and foolish. To make a real impact, many pirates would have to get the key code and mass-produce DVDs. That's a very expensive proposition, with professional DVD duplicators costing from $8000 to $15,000 each. So in the long run, if prices stay affordable, mainstream consumers will always want the best."
If you build it, they will come, but ...
Eventually, it may be possible for consumers to make copies of DVDs at a reasonable price, but that's not likely to happen anytime soon. Wes Robinson, a spokesperson for Creative Labs, explains that while the company's new DVD-RAM burner costs just $499.99, a package of five blank discs costs $199.99 -- and the discs are encased in a cartridge to prevent playback on home DVD players. It seems to me, then, that Jack Valenti, of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), should have no reason to stress out about this.
Will this new hacking scheme make it easier for the occasional pirate to burn DVDs? Probably. But Joel Katz of Samsung suggests that anyone who intends to buy a DVD-RAM to copy movies should forget it, because it'll cost more to make the copies than it would to buy the legitimate releases. DVD-RAM is best used to back up computer files.
A DVD industry insider told me on condition of anonymity that the movie studios are too powerful to let DVD pirates make major inroads with the public. The movie industry goes after anyone who tries to infringe on copyrights even in the slightest fashion. And the penalties are pretty severe -- by contract, DVD software and hardware manufacturers can be fined $1 million per security infraction. Yet Hollywood knows pirates in the Far East may have a ball with this latest "gift." Video CD is hugely popular in Asia, where buyers seem to be quite content with its limited audio and video quality. The same can't be said of consumers in North America and Europe.
Most of the people to whom I spoke on this subject believe that the future of DVD is bright -- as long as the movie studios keep the cost of DVDs affordable and the releases plentiful. |
