February 21st, 2006
Movie Studios Sue Samsung Over Hack-Friendly DVD Player
By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews
Disney, Paramount, Twentieth Century Fox, Time Warner and and Universal Studios are suing Samsung over a DVD player which was not only a retail failure, but had the additional misfortune of being “hacker-friendly.” In an article in The Korea Times, a Samsung spokesman (who had not yet seen the text of the complaint) speculated it was regarding the DVD-HD841, which Samsung had sold in the United States between June and October 2004.
This player had the ability, through an undocumented code, to allow the user to bypass region-encoding. As far as studios are concerned, worse is the similar ability of the player to bypass HDCP. Apparently, the same hacks appear in other Samsung players. But why target such an obscure, not-well-received player?
The reason for this lawsuit happening right now is simple. The studios know that there is going to be a significant spike in demand for next-generation players that can bypass HDCP over the next few years. When Joe Consumer discovers the delicious little treat known as “HDCP”—a treat that will likely make it impossible to play HD content on displays and TVs without HDCP support—he’s not going to like it. While there are no official numbers, we believe that there are millions of HDTV sets in the United States that were purchased before HDCP and HDMI (a DVI-like interface with HDCP) were made available. As things currently stand, those TVs will never display HD content according to their true abilities. Those nice, expensive HDTVs will be trapped in 480p purgatory.
A next-gen player that can deliver HD content to such televisions would be a big, big seller. People who buy TVs that support 1080i expect them to display HD content in 1080i, not 480p. One way around that would be to disable HDCP. Hollywood wants to make it clear that this is simply not acceptable. It shouldn’t have been done in the past, and the stakes are higher going forward. Source: Ars Technica
We Say: I can see the reasons that the studios want to make a statement. However, one problem I have with copy protection is it tends to assume piracy is the norm, not the exception. For example, one of my friends has a DVD player that allows bypassing of region encoding. His reason for getting it? He wanted to play obscure anime that he could buy in Japantown that was not, and never would be, released in the U.S. with region 1 encoding. Is there something wrong with this? No.
And I see the same reasoning here. If I have one of these pre-HDCP sets, I definitely want a way to be able to see a movie in all its glory. I don’t want to pirate it, but I do want to get what I pay for. If there’s a hack that will enable that, I’ll use it.
RecycledElectrons says:
CAN I MAKE IT ANY MORE FRACKING CLEAR THAT THE ORGANIZED CRIME FAMILY KNOWN AS THE MPAA / RIAA / BSA ABSOLUTELY FRACKIN DO NOT WANT YOUR BUSINESS!?!?!?!?!
ANDY OUT!
February 21st, 2006 at 6:10 am
Tom Campanile says:
I’ll buy a hackable model, or nothing.
February 21st, 2006 at 7:21 am
OM says:
Lets sue every OS in existance because they allow emulation software to be run.
February 21st, 2006 at 8:51 am
David Johnston says:
“Lets sue every OS in existance because they allow emulation software to be run.”
Yes, and we should also sue the people who make any kind of electronics hardware because someone could conceivably modify it or use it or crack it to break the DRM on DVD’s
In fact, the movie studios should sue themselves for making DRM that’s crackable. If it had been perfect, then nobody could break it. So, really, it’s all the studios faults that people can crack DRM schemes
February 21st, 2006 at 10:38 am
AE says:
I often wondered the risk of purchasing a high-end HDTV years ago. Formats change fairly rapidly, and now it is very plain to see. It will be sad that I will have to knowingly break the law so that I may simply watch content that I’ve paid for on a system that I’ve paid for.
If there is a will there is a way. This phrase should brought up more often to anti-piracy groups. No matter how much they try to lock down a system, there will be ways to circumvent a system.
February 21st, 2006 at 10:52 am
Mikey says:
How about we sue the entire “entertainment” industry on conspiracy and racketeering charges. After all, they are behaving exactly like a criminal syndicate in that they are the organization controlling both access and content. At least the Mafia doesn’t use the courts to try to screw the customer over…
I’ve given up trying to reason it out. They lose money by clamping down on the media that they alone produce, and then they accuse people of “stealing” what those very same people paid for.
Wait. It gets better. Then they pressure the manufacturers to “fix” their products so the player being sold to the public will not play the media. Whats next, a media player thats tied directly to the bank accounts at Vivendi/MPAA/RIAA which spits out a one time use code to enable the networked player to operate just once? Want to see it again? Pay them again.
I dont like this already.
February 21st, 2006 at 11:29 am
Mark says:
I could defininately see some kind of lawsuit coming on behalf of the consumer. If you already have an HD tv you should be able to watch HD without having to get new equipment or some kind of adapter.
I also like watching anime and foreign films, many of which never get released here. You couldn’t watch many of them in the USA without a region free player.
February 21st, 2006 at 1:24 pm
RecycledElectrons says:
Let me repeat what I meant to say.
This decision by the RIAA / MPAA / BSA organized crime family deprives many thousands of their best customers of the use of their high-value TV sets.
They didn’t shoot themselves in the foot. They strapped a claymore to their genetals (with the writing “this side towards enemy” facing in,) and set it off.
It can not get any more clear. This won’t do one thing to stop piracy, but it will harm their customers.
My mom ran into someting similar with Windows 2000. She had a video card that is similar to (and uses the same video driver as ) a card that has a TV-out. She can not watch DVDs on her PC because Microsoft’s copmy-protection crap will not let her. She had to decide between spending hundreds of dollars to watch DVDs, or breaking her movie habit. She broke her movie habit.
If you do business with the RIAA / MPAA / BSA organized crime family, you have to be willing to spend thousands of dollars to meet their irrational demans…WTF?!?!
Will someone please tell me - if you still watch TV, DVSs or movies…WHY?!?!
I dont’ belive that anyone who still watches TV, DVDs, or movies qualifies as a human. They are in the same legal classification the Supreme Court puts fetuses in. They might technically be human, but they don’t qualify as legal “people.” It’s my choice if I want to kill them. They have no right to be alive. They are choices, not people.
Andy Out!
February 21st, 2006 at 7:34 pm
Mikey says:
Hey Andy, I was called on the carpet. We gotta stop comparing the “family” to the RIAA/MPAA. Certain individuals have approached me and made it clear to me that they are NOT associated with the RIAA/MPAA.
It seems that the “family” has standards…
February 23rd, 2006 at 6:34 am
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July 18th, 2006 at 7:24 pm
Charlie Murphey says:
See, Andy here Is Obviously an uneducated little girl. Andy, You need to wake the fuck up and get with the program. Its called change, No matter how unreasonable it may seem, You need to deal with it and quit being a little babbling bitch about it. Who gives a shit, just buy the damn dvd’s and watch them.
August 30th, 2007 at 2:27 am