News
November 5th, 2005, 03:55 AM
By Frank Ling, GN Writer
Friday, November 04, 2005
A new copyright protection scheme was recently discussed at the International DVD Forum held in Paris. Next-generation DVD machines are just around the corner and the movie industry is looking frantically for new ways to prevent the piracy of new theater movie releases.
While next-gen DVD machines will have copy protection to prevent duplication of movies on disk, there is still no protection against movie pirates from recording new films in movie theaters with video cameras. They record off the movie screen and transfer to DVD. Voila!
The DVD Forum has come up with a possible solution. The plan is to incorporate an inaudible signal (to human ears) in the soundtrack of all theater movies. This signal, although not heard, is recorded by the unsuspecting pirate on their video cameras. If the pirated film is transferred to a smart next-gen DVD machine, the secret audio signal that is present would tell the DVD recorder, “This input is illegal”, thereby preventing duplication. This new proposed technology could theoretically be used for software and music copy protection as well.
Nothing has been finalized, but it is something to think about. In the future, the next time you hear your dog howl for no apparent reason; it may be due to some illegal pirating going on in your neighborhood.
Friday, November 04, 2005
A new copyright protection scheme was recently discussed at the International DVD Forum held in Paris. Next-generation DVD machines are just around the corner and the movie industry is looking frantically for new ways to prevent the piracy of new theater movie releases.
While next-gen DVD machines will have copy protection to prevent duplication of movies on disk, there is still no protection against movie pirates from recording new films in movie theaters with video cameras. They record off the movie screen and transfer to DVD. Voila!
The DVD Forum has come up with a possible solution. The plan is to incorporate an inaudible signal (to human ears) in the soundtrack of all theater movies. This signal, although not heard, is recorded by the unsuspecting pirate on their video cameras. If the pirated film is transferred to a smart next-gen DVD machine, the secret audio signal that is present would tell the DVD recorder, “This input is illegal”, thereby preventing duplication. This new proposed technology could theoretically be used for software and music copy protection as well.
Nothing has been finalized, but it is something to think about. In the future, the next time you hear your dog howl for no apparent reason; it may be due to some illegal pirating going on in your neighborhood.