Comments on: Another Blu-Ray Strike

By: Anon

Anon — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:05:51 +0000

It looks like “Piracy, the better choice ™” is winning again:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081117-fake-blu-ray-discs-hatched-in-china-industry-is-concerned.html

And here is another possibility – use AVCHD to distribute your film on BluRay discs (PS3 plays them, according to Wikipedia).

By: Jason Scott

Jason Scott — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 05:44:43 +0000

Reddit sent a few hundred people here. Let me just drop a couple responses/clarification.

I definitely meant RIAA, not MPAA. The RIAA has had offices in duplication plants since the CD days. They still go through DVDs for copyright violations; the MPAA does not do it this way. On the other hand, the new Blu-Ray discs have, because of this current arrangement, all the information on the persons responsible for an infringing item (and the plant) and can prosecute that way.

I can certainly do a BD-ROM version of the movie and not pay the fees. But the point is that would be a big waste of my customers’ time and effort. Same for the hack where you can put blu-ray compatible information on a DVD-ROM. It will be confusing as hell, even if it works in (most) Blu-Ray players. Oh, and DID I MENTION BLU-RAY GETS THE BIOS UPDATED and may in fact stop working that way in the future? Wow, that’s going to hurt people other than me.

As for the semi-clever idea of posting the member list in charge of AACS and sneering that it’s not just Sony’s fault, this is Sony’s format and Sony is the most DRM-happy company in the electronics business. This is what they generally bring to the table. So yeah, blame Sony.

By: D Keaton

D Keaton — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 04:42:08 +0000

I feel your pain mate. My mums craft group for this side of the city wanted to make an instructional Blu Ray last year, but the Blu Ray fees were just too much. She would have had to taken out a small personal loan just to get her members the Blu Rays, with no possible way to recover from the costs. Not to mention that she wouldn’t have sold too many Blu Rays anyway, but we rented a HDV camera and she wanted the option out there. DVDs were dead easy in comparison, there were so many people in the DVD presser companies that were so willing to help her, the fees were almost nothing at all, she can start another run on printing again at any time for no extra cost except per disc (in batches of 50 or more) and the resulting DVD came out amazing. For a product that wants to break through into mainstream, Sony really isn’t making it easy for the mainstream to use and buy their product.

By: Sigh

Sigh — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 03:28:40 +0000

Right. So it's all Sony's fault. http://www.aacsla.com/founders/

By: Oliver

Oliver — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 01:34:10 +0000

What would stop a duplication plant from manufacturing copies of a Blu-Ray you made with commercial software, like tomorrow’s HD equivalent of iDVD/imToo/whatever?

By: Vemrion

Vemrion — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 22:25:47 +0000

RIAA office? For DVD replication? Don’t you mean MPAA, or both?

You are right, though. This is a total turd-burger and will simply ensure people stick with DVDs for much longer than they otherwise would. Sony, BDA and the MPAA need to pull their fucking heads out and stop trying to fuck over the little guy — and consumers.

By: h

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:16:16 +0000

Blu-ray is dead - heckuva job, Sony!

By: phoenix

phoenix — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 07:05:52 +0000

it’s mafia style business obviously, but we could still probably swing it for mindcandy 3. going thru the aacs la docs tho, it seems like it may be even more for a content certificate? maybe there will be enough of an indie backlash that they’ll ease up on the fees under a certain number of discs, we can only hope.

By: Andrew Armstrong

Andrew Armstrong — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 05:02:28 +0000

Thanks for putting up this info. No, I no doubt will never author a Blu-Ray disk, but it’s important to know how ridiculous making the disks are. Indie people just…can’t afford that. No wonder Blu-Ray disks are so damn expensive…

I mean, I’d love higher-then-DVD quality if I had a massive need for it (such as for high motion events or things that required really high resolutions) but for that, web downloaded files compressed correctly work better I think.

That is one insane cost. Man-o-man.

By: Jason Scott

Jason Scott — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 01:00:39 +0000

The AACS limitations are 100% artificial. One of these artificial limitations is the license is just for one product, one SKU. The same limitation that would cause a duplication plant to suffer from delisting by the bigs for not using a license would apply as well for re-using keys. Good out of the box thinking though.