Microsoft Licenses Analog Anti-rip Technology 270
photojournaliste writes "CD copy-protection specialist Macrovision is to work with Microsoft to ensure their respective DRM and anti-rip technologies are interoperable, the two companies said this week. Sounds straightforward enough, but the deal runs deeper. Microsoft agreed to license a number of Macrovision's patents, in particular those relating to analogue copy protection technology and more recent extensions to that system that cover video-on-demand, pay-per-view content and support for the US 'broadcast flag', which determines whether consumers will be able to record digital TV broadcasts."
New Name (Score:5, Funny)
song in your head (Score:5, Funny)
What is this television thing (Score:5, Funny)
great wedding (Score:5, Funny)
If there have any offsprings, shoot'em.
Re:song in your head (Score:5, Funny)
Now THAT is a service I would pay for!
Re:Buy now, only legal until July 1 (Score:2, Funny)
Microsoft anti-rip technology (Score:2, Funny)
Maybe I'm a dim (Score:4, Funny)
I mean heck! At one point you have to disseminate an analogue signal to which we are able to listen to.
Methinks that the only feasible technology is to pour tar into the ears of every citizen on earth.
And that really seems a bit intrusive.
Excellent! (Score:1, Funny)
Re:What is this television thing (Score:5, Funny)
It's just like your MPEG porn only there's multiple streams all available from a single input source.
There's not much selection though.
What do I say now? (Score:2, Funny)
DRM and Star Trek: TNG (Score:5, Funny)
Copyrights and analog locks trapped all modern culture in outdated media that ended up being lost to the ages.
And people say that series lacked foresight.
All I needed to know about digital rights, I learned from Star Trek.
Re:Broadcast Flag (Score:2, Funny)
That's because Japanese food tastes like rubber. I'm here. I'm eating it. I'm crying. I saw a cooking show where kids put CORN into a chocolate cake. My TV still hasn't recovered from the foot I put into it for showing me THAT travesty.
Re:How long before ... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Maybe I'm a dim (Score:5, Funny)
The secret of PharmaGard (TM) is a special pill, containing a phenylethylamine-type {= ecstasy-like} drug that you have to take before you watch the film. The first few minutes of the film are neurolinguistic programming -- basically, reprogramming your mind so that, under the perception-distorting influence of the drug, it unscrambles the picture -- embedded into an advertisement sequence. There is no possible way for the viewer not to see this sequence if they are going to see the film, so this advertising space would be worth a fortune. As long as the drug's effect lasts, the film appears unscrambled through your altered perception. When it wears off, your eyes go back to normal.
Anyone can copy a film protected with PharmaGard (TM). But only people who have taken the special drug can watch it. If viewers invite friends to watch with them, their friends will have to take some too. A stash of pills are provided with the movie; if you want to watch it again, you have to buy more of them from your local retailer.
PharmaGard (TM) also provides built-in age-restriction. The pills for different-certificate movies are formulated slightly differently. The pills provided with an "18" film will contain an additional substance which reacts with Human Growth Hormone at the levels found in under-18-year-olds to induce undesirable side-effects e.g. nausea, breathing difficulty, loss of balance &c. There will be less of this substance in a "15" film pill to account for the fact that a 15-year old's body will contain a higher level of growth hormone; but the "15" pill will not be a powerful enough psychedelic to allow the consumer's brain to unscramble an "18" film.
A New Hope. (Score:3, Funny)
The day suddenly seemed brighter, and hope arose in my heart. Then I read it again - (*SIGH*).
Re:DRM and Star Trek: TNG (Score:3, Funny)
This also explains why the Federation doesn't seem to have much of a civilian presence, and only Starfleet ships are out running around: everyone is slaving away at mindless jobs planetside to make enough money to pay their license fees.
Re:How long before ... (Score:3, Funny)
Quick! Erase that white board!!!!