Sony Fixes Problems With New DVDs

An anonymous reader writes "Following up on reports that DVDs for some Sony titles were causing problems, Video Business is reporting that Sony has fixed the copy-protection problem on recent DVD releases, and will provide replacement discs to customers. The problem was with the ARccOS DRM system. The company issued the following statement: 'Recently, an update that was installed on approximately 20 titles was found to cause an incompatibility issue with a very small number of DVD players (Sony has received complaints on less than one thousandth of one percent of affected discs shipped)... Since then, the ARccOS system has once again been updated, and there are no longer any playability problems.' Customers can call 800-860-2878 to inquire about replacement discs."

I wouldn't be too sure...

[SanityInAnarchy]

Look at the way their DRM [wikipedia.org] currently works:

The system deliberately creates a number of sectors on the DVD with corrupted data that cause DVD copying software to produce errors. Normal DVD players never read these sectors since they follow a set of instructions encoded on the disc telling them to skip them. Less sophisticated DVD playing programs do not follow these instructions and instead try to read every sector on the disk sequentially, including the bad ones. Slysoft's AnyDVD, Fengtao's DVDFab Decrypter, RipIt4Me + DVD Decrypter + FixVTS + DVD Shrink, MacTheRipper (freeware), along with VLC media player[1] and MPlayer/MEncoder (for Linux) are usually able to overcome ARccOS protection.

Which really, really makes me wonder exactly what players it was intended to kill...

I think I've seen these before, incidentally. But it seems that the whole point is to fuck up their disks exactly enough that they won't play on certain players (God knows which ones, if mplayer can play it), but not enough that they won't play on real players. Thus, it's based not at all on actual standards (like CSS), and entirely on existing DVD players.

They could be calling it an "update" meaning an actual removal, as a marketspeak word. Or it could really be an update, basically figuring out exactly how the cheap DVD players play discs, and making these DVDs playable in that, but still a PITA for something like dd.

Think about this

[ninjafirepants]

Sony pays people to find a way to have a perfectly good product not work. And they're not the only ones, either. Almost all the major movie and music industries are paying people to design a way to stop their products from working. Their goal is to redefine what "works" means by taking away all the innovation required to create such glorious things as DVDs or CDs and limiting everyone to a subset of the original features, and continuously do so until we forget that the original set existed.

Vote with your wallet, and your geek-conscience. Don't put people in power that support bullshit like the DMCA. See if you can find a candidate who thinks selling products that don't work should be illegal. Write letters to companies telling them WHY you're not buying products designed to not work. Fight the man!

Re:Contradiction?

[91degrees]

I emailed Fox about the logic of putting their "Piracy Is A Crime" video at the front of every DVD (a video which is impossible to skip through)

Phone their anti-piracy hotline to complain.

Don't know if it will help, but the way I figure it, if they want to waste my time, I'm going to be petty and waste theirs.

SONY: Time to take your medication

[BillGatesLoveChild]

" Sony Fixes Problems With New DVDs"
Customers ordered to only watch movies in cinemas.

"Recently, an update that was installed on approximately 20 titles was found to cause an incompatibility issue with a very small number of DVD players" .. Thus the global announcement.

"(Sony has received complaints on less than one thousandth of one percent of affected discs shipped)..."
We've put this sentence to you in brackets as subtle acknowledgment that this a lie. Our public relations disaster recovery team wanted to use a ;-), but our lawyers disagreed and we thought the brackets were a good compromise.

"Since then, the ARccOS system has once again been updated, and there are no longer any playability problems.'
'Or else!' sneered the SONY spokesliar, shaking his fist and the audience,

" Customers can call 800-860-2878 to inquire about replacement discs."
Customers can also call the same number for replacement rootkits.

War is peace. Ignorance is strength. Freedom is slavery. SONY are a respectable and much-loved corporate citizen.
Could SONY be any more unpopular? Why don't they branch out into genocide and sell ballistic missiles to North Korea?
I can honestly say it wouldn't hurt their stock price.

They should dig up Morita-san and prop him up at the boardroom table. He couldn't do a worse job that Howard "Eat your damn Rootkit and love it" Stringer

Re:So few complaints?

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

CD standards are defined and policed by one organisation.

DVD standards are the product of a large collaboration between double-figures of large businesses originally, one of them being Sony themselves. There are now hundreds involved, and AFAICS there is no single group with the authority to take enforcement action is someone is abusing the "DVD" description.

PGCEDIT

[RMH101]

plus DVD Decrypter and DVDShrink will rip all the ones I've seen. PGCEdit automates the use of these and strips out the dodgy Arccoss stuff...Takes me about 30 mins to rip a DVD and burn a new one.