Bill Gates call Blu-ray Anti-consumer.

[Geoffcin]

A monopolist advocating for the benefit of the average consumer, don't make me laugh!

I've looked at the specs on the BlueRay, and the protection is onerious to consumers. Players will need to be hooked up to phone lines, and if a non-protected disk is played in them it will render the player useless. BlueRay sinister hidden specs are nothing but an attempt by the the MP industry to take back the freedoms that WE the consumers have enjoyed since they lost the betamax case. It's ironic that Sony is on the other side this time.

[Woochifer]

I've looked at the specs on the BlueRay, and the protection is onerious to consumers. Players will need to be hooked up to phone lines, and if a non-protected disk is played in them it will render the player useless. BlueRay sinister hidden specs are nothing but an attempt by the the MP industry to take back the freedoms that WE the consumers have enjoyed since they lost the betamax case. It's ironic that Sony is on the other side this time.

My understanding though is that HD-DVD would have similar restrictions in place in response to pressure from the studios. The format war was but one of the many obstacles that the next gen DVDs would have to overcome. Even with a unified format, the proposed restrictions on analog video output and the copy protection schemes were already huge market barriers.

[Geoffcin]

My understanding though is that HD-DVD would have similar restrictions in place in response to pressure from the studios. The format war was but one of the many obstacles that the next gen DVDs would have to overcome. Even with a unified format, the proposed restrictions on analog video output and the copy protection schemes were already huge market barriers.

HD-DVD is also proposing robust copy protection, but the BlueRay specs are just stupid.
Format wars aside, I can see damaged disks, (and BlueRay disks are MUCH more likely to be damaged) causing player failures. If a player is disabled because of the media then it's just not going to work in the marketplace. BlueRay protection specs are more invasive, and likely to cause many problems for the consumer.

[nightflier]

It's ironic that Sony is on the other side this time.

Sony wanted this phone-home ability on HD-DVD as well, but they just didn't get their way. Although I believe they are still pushing for a similar process, but not in real-time (i.e. it will phone-home whenever the player is connected again). And that is really the problem, I don't want anyone monitoring what I watch or listen to. It's none of their business. If because of this mistrust I have to support those who copy movies & music illegally, then so be it. It's not something I care to do, but if anyone else wants to, go ahead.

The fact is that both Gates and Stringer are attempting to get around fair-use, this time at the expense of my privacy. And does anyone really believe that once they start building massive databases full of entertainment information about millions of people, they won't try to profit from it? The market will dictate that they will have to.

And I also don't believe our politicians care to change this. Either they are so old that they don't understand the technology (Feinstein are you reading this?), or they are already owned by the very companies who would sell my info to the devil if it made them a buck. Don't our founding documents say something about when government no longer acts in the interest of the people, the people have a duty to act in their own interests? This is what copiers are doing.

Napster grew less because people wanted to break the law than that they were utterly frustrated with the draconian control over music distribution that the big companies enjoyed. Likewise, the first open source Linux DVD player grew out this frustration. From there it was the same code that "cracked" DVD copy protection. Maybe if the industry had just distributed a freely downloadable cross-platform player with no strings attached, it would have taken years longer for the crack to appear and it probably would never have been so widely available. Now we will see this whole scenario occur again, with HD-DVD and BlueRay cracks spreading across the internet maybe even before the disks and players are widely available. I sure hope so, because the industry has learned nothing from the last ten years. Their drive for profit clouds their ability to grow and change. Hopefully this time, we'll see competing technologies and startups that will see an opportunity there. Maybe the behemoth multinational media companies are so large that they can no longer function competitively and are due for their own breakups.

One can only dream...

[Smokey]

Thanks guys for interesting comments so far.

I looked at both formats copyright protection protocol, and it seem both format use copyprotection scheme call AACS (Advanced Access Content System). The difference between both formats on this matter is that on HD-DVD, AACS enable moving content off your disc, and, say, onto your Portable Media using Digital Rights Management scheme. But AACS on Blu-ray is not flexible in that regard.

And requirement of hooking up to phone line to play HD disc is really bizarre. It is right down invasion of privacy any way one look at it

[paul_pci]

Thanks guys for interesting comments so far.

I looked at both formats copyright protection protocol, and it seem both format use copyprotection scheme call AACS (Advanced Access Content System). The difference between both formats on this matter is that on HD-DVD, AACS enable moving content off your disc, and, say, onto your Portable Media using Digital Rights Management scheme. But AACS on Blu-ray is not flexible in that regard.

And requirement of hooking up to phone line to play HD disc is really bizarre. It is right down invasion of privacy any way one look at it

Given the proliferation of cell phones and consumers dropping land lines, what is one to do if you don't have a phone line?