Well, Scratch Blu-Ray From Your Xmas List
So let's see....I have a choice of formats for high definition DVDs. Should I choose the one full of "security" that, if it decides I've used it wrong, has an automatic "self destruct" code sent to it that blows up my machine? Hmmmm. Stands to reason that if "they" can send self destruct codes, than what about crackers? Toshiba is looking better and better.
Blu-ray makes unexpected, three-way DRM choice for high-def DVD | TG Daily:
Hollywood (CA) - In an announcement last night, the Blu-ray Disc Association, led by Sony, representing one of two competing high-definition DVD formats, stated it will simultaneously embrace digital watermarking, programmable cryptography, and a self-destruct code for Blu-ray disc players.
The BDA statement is unprecedented not only because its solution to the nagging problem of digital rights management is to embrace every option on the table, but also because Blu-ray appears to have developed its own approach - in some cases, proprietary - to each of these three technologies. Knowledge of this impending fact may have been what tipped movie studio 20th Century-Fox last week to throw its support behind Blu-ray, in a move that experts believe balanced the scales in Blu-ray's ongoing battle with competing format HD DVD - backed by a forum led by Toshiba - to become the next high-def industry standard.
The digital watermarking technique, which will be called ROM Mark, is described in the statement as "a unique and undetectable identifier in pre-recorded BD-ROM media such as movies, music and games." "BD-ROM" is the proposed writable version of the Blu-ray format. Little else is known about ROM Mark at this time, except that the statement describes it as being undetectable to consumers. This is noteworthy in itself, since a previously heralded watermark applied to first-generation DVDs was notoriously defeated by someone writing over it with a permanent marker.