CD piracy and copy protection are hot topics these days as more and more users create “casual “ copies of software, causing the industry billions of dollars in losses. While it is currently not affordable to “casually” copy DVDs, everyone in the industry knows that it is only a matter of time. “There is not a lot of DVD piracy yet,” Lyndon Faulkner of Nimbus CD says, “but we all know CD piracy is so prominent and it’s only a matter of time with DVD.”

7 Million CD-ROM burners have been sold to the public last year together with 30 million media. In plain English this means that there were more than 40 copies made per CD-burner sold! Now that’s an awful lot of hard disc backup. It is hardly surprising that the computer industry is crying bloody murder, especially with companies like Pioneer selling CD-burners to average consumers with the tagline “To create their own CDs”, showing immediate content copying in their commercials. We can hardly expect the public to remain honest, if the manufacturers of such devices courteously lower the threshold and literally instigate software piracy.

Although DVD has a certain level of protection already, it works mostly in the analog world, preventing users from making copies on videotapes, or playing discs in parts of the world where the disc is not supposed to be. Before long however, this will change too, and the companies involved know that the battle has already begun. It took CD-burners many years to come down in prices to the $150 range you can find them these days. Because of the ever faster evolving technology, it is already obvious that DVD-burners will become available at a much faster rate, creating the same problems CD-publishers face today. A number of companies like Nimbus, Macrovision and Ç-Dilla are therefore preparing for the battle to make sure DVD content will not be as casually copy-able as a lot of the current CD content.

Holograms is another approach to make DVD safer for publishers in the future. Nimbus for example, is offering a holographic technology it has developed with Applied Holographics, Inc. to authenticate discs. It is not a real copy protection, but it helps making consumers aware of pirated discs with a hologram that is embedded directly on the disc’s surface. Not only does it look quite fancy, it also helps letting consumers know that they bought a legitimate product and not a Taiwanese or Chinese pirate copy. Since these illegal copies can look very much like the originals, these holograms have become very helpful in weeding out the bad guys. Microsoft has been using the technology for some time and now, that the exclusive agreement with Microsoft has expired, Nimbus is offering the technology to other publishers as well. Most major Hollywood studios, including Buena Vista Home Entertainment and MGM Home Entertainment are currently evaluating the technology to determine whether it is something they would like to implement on future releases.

“The holograms are one of a number of options we are exploring to ensure our content is not infringed upon”, MGM’s Dave Miller says. However MGM does not feel any pressure to implement these techniques immediately. “Currently we’ve been fairly satisfied with the level of protection we have”, he points out. And the technology doesn’t seem intriguing enough to use it just to enhance the looks of DVDs. “It doesn’t strike me as one of the better ways to enhance the content of a $25 to $35 release”.

However one thing is clear, as DVD is slowly becoming a mass market article, more people are going to pirate the content. With various protection schemes to chose from, the studios will no doubt start looking at their options more closely and employ a variety of them to cover different aspects of piracy. Warner Home Video and Columbia Home Video for example are starting to source-tag their releases this spring, and others are expected to follow. These electronic tags are a good way to prevent theft from happening, and having them installed during the assembly phase of the product makes circumventing them substantially harder. But as I said, it covers only one end of the ever evolving market of stolen properties, and other measures will certainly follow.

With that in mind, have a great week everyone!

 April 4, 1998

© 1997-99 by “DVD Review”. All rights reserved.