Gaming World Forums
General Category => General Talk => Topic started by: Lord Kamina on March 22, 2008, 06:30:50 pm
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Today, something happened to me that made me once and for all realize how wrong and shitty media producers are. How their censor and try to control what we do and what we see and HOW we do it or see it.
Today, I bought Terminator 2, EXTREME edition. (Legitimately, of course)
So, I watched the movie on my DVD, then began checking the Extras out and noticed the second disk contained the Theatrical version in full HD for watching on the PC. Upon inserting the disc, I am prompted to install some software, after installing about 200mb worth of bloatware, I am ready to watch my 1080p version of the film. Only, when I click on "HD Version" I get a WMP Dialog "This content is licensed for Region 1(US/Canada) only and is not limited by the DVD Region Codes to prevent people elsewhere watching it. If you don't live in these countries, We will not provide you with a license to watch this feature. Distribution supported in US and Canada only."
This is such a pile of bullshit... How do they expect people not to pirate stuff this way? I mean, if I go and pay for an overpriced DVD because I actually like the movie and think they deserve me buying it legally so they'll get their revenues, only to find I have been thwarted by a stupid protection system so I can't watch it just because I live in another country...
And then they calculate their losses in the billions of dollars, because if I now go and download an HD version off of somewhere, I downloaded illegally and thus they will be "Losing money because I will now not buy the movie." Well, breaking news... I DID BUY IT and they still don't let me watch it!
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Well aren't DVD regions a bunch of bullcrap anyway
And yeah I buy a bunch of CDs but then I powerdump them on my PC immediately because CD feels pretty terribly non-portable with MP3 players and all that - but buying MP3s (iTunes and some other stuff nobody cares about) is such crap when there's software that can make music in 19200000hz surround sound and plenty of artists/producers probably use that nowadays - so obviously digital is a good thing in that respect but then you purchase an mp3 and it's actually /worse/ quality than the CD - what the hell is that
But yeah what annoyed me more is I tried some other music service and it used WMAs and there was some weird thing, once I put it to an MP3 player I could only play it 5 times :( and I hit stop or rewind a few times so I maybe listened to the full song once before it locked out
So even though I buy music legit I still share it with every human being who cares to listen - even if it's online it's basically like playing a song for someone in your room just you're doing it from 50000 miles away
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Wow, that sucks. What the hell are region codes for, anyways? What does that have to do with piracy?
even if it's online it's basically like playing a song for someone in your room just you're doing it from 50000 miles away
Heh. If only the world of copyright were as simple as that. There must be some form of monetary gain for these guys' work. If people don't get their money, they will have less incentive to work. Unless we turn into a bunch of communists, piracy will always be a huge problem and the entertainment industry will continue to pursue stupid ways to curb it.
There is no reason, however, for the industry to vent such horrible practices on the good, paying consumer.
EDIT: I just realized that region codes must be put in place for groups of people who would abide by the respecting-country's copyright laws. As it wouldn't quite be against the law for someone in one country to dl a movie that was released in another country, they put such things in place so as to ensure that people don't pirate them.
Which is, as was noted earlier, bullshit, because this won't stop piracy at all -- and it incriminates people who actually want to buy it, due to shitty administrative fault. Someone screwed up down the line if they're selling "region 1" discs to your country.
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Norway's had a few debates on this shit lately since we're on the verge of legalizing copy-free software distribution (piracy), and one of the main reasons that political forces actually support piracy is because the consumer beareau concluded that anti-piracy measures hurt the consumers and that pirated wares are often the only option the consumer has of getting wares that comply with consumer laws in Norway.
So yeah, they're shooting themselves in the foot. All actual commercial merchandise should be of higher quality than piracy (and often is in terms of bitrate etc) but stuff like copy protection actually makes it a lesser of the two choices. It's ridiculous and I'm glad we're moving towards legalizing piracy!! 8)
(vote venstre)
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Well aren't DVD regions a bunch of bullcrap anyway
And yeah I buy a bunch of CDs but then I powerdump them on my PC immediately because CD feels pretty terribly non-portable with MP3 players and all that - but buying MP3s (iTunes and some other stuff nobody cares about) is such crap when there's software that can make music in 19200000hz surround sound and plenty of artists/producers probably use that nowadays - so obviously digital is a good thing in that respect but then you purchase an mp3 and it's actually /worse/ quality than the CD - what the hell is that
But yeah what annoyed me more is I tried some other music service and it used WMAs and there was some weird thing, once I put it to an MP3 player I could only play it 5 times :( and I hit stop or rewind a few times so I maybe listened to the full song once before it locked out
So even though I buy music legit I still share it with every human being who cares to listen - even if it's online it's basically like playing a song for someone in your room just you're doing it from 50000 miles away
Worse thing is the fact this isn't even a DVD-Region problem. My DVD Reader is Region 1 (I've never changed it in case I decide to sell it sometime, I've got a multi-region DVD Player for movies and stuff)... This shit was just a DRM'ed WMV in my Extras DVD. It's like they took extra measures to ensure I couldn't watch it.
Now... Think back to the VHS/Cassette tape... A friend of you bought a tape, he lent it to you because it was really cool, you listened to it, made a copy and then eventually bought it yourself (Or not) but even if you didn't, noone ever lost any money. And think of what Radiohead did... They released their stuff for free and ended up making more money than with any other album... It's basically the producing companies that suck.
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That's why VHS are better than DVD, there is none of that "region" bs on them. Also they're superior because they're analogic (the same logic that causes LPs to be better than CDs).