AfterDawn: News

Blu-Ray to be copied to media devices

In an announcement by Sony about their next-gen Blu-Ray disks, they've released some potentially interesting news about their copy protection standards.

At the Consumer Electronics show held in Las Vegas recently, Sony executives told onlookers that future Blu-Ray disks will be a bit more lax on the DRM standards and allow you to copy the contents of the disk to a hard drive and/or media device for alternative forms of viewing. There was no talk of, but its fairly easy to surmise that they've come up with a way of stacking DRM technology on the files copied off of the disk, in efforts to thwart piracy.



Sony representative, David Bishop stated, "Sony Pictures Entertainment will include portable files on Blu-Ray DVDs that can be transferred without a download. It's not currently part of anything on our current release schedule, but we'll probably roll it out sometime this year."

Source:
Eurogamer

Written by: Dave Horvath @ 11 Jan 2007 7:13

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• 12 comments

• johnblaze

  This is good news, and a step in the right direction, in my opinion.

  11.1.2007 08:02 #1

• dsgtrain

  Good! The one thing that was destroying these discs is the DRM, and now its relaxed a little its not as bad.

  11.1.2007 10:36 #2

• PeaInAPod

  I actually wouldn't mind Sonys/Blu-Rays DRM Scheme so much if they included something like this Quote:nclude portable files on Blu-ray DVDs that can be transferred without a download. That in itself would be selling point to me if and only if, like the rest of Sonys DRM Schemes, it isn't to restrictive.

  11.1.2007 13:21 #3

• solarf

  wow it actually sounds like they might be listening to the consumer for a change, good job.

  11.1.2007 14:57 #4

• andy409

  finally, something i wanted to hear

  11.1.2007 15:13 #5

• jb2453

  I have some sound advice for sony when it comes to copy protections:why fight it???you all know theyre protection scheme for bluray will be broken. if all major studios agree to release HD movies on this format it will be priority #1 for hackers. its not a matter of if but when... at the same time they know what consumers want is unrestricted access to their media... no DRM, no locks, nothing. youd think a large corp. such as sony would have figured that out. now, as much money as theyve invested in this format if bluray fails it will be a significant (if not the final) blow to sony where on the other hand Microsoft can afford to not have HDDVD supported. As bad of a year as sony has had in 2006, they cannot afford to bet the farm on something as trivial as DRM strength. Seeing as how they have so much at stake, you wouldnt think they would have such a hard headed stance on issues such as this. While this article is certainly good news for consumers, IMO it is the first step of the marathon. its a long road ahead of them they clearly have their work cut out.

  11.1.2007 22:24 #6

• nickberry

  Quote:Sony Pictures Entertainment will include portable files on Blu-ray DVDs that can be transferred without a download. They dont make any hint as to what they mean by 'portable files', ie: they definatley dont say it will be the movies them selves - they could easily be refering to 'addition content' such as weblinks and poor quality screensavers etc like you see on a lot of DVDs...
  

  12.1.2007 06:43 #7

• laguna_b

  Soounds to me like they will offer down res versions which will be useless. Why pay the HUGE Blu premium for what you can rip from Netflix at a higher resolution??
  
  DRM is a big mistake. It is a bump on the road to boot leggers but can be show stopper for consumers. When their HDCP or other DRM link fails, they return the gear they paid the big bucks for. Hackers and bootleggers work around it and make thier copies because they can and have the incentive.
  
  Restrictions on use of expensive equipment is NOT a feature. It is a reason to go elsewhere or wait to adopt....

  12.1.2007 12:40 #8

• chubbyInc

  last resort to save a dying format

  12.1.2007 13:26 #9

• gl9

  "Sony executives told onlookers that future Blu-ray disks will be a bit more lax on the DRM standards..."
  
  Yes, they can claim anything. So can I: I believe them. Let's face it, if these executives really cared about consumers, we'd have one format.

  12.1.2007 15:01 #10

• borhan9

  I guess if they are relaxing the DRM and moving it too other file types to be inserted on the discs, maybe programmers can create some programs like voblanker to remove unwanted material...

  12.1.2007 18:36 #11

• xhardc0re

  if i buy something, i should be allowed to use it however I feel like it! As long as i'm not giving it away/selling it, the manufacturers shouldn't be putting restrictions on it. That goes with anything analog/digital as far as I'm concerned. Therefore, they should allow someone who has a Blu-ray disc to make a backup & also convert it to iPod/PSP or a smaller format. Doesn't that make sense? Do they not understand that DRM only encourages piracy? Idiots!

  13.1.2007 01:40 #12