Not DVD Catalyst related, however, I have mentioned in the past that I do not believe DRM and Copy protection is hurting the paying customer more than that it serves it purpose in reducing piracy.
UbiSofts Game protection, ARCOSS/RipGuard DVD protection, computer-damaging rootkits on music CD’s, software licenses tied to hardware ID’s rather than the consumer (buy a new license when you replace your computer) all restrict the consumer, while pirated copies provide their users with the freedom to do what they want with it.
I just stumbled upon an article in regards of the Avatar bluray release having issues with playback on many bluray players. The early-adopters, who paid a grand or 2 for their bluray players were already used to this, with their players not being capable of playing much of the additional features included on bluray discs, but, like a blast from the past in regards of the recent DVD protection advances that result in breaking the actual DVD standard and thus compatibility with older DVD drives, now history repeats itself with Bluray.
In fear of piracy, yet another update has been done to the Bluray DRM, and this time they are fairly successful in preventing piracy. How can you create a backup if you can not even play the movie in the first place?
http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/movie-talk-avatar-blu-ray-consumers-cant-watch-DVD.html
When 3 out of 3 players in my house (Denon, Samsung and PC) won’t play it, then 20th Century Fox should be slapped with losses on this one,” said one irritated customer.
So, basically for every recent bluray movie you purchase, you will probably need to download a new update for your Bluray player. Sony incorporates this already for the PSP, and maybe, just like Sony does, include firmware updates for players on the bluray disc as well. Or, when a movie is released,depending on the brand, you can keep it sealed for a couple of weeks before an update for your player is released.
And, when we are a year further, your bluray player might be out of production, and no updates will be released for it anymore.
So, as a paying customer, they pretty much expect you to continue paying, while the people who pirate the movie instead dont have to worry about all this. I don’t think it is fair, and in my opinion, this is exactly why people pirate more and more. Things should be the other way around. consumers should have more freedom than restrictions.
This is the reason why DVD Catalyst does not have a protection system. Yes, there are pirated copies out there, and it pisses me off, but even if it used a protection system, this would be the case. Key generators, cracks, name it. Within a day of initial release a workaround for the protection is available, regardless of how hard you try, so why bother. A protection system will just generate a challenge for the people who “crack” programs, and for the people who legitimately purchase the program, things become more complicated. They have to type in a license code (maybe re-enter it a few times because of a typo), and keep it in case of computer failure.
DVD Catalyst 3 does not work with Bluray
