Wired News: Give Your DVD Player the Finger

Yet another copy protection scheme. I certainly can forego watching DVD's. There is no movie so great that I would jump through this hoop. When content is protected in ways I find to be hideous to me, all it means is that I will find other content (legal, not pirated) to "feed" my mind. Perhaps this will be the beginning of a robust, open, independent, movie industry?

Here's a quote from the article that echos that sentiment:

"Ed Felten, a computer science professor at Princeton University, called the proposal the 'limit of restrictiveness.'

'I think people would find it creepy to give their fingerprint every time they wanted to play a DVD,' Felten said. 'It's hard to think that would be acceptable to customers.'

He said it seems unlikely that people would buy new DVD players with RFID readers in order to purchase DVDs that are less functional."

Of course, Ed -- that's why the wealthy content providers will grease another law through Congress. Without a legal stick no one in their right minds will purchase this kind of equipment. It is kind of like the whole broadcast flag idea -- without a law it's dead in the water.