[patrickhurt]

Dear MPAA-


Thank you for making my brand new 47' Panasonic HDTV obsolete before I have even had it in my home for 2 weeks. I also want to thank you for that sick feeling in my stomach every month I read my monthly bill from Best Buy until I get this thing paid off.


After screwing me royally, how can I begin to justify purchasing a brand new TV to view your copy protected movies? Here's how: GIVE ME FIRST RUN MOVIES IN HDTV!


Hear me out. If you provide first run movies for a reasonable price per viewing (I'm thinking 10-15 dollars) via satellite or cable distribution AND give me the option to have that movie on a Tivo like device or VOD function on cable so that I have VCR convenience, then I can justify buying another 2000 dollar HDTV. Why? Because I won't go see your content in a crappy theater that can't provide me with half the viewing quality that I can in my home theater.


The only way I could possibly justify that new TV is only with FIRST RUN MOVIES. Let me say that again... FIRST RUN MOVIES. If you only release movies on the staggered time frame like you do for DVD and PPV, screw it. I'll watch it on DVD on my current HDTV and save my money for the next piece of technology that you will obsolete.



Thanks again for cheating me out of my current $2000,



Patrick

 

[vruiz]

HA HA HA HA HA!


(That's the sound of Jack Valenti, President of the MPAA, laughing out loud while reading this letter).


------------------

Vic Ruiz
STOP HDCP/DFAST/5C

 

[work permit]

Dear Patrickhurt


We received your email. We don't listen. We don't have to. We're the MPAA.



------------------

Alex

 

[kelliot]

The MPAA doesn't want you to have a TV much less an HDTV.


They want to return to the 1930s when everyone had to tromp down to their local movie theater in the rain and snow and pay to see cheap films with no plot.


And an occasional newsreel with MPAA propaganda.


------------------

Ken Elliott


[This message has been edited by kelliot (edited 07-27-2001).]

 

[DTVFan]

I disagree. The MPAA wants your $ and knows that home theater will be a big money maker for them worldwide. Biggest winners in this move will be DISH and News Corp (followed by cable systems) who will pick up nice fees on HDTV PPV and Premium View sales.


I expect first-run movies will cost about $9.95 per view for the home viewer in HD quality with Dolby Surround. MPAA avoids paying for any distribution other than say $1 per view to the DBS companies.


Real losers will be the theater chains and distributors. DTV broadcasters will be left out of the HDTV Premium pie.


Biggest winner will be the first to crack the code and sell pirated hardware and software to get free feeds.


[This message has been edited by DTVFan (edited 07-27-2001).]

 

[work permit]


Quote:

Biggest winner will be the first to crack the code and sell pirated hardware and software to get free feeds.

DES, with dynamic keys and ability to disable compromised devices. I'll say it again, this is not CSS. This is not macrovision. And nobody cracked divx (much simpler but still hard to do).


Don't take it as a given


------------------

Alex

 

[Lee L]

Quote:

Originally posted by DTVFan: I disagree. The MPAA wants your $ and knows that home theater will be a big money maker for them worldwide.

I doubt this statement unless they have totally changed their thinking since they fought VCR's to the bitter end and then fought DVD to the bitter end. Video sales $ now often exceed the box office $ at the theater. If they really waited to make money off me, let me continue to use my 6000 and get Dish (or allow them) to put some decent HD PPV up. I would actually watch some stuff them.

 

[gnosys]

Quote:

Originally posted by DTVFan: I disagree. The MPAA wants your $ and knows that home theater will be a big money maker for them worldwide. [This message has been edited by DTVFan (edited 07-27-2001).]

DTVFan, you're right! (Congratulations for dodging all the chicken shi! in these "skies are falling" threads http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/wink.gif


Bill Gates wrote a book a couple of years ago in which he presented one preview of what may be coming. In a few years, we'll probably have many more choices in our entertainment smorgasbord, including first-run movies in HD PPV, thanks to DVI.




------------------

Change is coming, it is inevitable, it is not always bad, but is usually good on balance; there is nothing you can do to stop it, and waiting for the perfect technological solution is as futile as waiting for the final installment of Windows or Pentium processors; old equipment eventually becomes obsolete, but follows a well-illustrated pathway of lower utility before it reaches worthlessness (my kids are using my five-year-old formerly state-of-the-art Pentium 200MMX); no one is "out to get you", rather trends and conflicting interests cause everyone to shuttle about to keep up with the best value relationships in technology; and, most important, technology and intellectual property is getting more affordable, easier to access, and more robust, not the opposite of that! Look at the quality of HD and DVD today and its availability and price, compared with videotape and early laser disks fifteen years ago. Bucky Fuller called it "ephemeralization" and it's positively affecting everything!

 

[ToddD]


Quote:

Biggest winner will be the first to crack the code and sell pirated hardware and software to get free feeds

NO!! He will be the biggest loser. Under the DMCA he will be in jail as will all of you who talk about what he has done.


Todd

 

[Michael Mullis]

Quote:

And nobody cracked divx (much simpler but still hard to do).

Because no one really cared about DiVX. This is a different story.




------------------

Michael Mullis

Director of US Operations

Next Level Gaming
http://www.nlgaming.com

 

[DTVFan]

<<<NO!! He will be the biggest loser. Under the DMCA he will be in jail as will all of you who talk about what he has done.>>>


DMCA means squat in many overseas markets. My guess is that some hackers in Norway, China, India or even Bulgaria already have access to the specs and will deliver the bootlegs about one month after the new hardware and software hits the CE scene.

 

[work permit]


Quote:

Because no one really cared about DiVX. This is a different story.

Well, not really. If you could have cracked divx, you would have been able to purchase $20 dvd's for $2.99. You would have also blown a hole in the whole DIVX approach.


DTCP is more secure; dynamic keys, authentication, and revocation of comprimised devices.


I'm not saying its impossible. But I do understand something about cryptography, and I beleive people are way too confident that this will be cracked.



------------------

Alex

 

[ToddD]


Quote:

DMCA means squat in many overseas markets. My guess is that some hackers in Norway, China, India or even Bulgaria already have access to the specs and will deliver the bootlegs about one month after the new hardware and software hits the CE scene.

Great, How will that help you! If someone here in the US even tries to make this available to you he goes to jail. If you buy and are caught you go with him. If you talk about how you did it ditto. The DMCA and the technology make this all a very unlikely hack. Most hacks are a joint effort between people or even groups of people. The DMCA makes this illegal. I promise that the MPAA will be watching.


Todd

 

[DTVFan]

Divx meant squat in China, India and elsewhere where bootleg early (first week of issuance) movies were on the streets at less than $3.


As far as DMCA, sure hasnt stopped about 20 million Americans from stealing the show. Many cable system repairmen from the major cable systems are selling illegal boxes, too. Quick way for them to pocket about $200 profit per sale. Probably make about $900 profit on the newest HDTV bootlegs being produced soon offshore.


Then again, I am a cynic.

 

[ToddD]

Quote:

Divx meant squat in China, India and elsewhere where bootleg early (first week of issuance) movies were on the streets at less than $3. As far as DMCA, sure hasnt stopped about 20 million Americans from stealing the show. Many cable system repairmen from the major cable systems are selling illegal boxes, too. Quick way for them to pocket about $200 profit per sale. Probably make about $900 profit on the newest HDTV bootlegs being produced soon offshore

The difference being that stealing Cable and the like has been treated as a minor crime. Under the DMCA you go to a federal jail (DO NOT PASS GO OR COLECT $200)!!


Todd


[This message has been edited by ToddD (edited 07-28-2001).]