I have no idea who the British Video Association are, but the BBC think they are good people to answer questions about DRM, errr, I mean “movies in the digital age”. Their answers are worth a read, if you like a good laugh. Here’s a few selected gems.
Q4. Why do the movie companies still insist on region encoding their DVD offerings?
Lavinia Carey: “…regional coding is still the way the British classification system is implemented to protect children from unsuitable material…”
Yeah, right. You can’t even buy a region-locked DVD player in the UK, as far as I know. Certainly I can’t even remember the last time I saw one. If they are region-locked, do they (somehow?) enforce certificates or is this complete nonsense? I’m genuinely curious.
Q1. Can you envisage a time when there is almost simultaneous release of product in the cinema, through rental outlets, in the high street and online, leaving the customer to choose his preferred way of viewing?
Dan Glickman, MPAA: Maybe.
Lavinia Carey, BVA: Yes.
John Fithian, NATO (I couldn’t resist, but actually its the National Association of Theatre Owners): No.
Gotta work on that messaging, dudes.
Q7. What’s the point of DRM?
Dan Glickman, MPAA: “Without the use of DRMs, honest consumers would have no guidelines and might eventually come to totally disregard copyright and therefore become a pirate”
Right, because honest consumers are incapable of reading and have no sources of information other than that graciously provided by the entertainment industry. I do hope they’re going to figure out how to apply this technology to other laws, or we’ll all become murderers, terrorists and child pornographers. We’ll know no better.
Curt Marvis, CinemaNow: “As far as I know, no CinemaNow movies have appeared on P2P networks … so I would say that DRM is actually working”
I did try to check on this unlikely assertion, but their website is “down for maintenance”. Rocking. I suspect, however, that we can conclude that Curt doesn’t know much.
Here’s my favourite, though:
Q8. Was the video recorder damaging? At the time of its release, it was declared to be the death toll for the movie industry. Would you say that declaration was accurate?
Dan Glickman: No.
Lavinia Carey: No.
John Fithian: No.
OK, so we’re all on-message here, it seems. What a shame they didn’t follow this up with the obvious question. But I can predict the response:
Q9. Given that the VCR actually turned out to be beneficial despite the lack of protection against illegal copying, wouldn’t you agree that DRM is a pointless burden on users?
DG: “I’m not listening”
LC: “La la la la la”
JF: “What’s that over there? Look!”