Re: [d@DCC] DVD inevitability

From: "Tom Trottier" <Tom _-at-_ Abacurial.com>
To: General Discussion <discuss (at) digital-copyright.ca>
Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 11:37:12 -0400
References: <200208120700.g7C70CI14206@mail.flora.ca>

On Monday, August 12, 2002 at 11:05, Russell McOrmond <discuss@digital-
copyright.ca>
wrote re "[d@DCC] DVD inevitability" saying:

> On Saturday, August 10, 2002 at 15:44, Michael Richardson 
> wrote re "Re: [d@DCC] RE: discuss-digest V1 #187 " saying:
> 
> >   There would be DVDs, as the CDrom was getting too small for computer data use.
> >   in fact, I'd like to suggest that if not for the millions of computers that
> > were shipped with DVD players, that the Movie-DVD would have flopped.
> 
> On Sun, 11 Aug 2002 16:38:50 -0400 "Tom Trottier" <Tom@Abacurial.com> 
> wrote:
> 
> > DVDs are much cheaper and faster to manufacture than videos, and hold 
> > HDTV signals. They, or something like them, were inevitable.
> 
>   I think too many things are getting confused here.  The question is not
> whether Digital Versatile Disks (larger CD disks), and putting MPEG (or
> Video OBject - VOB files)  on them was inevitable.
> 
>   The question is whether or not the questionable DVD-CSS system, the 
> claimed proprietary encoding format for VOB files licensed exclusively 
> from the DVD-CCA cartel, was inevitable (legal, required, whatever...)

CSS encryption was not inevitable. It is a power grab whose main 
purpose is to segment the market by making material readable only by 
licensed machines in certain geographic areas. Yet they claim copyright 
too! 
 
>   We are talking about one change made to the files which adds absolutely
> nothing to the technology, but allowed a cartel to license the third-party
> DVD player market and thus exert control that in better-understood (by
> legislators and courts) market would be declared illegal under competition
> law.
> 
>   Hollywood claims that DVD-CSS is required to control their content, and 
> otherwise they wouldn't release movies.  I see no merit at all to their 
> claim, and even if they had delayed their adoption of the technology it 
> would not have been an option for their businesses to ignore the 
> technology.
> 
> 
>   There is a huge difference between the technological advancement that
> DVD represents, and the attack on technological advancement which DVD-CSS
> represents.

That may be the effect, much as early movie makers tried to keep non-
licensed projectors from projecting their material. Tied selling. 

Now we have anti-trust laws, where are the regulators? Asleep, or in 
companies' pockets?

Tom
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