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The movie industry just doesn't get it. This is a new century and the times, they are a-changing. But the studio bosses just keep on ignoring technology like they are on rails, kicking the consumer where it hurts every chance they get. Another copy protection scheme that some studios may decide to use for DVDs, has hit the streets and is courting tinsel town. This time they want to try and stop you from using your legally purchased DVD movies on a PC! All of course in the name of stopping piracy. Right, I've seen that movie too, the plot's thinner than a Will Ferrell flick.

Protect DVD-Video is a copy protection technology that will not allow playback of discs sporting the protection on a Windows PC using Windows Media Player or DirectShow. Protect DVD-Video by ProtectDisc, is basically a mechanism for mangling the IFO file that is used for menus and such on a DVD movie and have it be reported to Media Player as a zero byte file ..very clever, but also annoying. 

Of course, if you just dropped coin for a Media Center OS home theater PC, the interface uses the Windows Media Player by default, so this is a major pain in the posterior, if you mistakenly purchase a movie with ProtecDisc. But not to worry, it has been defeated already by Slysoft. However, it is a sad state of affairs when we have to pay for additional software in order to use our legitimate purchases on our equipment.

Man, I wonder if Hollywood will ever wake up and realize who is buttering their bread? The thing that is really annoying, is most of the time, these DVDs are merely pressed copies of films that already made scads of money at the box office. So this DVD version enhances an already insanely profitable project. I say it is insanely profitable, as I know of few other places where workers receive tens of millions of dollars for a few months work. Those interested can read the entire blog by visiting this link at ZDNet.

Source: ZDNet Blogs