Monday 5 April 2010

Protected by RipGuard

Why would a DVD publisher advertise on the disc that it is "protected by RipGuard" or something similar? It's obviously not designed to appeal to the customer. Nobody is going to pick up that case and say "Awesome! I can do so much less with this disc than with my others! I'm gonna buy it right now."

So it is clearly meant as a warning: "if you buy this, you won't be able to rip it, so back off". In other words, the publisher prints "protected by RipGuard" on the case in order to sell fewer copies. Does that seem right? Of course it's part of a larger, more elaborate plot with the contradictory goal of selling more.

The other problem with simply implementing RipGuard is that it is likely sometime in the near future to become fully legal to rip DVDs for personal use. Once that's done, circumventing RipGuard will have to become part of every perfectly legal DVD ripping program around. And it's quite possible that will require some license fees or other inside knowledge.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - It's time media customers were treated with respect and not like criminals.
PPS - Because some of us want to watch movies on the train or bus to work.

No comments: