Floppyhead – Digital Media and Streaming

Blu-ray discs are going to become more difficult to crack in the upcoming months. According to PCPro:

The Blu-ray Disc Association has announced that following breaches of the security of the high-definition format’s AACS security technology, it has brought forward the planned release date of the BD-Plus (BD+), a more advanced anti-copying system.

BD+ would apply digital rights management to individual disc instead of per movie. This seems like a short-sighted idea for the Blu-ray Disc Association. What is the best way to promote new technology? Add more digital rights management of course. At what point is it pointless for a company to add more copy protection to their product? That is the question that the Blu-ray Disc Association will eventually have to answer. The movie studios have lost sight of the ultimate goal of selling Blu-ray discs: to make money. Right now it seems the studios are focusing n protecting their content.

From a media center perspective, more DRM is always a bad thing. It can cause all types of compatibility issues for the honest consumer. I am curious to see if HD-DVD follows suit and stiffens their content protection as well. Less DRM could eventually become a selling point to the public, giving HD-DVD the advantage in the format war with its rival, Blu-ray discs.