[strafer]

You know those FBI warning messages that appear at the beginning of DVDs and Blu-ray discs? They're getting an upgrade—and they're multiplying. The US government yesterday rolled out not one but two copyright notices, one to "warn" and one to "educate." Six major movie studios will begin using the new notices this week. The main change is that Immigrations & Customs Enforcement (ICE) has, in the last several years, made itself a key player in the copyright wars. The FBI has shown extremely limited interest in going after individual websites, but ICE has done so with gusto; it has so far seized more than 750 domain names after rightsholder complaints. This new prominence is reflected in the broader logos used. ICE now appears on both notices. The first notice shows the traditional FBI seal and a warning that "the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement is investigated by federal law enforcement agencies and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000." The logo for ICE's Homeland Security Investigations unit now appears beside the FBI's. Banner number one. Now with "more logo" The second notice shows the logo for the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, which involves 20 different US government agencies. It features one extremely angry eagle who would probably pluck your eyeballs from your sockets if he could get those talons near you. "Piracy is not a victimless crime," says the notice. "For more information on how digital theft harms the economy, please visit www.iprcenter.gov." The educational message. Will the two screens be shown back to back? Will each screen last for 10 seconds each? Will each screen be unskippable? Yes, yes, and yes. An ICE spokesman tells me that the two screens will "come up after the previews, once you hit the main movie/play button on the DVD. At which point the movie rating comes up, followed by the IPR Center screen shot for 10 secs and then the FBI/HSI anti-piracy warning for 10 secs as well. Neither can be skipped/fast forwarded through." The idea isn't to deter current pirates, apparently (the new scheme requires all legal purchasers to sit through 20 seconds of warnings each time they pop in a film, but will be totally absent from pirated downloads and bootlegs). It's to educate everyone else. As ICE Director John Morton announced in a statement yesterday, "Law enforcement must continue to expand how it combats criminal activity; public awareness and education are a critical part of that effort."

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2...ment-warnings/

Yes, this will teach them.

[richisawesome]

It'll teach them to do one of three things:

1. Use VLC.

2. Pirate to avoid the patronising ads, defeating the purpose entirely.

3. Stop purchasing altogether.

Sadly enough, 2 and 3 seem the most likely. Anyway, what really pisses me off is when I put on a Blu Ray I've just brought, and I am greeted with a whopping great LOL FBI $100,000,000 FINE!! message. I live in fucking England, fuck off America.

[Marco1]

I hate this shit, why penalise the ordinary decent person that buys legally?
Amazing.

[Des0lar]

Pirates win again. Theres worse than 2 government ads, but still... If they are longer than 2 seconds each they are already annoying

[Glass Rebel]

They still don't see why this makes no fucking sense, do they?

[Marty Chinn]

Funny thing is pirates will never see it. =(

Wait, they even say they know they won't see it. What's the fucking point?

[Guevara]

I'll do them one better and just skip buying DVDs and Blu-rays entirely.

[The Lamonster]

yeah no thanks

[Mammoth Jones]

www.netflix.com

[JdFoX187]

Let's forcefully "educate" the people that actually paid money for your films and waste 20 seconds of their time with unskippable messages saying don't pirate. That's really going to show those dirty pirates!

[Dead Man]

I wouldn't mind so much if they were only on US discs. Stupid shit is stupid.

[bengraven]

Funny thing is pirates will never see it. =( Wait, they even say they know they won't see it. What's the fucking point?

[Iadien]

"The idea isn't to deter current pirates, apparently (the new scheme requires all legal purchasers to sit through 20 seconds of warnings each time they pop in a film, but will be totally absent from pirated downloads and bootlegs). It's to educate everyone else."

You people that don't pirate, you should know that there are people that do... lol what a joke.

[richisawesome]

www.netflix.com

Yeah, just try getting picture quality alike to a blu ray on a high end player on netflix. Not gonna happen.

[LiK]

sigh, always put the discs In early while you do other things

[Dai101]

It'll teach them to do one of three things: 1. Use MPC. 2. Pirate to avoid the patronising ads, defeating the purpose entirely. 3. Stop purchasing altogether. Sadly enough, 2 and 3 seem the most likely. Anyway, what really pisses me off is when I put on a Blu Ray I've just brought, and I am greeted with a whopping great LOL FBI $100,000,000 FINE!! message. I live in fucking England, fuck off America.

Fixed.

[R2D4]

Rip disc.
Sell disc on ebay
Profit?

[HammerOfThor]

The worst part of all is the people who are sitting their watching it obviously have no desire to pirate shit =/

[shira]

Devil's advocate: It gives you time to make popcorn

[antipod]

This shit is just like DRM. It only annoys the legitimate viewers while it won't prevent anything.

What's next? Warnings not to starve yourself on fast food wrapping paper?

[Speedymanic]

This isn't new, UK DVD/Blu Rays have the FBI message along with the FACT message. Pretty sure you can't skip either of them, but it's been a while since I last watched a BR/DVD.

[The Dutch Slayer]

$100,000,000 FINE!! message. I live in fucking England, fuck off America.

Didn't you know you can be send over just like that if they wanted to:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/j...er-extradition

[Aaron]

Someone should just ask them why they continue to encourage piracy with these moves. BECAUSE THAT'S ALL THIS EVER DOES.

[Arcteryx]

Soooo true.

They might as well start putting speakers on food packaging, and require you to listen to the fucking ingredients before you can open the box.

[U n i o n 0015]

I'll just rip the disc and take out UOPs.

But by all means, keep making legitimately watching something a pain in the ass.

[LosDaddie]

Yeah, because this practically forces people to pirate movies. :lol

[Wiggler]

Funny how every forum I've been in the last two days discussing this topic eventually leads to a discussion on how to better go about pirating/ripping movies or just avoiding the DVD and Blu-Ray format altogether.

[storybook77]

I'll pop my popcorn while these are on the screen.

Unskippable previews need to die though.

[synt4x]

Great, my bluray player already takes like 1 min 30 sec to even start up (it's one of the earliest cheap players from sony, the BDP-S300).

[sans_pants]

what a bunch of buffoons. this will probably just create more pirates

[KevinCow]

In order to combat car theft, I propose we make the driver sit through a full minute of messages on the dash informing him of how awful car theft is every time he starts up his car.

[GQman2121]

John Morton sounds fucking clueless. I'm sure he's just trying to justify his job though.

[Giant Robot]

people getting mad over a few minutes of unstoppable ads out of 90-120 minutes of a movie. Start the movie, go take a piss or something, come back and begin movie.

[synt4x]

people getting mad over couple minutes of unstoppable ads out of 90-120 minutes of a movie. Start the movie, go take a piss or something, come back and begin movie.

That's what we used to do when loading games on the C64 in the 80s. It's 2012 now you know. The age when people just don't have patience for anything.

[Neuromancer]

GOD DAMN IT

This shit makes me so mad.

Why punish people who actually bought your product? No pirate (except maybe the one who makes the first rip) will see these messages.

people getting mad over a few minutes of unstoppable ads out of 90-120 minutes of a movie. Start the movie, go take a piss or something, come back and begin movie.

Well aside from the principle of the thing you're right. This is why I start my movie and then leave the room to make pop corn or get a drink or do laundry or something.

[Messofanego]

So true!

Movie industry is still clueless on piracy, while video game industry is getting better with forced glitches and new copy incentives.

[Giant Robot]

It's 2012 now you know. The age when people just don't have patience for anything.

That's the sad part. Everyone's so impatient about everything.

[Famassu]

While I do think these things are pointless, I'm not sure if I'd call this "punishing" either, that's a gross exaggeration. The notice lasts a few seconds, I don't understand how impatient do you have to be for that to piss you off. That's, like, 0,000001% of the time of the whole movie, so it's not like you have to watch a 30 minute lecture before you get to watch a 10 minute clip.

[Alebrije]

youaredoingitwrongfbi.jpg


Is like telling to no smokers that cigarettes cause cancer.

[EviLore]

people getting mad over a few minutes of unstoppable ads out of 90-120 minutes of a movie. Start the movie, go take a piss or something, come back and begin movie.

Yes, treating me like a pirate when I purchase something legitimately, leaving actual piracy as an even more attractive option, is all about whiny entitlement and not about misguided self-defeating corporate hysteria.

[R2D4]

So true! Movie industry is still clueless on piracy, while video game industry is getting better with forced glitches and new copy incentives.

The movie companies should learn from the game industry and sell DLC that enables you to skip warnings and previews.

[sixteen-bit]

That's stupid as fuck.

[hyp3rlink]

Rip'er up!!!

[SolidusDave]

Fuck them for this. I'm a paying customer and I have to put up with this shit for almost every movie.

I have some nice blu-rays that will just start automatically the movie, with almost no delay...


At least put those UK-"warnings" in there. Some applause scene that goes along the lines of "Thank you for buying this movie legally".
Much less annoying as it doesn't treat you as a criminal for buying a product.

[Fuu]

I wonder how many people will feel educated by this while they're doing something else and the message is playing to no one. I'm glad digital media and services are finally starting to get somewhere in my country, this kind of thing is annoying and unnecessary, definitely feels like punishing the paying costumer. Bloated menus with unskippable overlong animations are just as bad. You got my money already, just let me watch the thing.

[chris.trejo]

lol I can't remember the last time I watched something on DVD, netflix all the way! (Yes I know blu ray is better but I have an SD tv so yeah :( )

[Count Dookkake]

Bonus content.

[hyp3rlink]

That's the sad part. Everyone's so impatient about everything.

It is not about patience, rather about the imprudent efforts to contain piracy.

[Eusis]

That's the sad part. Everyone's so impatient about everything.

The problem is there is no point to waiting here, it's just arbitrary bullshit. We have longer load times in games, but those games are performing an important function that, at worst, simply wasn't optimized as well as it could have been. Here it's some misguided attempt to deter piracy that masks nothing (and worse-but-unavoidable fails to take advantage of masking loading), and maybe there really ISN'T anything else to do. It's even worse if, as this seems to imply, it COULD pop up any time you press the menu button rather than simply the first time or anything, because then I have to put up with this shit if I want to toggle subtitles or skip to a specific chapter if something went wrong last time.

And, frankly, I can compromise at making them a mandatory, but skippable, part of booting up a DVD. You may watch once or twice out of surprise, after that we get the message and will skip ahead.

[buhdeh]

Great, my bluray player already takes like 1 min 30 sec to even start up (it's one of the earliest cheap players from sony, the BDP-S300).

LOL I have that player too. What a huge POS. a minute to start up, 3 minutes to load the movie (menu) and if you try to click the skip forward button too quickly through the trailers it crashes the player.

God damn. Will never be an early adopter nor buy Sony products again.