Dolby Buys Into Piracy-Fighting Tech

[Kooperman]

Dolby buys into piracy-fighting tech
Last modified: September 22, 2003, 6:19 PM PDT
By John Borland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com


Audio technology company Dolby Laboratories said Monday it had purchased a small digital rights management company, hoping to cement its role in digital movie distribution.

San Francisco-based Dolby said it had purchased Cinea, a company formed by many of the same engineers behind the short-lived Divx copy-proof DVD technology backed by Circuit City.

Cinea made headlines late last year after winning a federal grant to help develop ways to block camcorder-toting movie pirates from recording film premieres and distributing them on the Internet. But they also offer more traditional encryption techniques to film studios that ultimately want to distribute films digitally to theaters instead of using film.

The company's camcorder-fighting technology is still under development. Its plan is to introduce distortions in the video that are captured by cameras, but are invisible to the human eye--a little like computer screens that display lines or bars when captured on video.

Dolby's entry into the content-protection market will bring it in competition with Microsoft, which is pushing hard to make its Windows Media and associated digital rights management technology standards in the nascent digital cinema business, as well as online. But Dolby says studios want to see more companies than Microsoft in the content protection business.

"The film industry has been very vociferous about the fact that they want content protection technology developed," said Dolby vice president Tim Partridge. "But studios want multiple people providing it."

The digital cinema drive is providing a set of worries for studios already concerned about DVD copying and Internet file-swapping--as well as potential opportunities for new generations of technology companies like Cinea.

Hollywood studios want keenly to move to all-digital distribution, which would relieve them of the burden of printing expensive film copies of every movie for distribution to theaters. But standards have been slow to emerge, and theaters themselves, which will have to bear the costs of installing new digital projectors, have not been quick to make the transition on their own.

Cinea's first technology would put digital locks on the files distributed to theaters, providing unique keys to unlock access to the content so that only intended recipients could unscramble them. The technology might also include usage rules based on contracts with studios, limiting theaters to showing the films for a certain number of screenings, or for a limited range of dates.

Cinea will operate independently as a Dolby subsidiary, remaining largely separate from its new parent company's business, Partridge said.

[FutureIverson]

more great news kooperman, wellnamed thread- becoming a lost art here.

[Malicious Intent]

It does not surprise me that companies are trying to take extra measures to protect themselves from pirates. Who can blame them?
Sadly if this technology is successful, then film studios can start releasing films late in the UK again.



[Congrates on getting half way to the mile-high club kooperman!]

[Theinfamousone]

I guess I'm a little fuzzy on how Microsoft and Dolby are going at it. Are they talking about the next Super CD going to have this kind of protection, or just movies, or what? Is Microsoft planning on releasing DVDs to people in WMV?

All I've got to say is that they are wasting millions of dollars on a worthless format. Do they honestly think they will stop the movies from being released on file sharing networks as they enter theatres? There's still going to be screeners out and stuff like that which is much better. I really don't care much about the CAM versions of movies, and I don't think anyone would cry if they were gone tomorrow. The MPAA will waste millions, and Microsoft and Dolby and Macrovision and an endless number of other companies such as the theatres who are hiring multiple security guards to watch people with high tech night vision goggles so that people don't cam it, will dump billions down the hole, just so that the 1/10th of 1% of people that don't go to the theatre, just because they can watch a cam version on their computer. And the sad thing is that I'm seriously doubtful that it will end cam jobs. If they move to digital distribution (you buy the DVD to play in the theatre rather than a role of film), they will have it released on the internet as soon as it's out. The only thing they can do is keep ticket prices reasonable and hope that the excitement of going to the theatre will be good enough.

Whatever. If I was them, I wouldn't worry about it. It's very frustrating how much money is wasted on stuff like piracy protection. We could spend all the millions - billions of dollars and feed all the starving children all over the world, and on top of that, we'd all get free movies, alas....

[shawners]

Isnt Dolby the one that supplies dynamic and great sound to movies, why are they worried again?

[Afn]

Originally posted by Theinfamousone
I guess I'm a little fuzzy on how Microsoft and Dolby are going at it. Are they talking about the next Super CD going to have this kind of protection, or just movies, or what? Is Microsoft planning on releasing DVDs to people in WMV?

All I've got to say is that they are wasting millions of dollars on a worthless format. Do they honestly think they will stop the movies from being released on file sharing networks as they enter theatres? There's still going to be screeners out and stuff like that which is much better. I really don't care much about the CAM versions of movies, and I don't think anyone would cry if they were gone tomorrow. The MPAA will waste millions, and Microsoft and Dolby and Macrovision and an endless number of other companies such as the theatres who are hiring multiple security guards to watch people with high tech night vision goggles so that people don't cam it, will dump billions down the hole, just so that the 1/10th of 1% of people that don't go to the theatre, just because they can watch a cam version on their computer. And the sad thing is that I'm seriously doubtful that it will end cam jobs. If they move to digital distribution (you buy the DVD to play in the theatre rather than a role of film), they will have it released on the internet as soon as it's out. The only thing they can do is keep ticket prices reasonable and hope that the excitement of going to the theatre will be good enough.

Whatever. If I was them, I wouldn't worry about it. It's very frustrating how much money is wasted on stuff like piracy protection. We could spend all the millions - billions of dollars and feed all the starving children all over the world, and on top of that, we'd all get free movies, alas....

the real intent is for the studios to digitize distribution to the theaters to control 'ACCESS', how and when and where a movie is played.

My guess is if the studios can secure the theaters, and still charge admission to go to a movie in an airconditioned room, then even if all other windows of exibition, (dvd, broadcast, ppv, cable) become unprofitable, they can still make movies and charge $7 per view.

That may be enough to make the industry stay in business. Then again, who has the time or interest to go into a smelly old theater to watch something you can watch and pause when the cellphone or phone rings.

[Malicious Intent]

Originally posted by Afn
Then again, who has the time or interest to go into a smelly old theater to watch something you can watch and pause when the cellphone or phone rings.

Actually, I do. I love to see films on the big screen with quality sound and no interuptions. Comedy films are funnier when everyone laughs with you and scary films create tension. I can't see the cinema ever being replaced. What they will be trying to stop is the loss of excitment of a new film. Whats so good about a release date when lots of people have seen it from an American cam-job? Its debatable whether it is worth the cost.
I've never had a problem with a cinema being smelly, perhaps a sticky floor, but never smelly. You should try a different place if you have the choice.

[Afn]

Originally posted by Malicious Intent
American cam-job? Its debatable whether it is worth the cost.
I've never had a problem with a cinema being smelly, perhaps a sticky floor, but never smelly. You should try a different place if you have the choice.

Cam jobs really are bad. Dvd-rips are different, since a divx rip if done well is as good as vhs or better than vhs.

I guess I do not have the time to drive to a theater, buy a ticket and savor the experience. It ma be a generational thing, I prefer random access. (pause and stop and go when I want to, to a dark room and overpriced drinks.)


If it takes me 40 minutes to go to the theater, then I have to wait for the movie to start.... ect. Dvd I can start a movie NOW. and if I do not like it press STOP and if I kinda do not like it, but want to see the end, fast forward it to the end and watch the last 5 minutes.

[lizardsforall]

Afn,
I'm with you about divx rips. sure there's a little decrease in quality in sound and video (still better than VHS), but there is still a charm to going out to the movies and watching some of your favorite flicks. Now-a-days, I go and see LOTR, and the "El Mariachi" trilogy (once upon a time in mexico), but i can't remember the last time I went to a movie that was just an average flick. I just watch the good ones.

[Afn]

Originally posted by lizardsforall
I'm with you about divx rips. sure there's a little decrease in quality in sound and video (still better than VHS), but there is still a charm to going out to the movies and watching some of your favorite flicks. Now-a-days, I go and see LOTR, and the "El Mariachi" trilogy (once upon a time in mexico), but i can't remember the last time I went to a movie that was just an average flick. I just watch the good ones.

Television looks so stupid thanks to DVD and the net. Movies ARE a waste of time, unless you have some very good information that the movie is very good.

DVD has increased the amount of movies that I watch, and except for a few sport broadcasts and live television, I no longer watch television.