I find it implausible that they will use open standards for movie rentals. The content will be encrypted and DRMed, even if it uses H264 or MP4-Pt2 under the crypto.
If they offer movie ownership then maybe open formats are a smart thing to do. Watermark the content so you know who bought it and then let the users do what they like with it. Will it happen though? I don't see the industry letting it happen.
Watermarking is goint to come back in a big way. Recent court decisions (in NY, IIRC) have shown that in order to bring a successful suit against someone, the rights holder must show that a downloader "made available" the media for others to download, which can be more difficult that what one might think. The way to positively do this is via active watermarking any streamed media with a unique watermark that can be traced to the person who first streamed the media.
Watch for this technology showing up in DVRs, where every program that goes onto the hard drive is watermarked with the user's account number (or similar).
Sony is hedging their Blu-Ray bet and joining Vudu, Apple, XStreamHD (a tech I really like) and Blockbuster. They have an advantage in being a media owner and having forged content relationships with other studios in their successful negotiations during the HD DVD battle.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mark @ Apr 23rd 2008 8:40AM
I find it implausible that they will use open standards for movie rentals. The content will be encrypted and DRMed, even if it uses H264 or MP4-Pt2 under the crypto.
If they offer movie ownership then maybe open formats are a smart thing to do. Watermark the content so you know who bought it and then let the users do what they like with it. Will it happen though? I don't see the industry letting it happen.
Joe T. @ Apr 23rd 2008 9:12AM
Watermarking is goint to come back in a big way. Recent court decisions (in NY, IIRC) have shown that in order to bring a successful suit against someone, the rights holder must show that a downloader "made available" the media for others to download, which can be more difficult that what one might think. The way to positively do this is via active watermarking any streamed media with a unique watermark that can be traced to the person who first streamed the media.
Watch for this technology showing up in DVRs, where every program that goes onto the hard drive is watermarked with the user's account number (or similar).
Sony is hedging their Blu-Ray bet and joining Vudu, Apple, XStreamHD (a tech I really like) and Blockbuster. They have an advantage in being a media owner and having forged content relationships with other studios in their successful negotiations during the HD DVD battle.