Let's face it -- quite a lot is resting on the outcome of this case. For months now, RealNetworks has been unable to legally sell its RealDVD movie ripping software after a court issued a temporary restraining order that remains valid until it's decided if the application violates the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). Now, the software is finally having its day in court, and the outcome could shape the future of the DVD player (for better or worse). You see, Real has already assembled a prototype Facet device that hums along on Linux; essentially, this DVD playing machine would sell for around $300 and could store up to 70 movies internally. On the surface, this sounds entirely like a poor man's Kaleidescape, but only time will tell if The Man agrees. Cross your fingers folks, we get the feeling fair use advocates are going to need the luck.

Maybe we're just off our rocker, but we can't figure out what NPD Group hoped to actually discover from this here survey to save our lives. Apparently these folks asked around 1,500 movie buyers (read: clearly not movie thieves) if they preferred purchasing a video that included digital copy or simply downloading it from the internet. Shocker: 79% said they favored the digital copy, while only 21% confessed that they'd rather get a low quality rip from a shady website that could potentially infect their computer with some rare strain of virus. Seriously, what's the point? If you're buying a film in the first place, why wouldn't you want the studio to do the hard work for you and include a portable copy? At any rate, this groundbreaking poll also revealed that 38% of those interested in digital copy "appreciated having a physical disc as a backup," while 27% admitted that they would be "more inclined to buy a portable device in order to take advantage of the digital copy feature." Moral of the story? Let us know, will you?

We hate to laugh at a situation like this, but it's just too easy. While Disney (and everyone else) fights to keep fraudulent Blu-ray Discs out of the Chinese market, said studio is also fighting another outlet of piracy: a website in which it holds a stake. In an admittedly bizarre twist of fate, Disney has discovered that several full-length, high-quality bootlegs of Wall-E were posted up at 56.com, a site which Disney's venture-capital affiliate, Steamboat Ventures, invested in just two years ago. We always heard that expecting someone to play by the rules when the only rule was lawlessness was a touch insane -- case in point, no?

Just last week we heard that Warner Bros. was ending its home video / DVD business in South Korea due to rampant piracy, and now we've got a report from China suggesting that sophisticated pirates are duping buyers with faux Blu-ray Discs that are actually DVDs. As the story goes, movie pirates in select parts of Asia are ripping bona fide BDs and then burning them in AVCHD format (which uses 720 horizontal lines of resolution compared to Blu-ray's 1,080) on writable DVDs. Word on the street has it that these discs are being offered for around $7 each, and they even boast the BD hologram and the iconic blue hues on the packaging. Reportedly, none of the discs have made it outside of Asia just yet, but stay sharp should you ever get the urge to snag a discounted BD title while traveling abroad.

[Image courtesy of UberGizmo]

Those guys look pretty passionate, wouldn't you say? It's folks like that (we presume) that have forced Warner Brothers' hand, and now the studio will end its home video and DVD business in the nation of South Korea. According to an unnamed official at Warner Brothers Home Video Korea, "one of the reasons for the pullout is a slump in the video and DVD market, resulting from online piracy and illegal downloading," and amazingly enough, Warner Bros. is actually the last remaining Hollywood company to pull out of the region. Instead, the firm will focus on "digital distribution," and given that just about everyone and their grandmother has access to the internetz in South Korea, we'd say that's probably an intelligent move.

There's no way that a big company like Philips can keep up with the rag-tag pirates on the interwebs, which might explain why the company has spun off its content watermarking business as Civolution. Not to be confused with TiVolution (which also is showing an increasing desire to watch what you watch), the new company also pulls the Philips/Medialink venture, Teletrax, into the fold to offer up broadcast TV metrics and complete the marketer's tech dream combo. Not great news for bootleggers, but it beats media-crippling DRM by a mile in our book. You didn't really think Philips was going to limit its reach to the hotel PPV circuit, did you?

Boy, that's a mouthful, is it not? Shortly after Motorola, Sony and a whole crew of others teamed up to support AMIMON's WHDI wireless standard, in limps Pulse~Link attempting to act like it still has a shot at gaining traction. The left-for-dead CWave wireless-for-HDMI platform -- which is based on UWB (ultra-wideband) -- just received certification by Digital Content Protection as an Approved Retransmission Technology. This, along with the FCC certification received in 2007, enables CWave to start shipping in commercial products. As expected, a couple CWave-equipped Westinghouse HDTVs are slated to hit stores this fall, but it remains to be seen if anything will actually be released to take advantage. Format wars never end pretty, do they?

'Round these parts, we prefer to read the fine print first, so it should be noted that none other than Macrovision -- you know, the firm that purchased the now-cracked BD+ DRM scheme for $45 million last year -- financed this here study. According to poll results from US and UK consumers, around 1 in 3 individuals admitted to "making copies of pre-recorded DVDs in the past 6 months, up over a quarter from the previous year's study." Predictably, males aged 18 to 24 were most likely to wear an eye patch and own a DVD burner (if you catch our drift), and while revenue loss due to illegal copying is certainly a valid concern, researchers did find that 62% of American respondents (and 49% in the UK) were duping flicks they already owned. Arrr!

[Image courtesy of George Dillon]

As the Motion Picture Association of America continues on its unending (we mean that quite literally) quest to banish digital piracy, it has just announced its unbridled support for yet another technology. The MPAA has approved the use of DreamStream's secure online file streaming system "as a solution to curb digital piracy," and according to Michael Jay Solomon, founder of Solomon Entertainment Enterprises, the software will "allow the content providers to recoup the billions of dollars that they are loosing [sic] right now." If you got a chuckle out of that, get a load of this. Ulf Diebel, chief development officer for DreamStream, went so far as to say that in order to "win the war on piracy, the studios need DreamStream's military grade capabilities." Heck, the company even asserts that its "unpublished encryption has never been compromised by hackers or digital pirates." Sheesh , don't you all know what happens when you just beg to be circumvented?

We just can't see this one going over well. Reportedly, Japan's Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry and the Education, Science and Technology Ministry have jointly decided to administer royalty fees on all blank Blu-ray Discs (BD-R / BD-RE) and Blu-ray recorders. According to the entities, such a system is necessary to "compensate copyright holders for the increase in copying by individuals due to the development of new digital technologies." It was also noted that there was some disagreement on whether all HDD-based recorders should be taxed (not to mention those oh-so-innocent portable media players), and further "discussions" could make the fees applicable to even more hardware. Tax everyone for the actions of a few -- sounds like a totally infallible plan, no?

Certainly not the first watermarking scheme we've seen of late, Philips has introduced a new method that it hopes will thwart any plan to snag sensitive PPV material and distribute it illegally on the intarnetz. The VTrack solution, set to debut at NAB Show, is aimed at hoteliers who enjoy offering up PPV films well before the DVD release date. The company will be integrating the technology -- which makes content captured via camcorder traceable -- into its 26-, 32-, 37- and 42-inch HDTVs, and if someone does set up their own bootlegging studio and then share it with everyone on the web, content owners can unearth the time, date and location of the deed. In Soviet Russia (and hotels with Philips sets), content watches you.

Just a week after the DVD CCA approved an unexciting (and incredibly restrictive) download-to-burn scheme, DataPlay has unveiled what it calls the "world's first CSS-managed recording DVD burner." Of course, this isn't the first time we've heard about this type of setup, and as it turns out, DataPlay is actually "participating in the Qflix technology and IP licensing program." The aptly-named MovieWriter is an external USB 2.0 device that is "capable of writing CSS encrypted content for playback on standard DVD players," but alas, you'll be forced to pick up the presumably expensive CSS-MR pre-keyed recordable discs through Verbatim or Taiyo Yuden before any burning can take place. Currently, no pricetag is being listed, but we are told that the outfit is already planning an internal version for OEMs to integrate into pre-fabricated machines. [Warning: PDF read link]

It's no secret that DirecTV has been on the hunt for content thieves for what seems like ages, but it faced a serious setback recently when "the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals tossed out a default judgment against a pair of alleged DirecTV television pirates, saying an unauthorized decryption device law the company invoked against them does not apply." Apparently, the duo of defendants were brought to trial after they allegedly purchased a smart card programmer and used it for less than legal purposes (like "repairing pirate access cards disabled by DirecTV countermeasures"). But reportedly, the satellite provider has been going after folks who purchase these things, assuming that their intentions must be ill. Still, the pair in question may face lesser chargers if they did indeed break other laws, but at least individuals who like to tinker with smart card programmers can (hopefully) go about their day without worrying over the carrier breathing down their neck. [Warning: PDF read link]

[Image courtesy of CBP]

It's been so long since we've heard anything serious about audio watermarking that we were beginning to worry, but for the hackers up for yet another challenge in the realm of high-definition film, your brief wait is (nearly) over. Verance Corporation has just announced the immediate availability of its audio watermark technology for licensing by manufacturers of Blu-ray and HD DVD players and components, which means that users will likely face another layer of content protection when trying to free their movies from the bondage of DRM. No word just yet on a timeframe in which this stuff will actually make its debut, but it is noted that the AACS is "is expected to release final license agreements requiring the inclusion of VCMS/AV detector technology in HD DVD and Blu-ray players in the coming months."

Although some may argue that piracy is (at least on some level) beneficial, it looks like NBC has taken that sentiment to the opposing extreme with its latest comments. In a purported filing with the FCC calling for enhanced regulation of the internet in an attempt to stifle evil P2P activity, NBC blurted out a string of text that it surely hoped would be overlooked. Alas, hardly any ridiculous claims go unseen these days, so now we're faced with this gem: "In the absence of movie piracy, video retailers would sell and rent more titles. Movie theaters would sell more tickets and popcorn. Corn growers would earn greater profits and buy more farm equipment." There's absolutely no need for us to pick apart the aforementioned quote, after all, we're fairly certain the absurdity shines right through on its own.

[Via TechDirt, image courtesy of Monsanto]