DRM Fiasco Ruins James Cameron’s Avatar 3D Preview

Post by lmkg » Fri, Dec 18, 2009, 10:33 PM UTC

Post by rimantas » Fri, Dec 18, 2009, 10:52 PM UTC

wmf wrote: post #3

In one theater.

Post by kierank » Sat, Dec 19, 2009, 12:00 AM UTC

Post by RevRal » Sat, Dec 19, 2009, 1:24 AM UTC

camccann wrote: post #5

lmkg wrote: post #2

Just to make this even more explicit than it was in the article: DRM had more effect on legitimate viewers than on pirates.[1] Of all the possible snarky comments to make (and there are many), I'm going to settle for this one: maybe we really are better off not encrypting those predator drones. [1] To be fair, some legitimate users and some pirates, and I don't know where they'll get the 3-d glasses.

Which really goes to highlight the biggest flaw with DRM: It's an additional cost to add something that will not, under any circumstances, improve the customer's experience. It's one thing to have a black market providing illicit versions of a product, but when the black market provides a superior product at lower cost with, often, greater convenience ? Something that has gone horribly, terribly wrong.

Post by tptacek » Sat, Dec 19, 2009, 2:31 AM UTC

__david__ wrote: post #9

tptacek wrote: post #7

This isn't digital rights management, it's basic operational security. A security failure damaged their preview. Having intense security controls on one of the most eagerly awaited movie premiers of all time is not unreasonable and it's not about "rights"; in fact, it may simply be about the production company not getting sued by its investors.

I disagree, I think it's exactly DRM. It's not DRM that normal consumers ever interact with though (except second hand by seeing the movie, or not seeing the movie as the case may be) but it's rights management none the less. From the failure modes it doesn't sound like there was any security above and beyond the standard DCinema encryption.