More Unskippable Piracy Warnings for DVDs

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

It's interesting to see they realise they're only hurting the legitimate consumers, and that they're actively aiming at that. While I agree that that's a stupid idea, I don't see how society has become so obsessed with instant gratification that people can't wait a minute or two before watching their 2 hour movie. Yeah it's annoying and stupid, but it's not that big of a deal, just go pop some popcorn while you wait. DRM is much worse, maybe we should be happy we don't have to put in a code before watching a movie or that it won't lock the DVD to a specific DVD player. I do like the IPR one, why can't they just replace all the other ones with only that? I'm sure no-one would complain about that.

That's an odd way of looking at it, I reckon. I'm sure we are a little spoiled, but this is a legitimate complaint.

An entertainment product that has put you in a shitty mood before it's actually started can be described as defective by design. It's not even a case of 2 minutes here and there, it's easily 8 minutes on a lot of discs, and I've heard closer to 15 minutes on certain discs. That's annoying for a single adult viewer. Just think of the poor bastard who is putting on Finding Nemo for his 2 year old and having to deal with the ensuing tantrum when 8 minutes later the film still hasn't started.

They've taken something good, and ruined it. £15, please.

 

[targren]

In response to piracy, they go ahead and make pirated movies even MORE superior than buying them on crap-locked DVDs. It's DRM all over again.

Good job, schmucks.

 

[The Wooster]

It's interesting to see they realise they're only hurting the legitimate consumers, and that they're actively aiming at that. While I agree that that's a stupid idea, I don't see how society has become so obsessed with instant gratification that people can't wait a minute or two before watching their 2 hour movie. Yeah it's annoying and stupid, but it's not an excuse for piracy, just go pop some popcorn while you wait. Think about it, it could be worse, maybe we should be happy we don't have to put in a code before watching a movie or that it won't lock the DVD to a specific DVD player. I do like the IPR one, why can't they just replace all the other ones with only that? I'm sure no-one would complain about that.

Redundant ad is redundant, imo.

Kind of feels like scare tactics.

 

[Mayhaps]

I wish people would just stop watching the movies released with this crap and start looking for alternative entertainment. People pirating this only makes it harder for the people trying to offer those alternatives.

 

[Zipa]

I like how retarded the governments are. The warning only appears on a legit non downloaded illegally copy of the movie. You have therefore paid money to the studio aka not pirated it in the first place making the warning about piracy superfluous.

*golfclap*

 

[Doom972]

I don't know about Blu-ray, but if you play your DVD on a PC running VLC Player, you can just skip the annoying anti-piracy messages.
People don't really care about big corporations losing money and they enjoy getting stuff for free.

 

[Callate]

"Continue pirating movies, and we'll make the legitimate product worse!"

*blink* *blink*

Okayyyyy...

Because apparently there aren't enough people using the "the product isn't worth paying for anyway" excuse at present? (For the record, I recognize it's a feeble excuse. But criminy, gasoline on the fire, guys...)

I suspect that as long as Netflix offers instant streaming without this kind of crap, it's going to be a point in their favor. Even more so as many video stores start to offer "rental copies" with extra ads and omitted extras.

Most of the movies I own on DVD I've already seen in the theater. Returning to them is returning to a fond memory- one I paid for the right to revisit. I shouldn't have to jump through hoops until the media company is convinced of my loyalty in any for-pay medium.

 

[Rainforce]

As with every topic that comes up about these unskippable things, I feel obliged to post this image.

Anyway, do they not realise that people are annoyed by these and all these anti-piracy ads they have to wade through are more likely to make them pirate?

what's wrong with downloading a bear or two sometimes D:?
also trying to brainwash the general public never works as expected desired.
then again, even without those notices it's pretty unlikely that I would pirate, considering how the things I'm not willing to spend money on are also probably not worth my (somewhat valuable) time : /

CAPTCHA: "filthy rich"
..... D:<

 

[GeorgW]

It's interesting to see they realise they're only hurting the legitimate consumers, and that they're actively aiming at that. While I agree that that's a stupid idea, I don't see how society has become so obsessed with instant gratification that people can't wait a minute or two before watching their 2 hour movie. Yeah it's annoying and stupid, but it's not that big of a deal, just go pop some popcorn while you wait. DRM is much worse, maybe we should be happy we don't have to put in a code before watching a movie or that it won't lock the DVD to a specific DVD player. I do like the IPR one, why can't they just replace all the other ones with only that? I'm sure no-one would complain about that.

That's an odd way of looking at it, I reckon. I'm sure we are a little spoiled, but this is a legitimate complaint.

An entertainment product that has put you in a shitty mood before it's actually started can be described as defective by design. It's not even a case of 2 minutes here and there, it's easily 8 minutes on a lot of discs, and I've heard closer to 15 minutes on certain discs. That's annoying for a single adult viewer. Just think of the poor bastard who is putting on Finding Nemo for his 2 year old and having to deal with the ensuing tantrum when 8 minutes later the film still hasn't started.

They've taken something good, and ruined it. £15, please.

I've never had to sit through anything more than 1 min of unskippable stuff. There's loads more crap, but you can easily skip it. I'm sure things are different in the US, but is it seriously that ridiculous?? If so I can definitely understand the complaints, though 10 more seconds now make even less of a difference.

It's interesting to see they realise they're only hurting the legitimate consumers, and that they're actively aiming at that. While I agree that that's a stupid idea, I don't see how society has become so obsessed with instant gratification that people can't wait a minute or two before watching their 2 hour movie. Yeah it's annoying and stupid, but it's not an excuse for piracy, just go pop some popcorn while you wait. Think about it, it could be worse, maybe we should be happy we don't have to put in a code before watching a movie or that it won't lock the DVD to a specific DVD player. I do like the IPR one, why can't they just replace all the other ones with only that? I'm sure no-one would complain about that.

Redundant ad is redundant, imo.

Kind of feels like scare tactics.

Are you specifying the IPR one, cuz I should elaborate that I specifically like the idea to have an external website with all the info in to replace all the other crap, not the specific website.

 

[burningdragoon]

Me seeing this headline pop on Twitter:
More Unskippable...
"Oh boy something about LRR"
...Piracy Warnings for DVDs
"Oh..."

Anyway, as much as this particular type of minor inconvenience doesn't really bother me (or rather how I felt about it before this addition), it's stupid for no other reason than most people don't even read these things when the come up.

 

[zefiris]

Funnily enough, I didn't even know it was possible to download entire movies for free until I started reading those copyright messages.

Same here. They sure are educating.

Think about it, it could be worse

This is one of the worst arguments in any discussion, ever. You deserve an award for coming up with something this terrible and poorly thought through while thinking you were saying something reasonable.

Spoiler: If I shoot you in the arm, and you complain, I can still point out that it could be worse. And I'd be right.

There is no situation where one couldn't argue that "it could be worse".

That argument means nothing. A bad move is still a bad move. Regardless if there are other bad moves that, in theory, would be worse.

 

[K_Dub]

While I personally don't pirate, I can kinda see the appeal behind it. Especially with this little gift kicking into action this week.

The very least they could do is make it skippable.

"WARNING! IF YOU ARE READING THIS THAN YOU MOST LIKELY PURCHASED THE COPY OF THIS MOVIE LEGITIMATELY, IN WHICH CASE, ALLOW US TO TAKE UP 30 SECONDS OF YOUR TIME AND FORCE YOU TO READ SOME BULLSHIT BEFORE YOU CAN GET TO THE ACTUAL MOVIE. THANK YOU."

 

[PingoBlack]

Seems they are right tho, piracy or "copyright infringement" to be more exact, in not a victim-less crime. Of course, the folks in Somalia are truly happy to be called copyright infringers when US warships are chasing them. It's the same thing, FBI says so!

But really, there are victims here. Anyone who buys it and is then force to claim it's no big deal.

It's sad ... Poor people cannot face the fact they won't get they money back, so they resort to claiming they were not victimized. Stockholm Syndrome, right there.

 

[poiuppx]

While I am on record as being pretty heavily anti-pirate... this is utterly stupid. A waste of time and money for all involved. And the reasoning that 'It's good to annoy our dwindling consumer base because... um... they'll take up vigilante justice against pirates!' may in fact be one of the dumbest things I have heard all year. And this is an election year, so that's mighty impressive.

You don't win over customers/voters by annoying them and making their legitimate purchases worth LESS than pirated copies. This is not the road to success. Pro-tip.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

snip.

I spend about half my income on media, games, music, movies and DLC.

My reward is getting constantly reminded that if I download an episode of Game of Thrones, because I can't legally buy the newest episodes here in Denmark, that I'm a worse criminal than a B&E thief or a rapist.

The media business is way out of sync with the times.

Laws are fine, but laws that are lobbyed from the movie/music industry are wrong.
Here, in Denmark, censorship is illegal, yet we have several sites that are blocked because they might be used for illegal downloads, even grooveshark has been blocked through a lawsuit against an ISP/phone company. It's not even a corrupt system, it's just ignorant.
Childporn is also blocked, which would be fine, but it's not a solution.
You go for the root of the problem, the rest is just censorship giving precedence for more lawsuits against free speech and our protection against censoring content(Please note the difference, it's not about allowing childpornography).

Will you be able to get the latest episodes eventually or are they never shown in Denmark?

I don't get to watch a lot of American television when I'd like to because I get screwed on syndication of smaller shows like Castle (which I absolutely love) to the UK. Instead of pirating them, I wait until the official release. I don't have a right to watch that television, it's not a basic need or in any way fundamental to my life. It is a want. A privilege of a middle class Western society that I have the patience to wait for when it arrives legally.

I even ended up importing an American only DVD player, just so I could buy American-only DVDs (a lot of cartoons only get released in America for example) instead of having to watch them illegally. If you really love something, support it with your money, otherwise you're not really supporting it at all.

 

[Saulkar]

Funnily enough, I didn't even know it was possible to download entire movies for free until I started reading those copyright messages.

I am the same here. You would think that they are actually trying to get their shit pirated with all these obnoxious warnings.

 

[DasDestroyer]

piracy is not a victimless crime

So very true, we are the true victims. Pirates get to avoid the annoying shit that comes with a legitimate movie and we have to suffer through it, ergo we are at a disadvantage, ergo we are the victims of their actions.