Studios Assess Damage After Hackers Decode DVDs.WHEN movie DVDs first debuted, they were touted as hacker-proof and pirate-proof. Too bad no one told that to a small group of Norwegian computer hackers who have cracked the discs' encryption code. Practically overnight, free software has sprung up throughout the Internet that lets a computer savant sa·vant n. 1. A learned person; a scholar. 2. An idiot savant. [French, learned, savant, from Old French, present participle of savoir, to know copy movie DVDs onto a computer hard drive. Now the entertainment industry and DVD-related hardware companies are reassessing the immediate future of what had been dubbed dub 1 tr.v. dubbed, dub·bing, dubs 1. To tap lightly on the shoulder by way of conferring knighthood. 2. To honor with a new title or description. 3. home entertainment's Next Big Thing. The studios aren't saying much about how this development will affect their future DVD DVD: see digital versatile disc. DVD in full digital video disc or digital versatile disc Type of optical disc. The DVD represents the second generation of compact-disc (CD) technology. releases. "We're assessing the matter," said Sony Pictures Entertainment spokesman Jerry Giaquinta. Sitting in the hot seat is Matsushita Electric, a co-developer of the cracked content-scrambling system used for DVDs. "We regard this as a serious incident and will work with Hollywood to take technical and other steps to ensure the protection of copyrighted materials," said spokesman Jim Reilly Jim Reilly, born James G. Reilly in 1957, was the second drummer for the Northern Ireland punk band Stiff Little Fingers from 1979 to 1981. He played on the LPs Nobody's Heroes, Hanx and Go For It. . "We currently are in touch with major studios and with major companies supplying DVD playback products and are considering our legal options." Some industry experts were not at all surprised by the breached copyright protection. For computer engineers familiar with DVD's relatively low-bit encryption rate, the question was when it would be hacked, not if. "Most people thought it would happen before this," said David Bishop
David Bishop is an award-winning screenwriter and author. Born in New Zealand, he was a UK comics editor during the 1990s, running such titles as the , president of MGM MGM in full Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. U.S. corporation and film studio. It was formed when the film distributor Marcus Loew, who bought Metro Pictures in 1920, merged it with the Goldwyn production company in 1924 and with Louis B. Mayer Pictures in 1925. Home Entertainment. "The MPAA MPAA abbr. Motion Picture Association of America for many months has been looking at the next level of anti-piracy, anti-copying technology. At the current state, this problem is not the video equivalent of the MP3. It certainly is, however, an alarm and call to action that we as an industry need to be more focused on protecting our content." The Internet has not yet gotten fast enough for users to feasibly e-mail full-length movies to their friends. The Norwegian hackers, it should be noted, logged a download time of about 80 hours per movie - not exactly a user-friendly process. Also, would-be pirates cannot yet make perfect-quality transfers to digital discs. But in the rapid world of technology, solutions to these impediments are only a matter of time. In fact, sufficiently high-memory blank digital discs will hit stores in 2000. A more rigorous encryption level clearly has to be developed and implemented. The Motion Picture Association of America, which held a meeting last week to further discuss the encryption issue, would not comment. MPAA and its member studios already are focusing on watermarking content as the next anti-piracy step. Until a solution is found, the word is that several studios may drag their feet on releasing more movies in the current DVD format See VOB and DVD. . Bishop, however, said MGM has decided to release more than 120 new titles next year, as scheduled. News and Notes El Segundo-based Computer Sciences Corp. has teamed up with Tokyo-based Hitachi Corp. to provide information technology systems and services to Japanese clients looking to globalize glob·al·ize tr.v. glob·al·ized, glob·al·iz·ing, glob·al·iz·es To make global or worldwide in scope or application. glob their operations. The CSC-Hitachi alliance will specialize in large projects, such as those resulting from the mergers of Japanese financial institutions... L.A.-based Detour magazine, which serves up a monthly dose of fashion, lifestyle and celebrity news, has launched a digital version of itself. Called DetourTV, the online venture will have weekly coverage of Hollywood-related events in addition to the magazine content... Thousand Oaks-based Xircom Inc., which makes products that let laptop computers connect to networks, has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell an additional 3.5 million shares. Meanwhile, Santa Monica-based Stamps.com filed to sell 5 million more shares. The company went public in June... Alhambra-based commercial real estate listing company PropertyFirst.com Inc. closed a $44.3 million round of private financing last week. The investor group is quite diverse, including technology investors Oak Investment Partners and Amerindo Investment Advisors Investment Advisor 1. A person making investment recommendations in return for a flat fee or percentage of assets managed, known as a commission. 2. For mutual fund companies, it is the individual who has the day-to-day responsibility of investing and monitoring the cash and , SunAmerica Investments, commercial real estate brokerage CB Richard Ellis CB Richard Ellis Group, Inc. NYSE: CBG is a multinational real estate corporation currently based in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.. On December 20, 2006, the corporation, also known as CBRE, completed acquisition of Trammell Crow Co. in a transaction valued at $2. and individual investor Robert J. Lowe Sr. of Lowe Enterprises. |
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