[LINK] DVD chips 'to kill illegal copying'

brd at iimetro.com.au brd at iimetro.com.au
Mon Sep 18 17:04:56 AEST 2006


<brd>
And what's the chance of the following headline appearing as the DVDs are
released:

"Consumers refuse to buy RFID DVDs"?

The wonderful thing about a free market is that people are free not to buy.
Unless of course there is a monopoly - and we all know that monopolies don't
exist don't we.

</brd>

DVD chips 'to kill illegal copying'
By Simon Burns,
18 September 2006 09:58 AEST
http://www.itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNID=37134

DVDs will soon be tracked with embedded radio transmitter chips to prevent
copying and piracy, according to the company which makes movie discs for
Warner, Disney, Fox and other major studios.

The technology, which can also be used for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs, will allow
movie studios to remotely track individual discs as they travel from factories
to retail shelves to consumers' homes.

Home DVD players will eventually be able to check on the chip embedded in a
disc, and refuse to play discs which are copied or played in the 'wrong'
geographical region, the companies behind the technology expect.

"This technology holds the potential to protect the intellectual property of
music companies, film studios, gaming and software developers worldwide," said
Gordon Yeh, chief executive of Ritek Corporation.

Ritek is the world's largest DVD maker, and its U-Tech subsidiary will make the
discs.

U-Tech and IPICO, the company behind the RFID chips used in the discs, announced
today that production of the 'chipped' DVDs will begin at U-Tech's main plant in
Taiwan.

U-Tech's global network of factories stamps out some 500 million pre-recorded
DVDs and CDs a month for major movie studios, recording studios and video games
companies.

After ironing out bugs in the manufacturing process, U-Tech will work with major
movie studios on a large-scale test of an RFID-based supply chain management
process at its manufacturing plant and distribution centre in Australia.

RFID readers will then be built-in to home DVD players to extend the
anti-copying technology into homes as part of a digital rights management
system.

U-Tech described this as the "real end game" for the chip-on-disc technology,
which would "eliminate optical disc piracy in the entertainment and IT sectors"
.

IPICO claims that its RFID tags can be read from at least six metres away, and
at a rate of thousands of tags per minute. The passive chips require no
battery, as they are powered by the energy in radio waves from the RFID reader.

"I have envisioned using RFID to improve product visibility and enhance security
in the optical disc industry for some time," said Yeh.

"Launching the chip-on-disc system has made this dream a reality and holds the
potential to protect the intellectual property of music companies, film
studios, gaming and software developers worldwide."

Gordon Westwater, president of IPICO, added: "[This is the] first step towards
new international standards to safeguard optical media, and the subsequent
adoption of the chip-on-disc concept as a global standard."

U-Tech Australia, where the project will undergo a large scale trial, did not
reply today to vnunet.com's request for comment on the new embedded RFID chip
process and the precise schedule for its rollout.

Press relations staff at U-Tech's office in Taiwan refused to provide more
information about the technology.

-- 
Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Sydney Australia
brd at iimetro.com.au

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