Single-play DVDs a Hoax

psy writes "Ed Bott's blog states that in relation to a previously posted slashdot story "a hoax can spread just as fast as a genuine news story. That's the lesson from the bogus story published in an obscure UK business magazine yesterday that claimed Microsoft is about to unleash a new single-play DVD format. Paul Thurrott reprinted the story without giving credit to the original source. Bink.nu picked up the story from Paul and reprinted it verbatim. Techdirt commented on the original story, with attribution but without any fact-checking. So did John Walkenbach. The funny part? There's no truth to the story. None whatsoever. In fact, the original story sparked a flurry of e-mails around Microsoft as people in different groups tried to figure out where on earth this story came from. After the head-scratching stopped, a spokesmen told me, they concluded that the story was not true. "It appears to be confusing an existing feature within Windows Media DRM that allows for single-play of promotional digital material. This has been an option for content owners to use for some time for the Windows Media format - it does not apply to MPEG2 content found on DVDs."

Hoax? I think not

[aussie_a]

Obviously Microsoft realized that the public weren't ready to be shafted by single-play DVDs after the article was printed, so they cancelled development and had someone post a "blog" entry saying "haha. It was all a joke. Don't pay attention to the man behind the curtain."

I'm surprised they don't do this more often.

It'll rear its ugly head again

[funkstick]

The fact that so many people believed it leads me to believe that we will still see another single use DVD format one day, dispite the failure of Circuit City's Divx.

Hoax and profit

[deodato]

Maybe the submitter, Auckland Map, was trying to Google Bomb his way up the search results and generate traffic to his AdSense site?

Re:All the more reason to check sources

[HD Webdev]

Maybe he's smoking Crack these days.

I can't believe that he not only heard about this and didn't laugh so hard that he couldn't see through the tears, but he also repeated obvious hoax as serious business.

The overwhelming majority of people will not purchase a concrete item that expires after one use especially when it comes to the Almighty Idiot Box. (think 'my precious, my precious' and what behavioral changes happen to most people when the remote control doesn't work)

Even if they might possibly fall for that on Planet Stupid, it's not likely that they'd buy a second DVD player as well just to have compatibility for those self-destructing DVDs.

Ears perking up

[appleLaserWriter]

Somewhere in redmond, someone is using that slashdot story to make the case for Microsoft getting into play-once disk technology.

Doesn't matter,

[NullProg]

"It appears to be confusing an existing feature within Windows Media DRM that allows for single-play of promotional digital material. This has been an option for content owners to use for some time for the Windows Media format - it does not apply to MPEG2 content found on DVDs."

Hollywood+Microsoft == you don't decide on how to view/listen to what you legally purchased/downloaded. You can't transfer your media to another non-MS device. Why do you Windows users still insist on using the Windows Media Player(TM) format?

For the slow thinkers. What do you think the "existing feature within Windows Media DRM" option does?

Just curious...
Enjoy,

Actually, it's only a PARTIAL hoax.

[WidescreenFreak]

Although I'm sure that the Microsoft bit was a hoax, as far back as 2000 a company called Spectradisc, which has since been acquired by Flexplay [flexplay.com], was actively working on a clear, chemical layer that would discolor when struck by the laser from the DVD player thus making the disc a single-play. They claim that their target market was for groups like the Academy Awards or those who want to offer promo material while preventing distribution or something like "pizza and a DVD", allowing the DVD to be viewed once.

Since then, Flexplay has used similar technology to discolor DVDs 48 hours after the case is open. In this case, the disc is sealed in an airtight container. When it comes in contact with oxygen, is begins the discoloration process to where it's unreadable in about 48 hours. Disney released several movies under the "EZ-D" label using this technology. It's the Circuit City DIVX scam in a new package.

I don't know if Flexplay is still pursuing the single-play DVD concept, but since they bought SpectraDisc they obviously have all of the research that SpectraDisc might have already done.

Windows Vista will be far away

[failedlogic]

From the thread info:
"In fact, the original story sparked a flurry of e-mails around Microsoft as people in different groups tried to figure out where on earth this story came from. After the head-scratching stopped, a spokesmen told me, they concluded that the story was not true."

If it takes this much effort for one of the largest companies to come up with an answer to a seemingly simple question (let alone an IT company which sells software to orgnise information), it should cause us to re-think how we all organise business information. They should have had an answer in a few minutes (not) what seems to be several hours of communication between middle and upper management. Microsoft is not alone. I've worked for several large companies (one of which is a major market leader). Each time a "policy" or "product" question came up it would take hours or days to find out. Microsoft is not immune to this.

I was a victim of this sort of wildfire...

[Shanep]

I was a witness in a court case. I stated my observations absolutely honestly and without bias. Anyone from either side of the case should have been able to see that my duty was to the court and that my own integrity was very important to me.

Somehow some idiot journalist did not see this, however. Through seemingly selective reporting and creative "quoting", I was somehow a bad guy. That story was then copied verbatim across many internet and print news outlets and it was even interpretted and "built on" by other idiot or perhaps dishonest journalists.

I no longer have any respect at all for the average journalist. They very rarely understand the issues they are reporting and sensationalize to the point of out-and-out lie. They do no favours to the subjects of their stories (except for the subjects who may be rich affiliates of course) and no favours to the general public who believe their lies.

Re:Haha Slashdot got suckered!

[grcumb]

"Don't you all feel bright now for bashing Microsoft?"

Actually, I was most amused by the report that even Microsoft got fooled. Instead of thinking 'That's bullsh*t - we would never do that!' they ran around trying to find out whose business group was responsible for it. Only when they couldn't get anyone to corroborate did they decide that it was untrue.

Apparently even Microsoft thinks this is the kind of thing Microsoft would do. 8^)

Re:Ummm....

[kesuki]

I can't believe anyone who gets the posts up in the first 10 minutes of an article being posted haasn't had time to fully fact check either ;) i mean it's the INTERNET it must be true!

I've written like a journal and several journal posts and main page posts all asserting numerous facts, and even with fact checking (which i normally skip) i got loads of stuff wrong ;) heck one thing i got wrong BECAUSE i Tried to fact check it int a 'hurry' and read cyanobacteria as bacteria. and didn't put it into context... which made me look like i slept through highschool biology (which i still aced and it was on a bell curve and i was threatend several times by classmates...)

Well, come on

[ajs318]

Copy prevention is mathematically impossible. Not just supremely difficult, like cracking RSA encryption; actually impossible. Like perpetual motion machines or faster-than-light travel. And limited-read media, by virtue of the fact they are as susceptible to copying as any other media now known or ever to be invented, do nothing to prevent illegal copying.

There was a bar that I used to drink in, back in my student days, which had a juke box. An NSM Prestige 160 if you care about these things; a lot like a Seeburg inside. It cost 10 pence a record {remember records?} and it was always playing. Once a fortnight, the amusement machine company came out to change the records. Well, one time, not only did they put in a whole load of new records, they also cranked up the price from 10p to 20p. And from that day on, the bar was like a Wetherspoons.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that if DVDs cost £3 each instead of £20, then more people would be more prepared to buy them; and they'd actually sell enough copies to make more of a profit. Instead of waiting to see if one of my friends bought a movie I would like to watch {in a kind of "chicken" game, where the loser is the one who actually buys the disc and then has either to lend it out to everyone else, thereby risking the disc becoming trashed; or invite them over for a viewing, thereby risking an enormous cost in drink, drugs, broken furniture and freaked-out neighbours} we could all just buy our own copy of the disc, and not have to worry about the intricate politics of the situation. Likewise, there would be next to no market in "piracy", since the margins involved would be ridiculously small. Back in 1998-99, a "pirated" music CD cost £3 {handwritten track listing, labelled with indelible marker} or £4 {inkjet printed cover artwork and label}. Writers were rare, not much faster than 4* or 8* and hardly anybody had ADSL. As a cottage industry, it was fine for awhile but it soon became unsustainable.

Oh, *PLEASE*

[Khyber]

We all knew this was a hoax. The typical /. response is "Microsoft BAD"

What nobody bothered to do (EDITORS) was check up on the story. The fact is, another company (can't remember whom) tried this same thing. Guess what? It DIDN'T WORK. The mass market said "NO" and with that simple bit of info from the past, why would Microsoft try doing it again? Hell, even they should know if it can be read once from a DVD, it could be copied ONCE, burned ONCE onto another disc and WATCHED FOREVER.

What we have here is a serious problem with Slashdot editors not checking up on stories, like REAL EDITORS DO. (Minus Fox News, which is FAR from 'Fair and Balanced.')

Give me a break, Slashdot. Your moderators mod me as a troll but your own editors can't even spot this simple fake? Yes, even I responded to the last story about this horse-hockey, and all I did was mention the above tactic of read/rip once, burn once, play forever. As a matter of fact, someone else in the comments before this story posted that IT WAS BULLSHIT. After being so thoroughly debunked by a simple (and unmodded) commentator, why the hell is this news to begin with? Play once DVD? *Penn and Teller Quote* BULL-SHIT.

Nothing for you to see here, move along. You should've all had the brains to figure this one out.