Pact Not to Use Image Constraint Token Until 2010?

Devlin C. writes "Ars Technica reports that many major movie studios and several consumer electronics companies have an unofficial pact not to use the controversial Image Constraint Token in movies until at least 2010, presumably in an effort to spur early adoption. As the article at Ars notes, this would explain why both the low-end PS3 and the Xbox360 lack HDMI. The companies think it's not necessary to have right now, and they would rather shave costs than sell future-proof hardware."

1080p HDMI 50" DLP

[Enderandrew]

http://www.secondact.biz/product.aspx?productid=HL -R5078W [secondact.biz] This is just an example that future-proof technology exists today, and can be had for cheap. I'm saddened to see both the cheap version of the PS3 and the 360 crippled without HDMI, but now the tag won't get used until 2010, and perhaps never. I feel a lot more comfortable about the $500 PS3 now honestly, and in 2010 if I need to buy another PS3, they should be in the $200 range or less by then.

Re:The other thing is..

[bhima]

HDMI & HDCP are not meant to prevent piracy and as such contain *no* mechanism which can.

What they are is "A hook on which to hang lawsuits" (Ed Felten):

http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1007 [freedom-to-tinker.com]

And that's *all* they are.

Re:There's a point to be made

[LardBrattish]

Doesn't VLC offer region free DVD playing?

From the FAQ:-

1.2. Does VLC support DVDs from all regions?

Well this mostly depends on your DVD drive. Testing it is usually the quickest way to find out. The problem is that a lot of newer drives are RPC2 drives these days. Some of these drives don't allow raw access to the drive untill the drive firmware has done a regioncheck. VLC uses libdvdcss and it needs raw access to the DVD drive to crack the encryption key. So with these drives it is impossible to circumvent the region protection. (This goes for all software. You will need to flash your drives firmware, but sometimes there is no alternate firmware available for your drive). On other RPC2 drives that DO allow raw access, it might take VLC a long time to crack the key. So just pop the disc in your drive and try it out, while you get a coffee. RPC1 drives should 'always' work regardless of the regioncode.

So, in short, No.

Re:There's a point to be made

[solowCX]

I hope you at least informed her that she can deauthorize all of the computers it was previously set up on. You can then re-authorize the computers she actually wants to use. Details on the 4th bullet down... http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/musicstore/aut horization/ [apple.com]

Re:There's a point to be made

[castlec]

If you are using windows, you can install DVD43. It's freeware. Just google for it. I've noticed it causing problems with Nero so you should disable it before burning a disc. I know that similar software solutions exist for Linux but I can't tell you off hand what they are.

Re:There's a point to be made

[Fweeky]

A better, but non-free, solution for Windows is AnyDVD [slysoft.com]. Transparently removes region code, prohibited user operations, bad sectors and TOCs, adverts/trailers, and supposedly does the same for CDDA protections.