Tonedeaf government dumbasses now make you watch 20 seconds of unskippable warnings in front of ever (1 Viewer)

[Sam Posten]

And they think this might DETER piracy....
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/05/dvds-and-blu-rays-will-now-carry-two-unskippable-government-warnings/

 

[rsmithjr]

Yes, this is crazy. But I would not blame the government.
The studios have pressed the government in every way possible to try to eliminate piracy. These draconian policies come from the studios, ultimately.

 

[Will Krupp]

not to mention it's not the GOVERNMENT who is mastering the discs with "unskippable" warnings....

 

[David Deeb]

I just saw these for the 1st time...on an MOD TV series via the Warner Archives...
On DVD-R....
And there are actually 2 MORE that follow those 2.
So for a series they believe won't even sell enough copies to be bothered with replicating the discs, the customer is "punished" 88 different times when watching one episode at a time. YES. I have to see 88 warnings, 88 times (22 episodes x 4 warnings) in order to enjoy the complete series that I legally purchased. And this will help sales?
Be thankful the music industry has not embraced this or you would be forced to listen to an equally offensive thing each time you wanted to listen to "Abbey Road" or whatever in the car.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

This is not going to deter piracy.

Repeat: This is not going to deter piracy.

All this is going to result in is home viewers who shelled
out good money for a Blu-ray title to become infuriated as
they sit through these additional warnings.

I guess someone thought adding this jargon to Blu-ray releases
will somehow entice someone involved in piracy to say to themselves,
"Gee, now there's more warnings on these discs. I guess I better
stop downloading and copying product."

So, bottom line is, nothing will be gained in thwarting piracy
with these warnings but Blu-ray consumers will be the ones
who have to sit through them nonetheless.

 

[Ruz-El]

Originally Posted by David Deeb /t/320629/tonedeaf-government-dumbasses-now-make-you-watch-20-seconds-of-unskippable-warnings-in-front-of-every-dvd-and-bluray#post_3924327
I just saw these for the 1st time...on an MOD TV series via the Warner Archives...
On DVD-R....
And there are actually 2 MORE that follow those 2.
So for a series they believe won't even sell enough copies to be bothered with replicating the discs, the customer is "punished" 88 different times when watching one episode at a time. YES. I have to see 88 warnings, 88 times (22 episodes x 4 warnings) in order to enjoy the complete series that I legally purchased. And this will help sales?
Be thankful the music industry has not embraced this or you would be forced to listen to an equally offensive thing each time you wanted to listen to "Abbey Road" or whatever in the car.

I feel for you, my Mad Men Season 2 (or three) Bluray set had a DTS-HD thing that played at the start of every episode at a positively earth shattering volume compared the actual episode volume. I was tempted to chuck that bastard thing out the bloody window.

Blu-Ray, a great but frustrating format now made worse. :S

 

[Traveling Matt]

The true travesty is not the headache of sitting through these new warnings, but rather the fact that this does nothing to address the need for a dedicated anti-piracy agency.
Only 750 domain names seized in "several" years? Why would two agencies with more primary, pre-existing priorities be handling what is considered such a massive problem?

 

[Frank M]

If 10 or 20 seconds of quiet message screens infuriates you, what do you think about these 30 or 45 second unskippable and extremely loud anti-piracy spots on european and australian discs?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxtoaTF9hu8
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLHGec03skc

 

[Johnny Angell]

If I read that right, the warnings will not come up until you select play movie from the main menu. That pisses me off. I have a habit of pitting in a disc while not watching the player and switching over after all the crap that's already on the discs has played. However I'll still have to sit through this crap.
This is not the government, this is the studios doing. This is just one more example of disrespect shown by the studios to their customers. Their attitude is that "you're going to give us your money and than we're going to screw around with you. You think this disc is yours? Hah! Hah! Hah! "

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

What's so frustrating as a legal consumer is that the end result is that those viewing pirated copies will, in many cases, now have a superior experience than those of us who have paid for the legitimate product. They can make bit-by-bit copies of the feature film and eliminate all of the crap that comes before it and after it.
I can guarantee the guy who buys a burned BD in a jewel case off a card table on the sidewalk somewhere won't have to sit through these warnings.

 

[Paul Penna]

It's a typical ploy by large, hide-bound organizations - both public and private - that face problems they lack the wherewithal to solve. So they put up motivational slogans and posters. Those things don't actually motivate anyone (except to make fun of), but the bigwigs can pat themselves on the back that they've "addressed the issue," and get bonuses for their brilliant idea. But at least everyone isn't forced to look at them.

 

[Robert Harris]

The answer is a class action suit by consumers, legally purchasing software, against all pirates.
Alternatively, every time you see someone selling pirated goods in a public place, call the police or FBI.
And then wait for them to arrive.
I continuously am forced to play "wack-a-mole" with pirates on line.
Not fun.
Someone can begin by calling the FBI and pressing charges against Amazon and all other vendors noted in the piracy thread.
Go git 'em!
RAH

 

[bgart13]

And yet, Criterion's discs all load up straight to the menu screen...

 

[AaronMK]

I'll be blunt:
The less the studios care about the rights of consumers as PURCHASERS (not "licensed" users) of content, the less I care about their rights as the copyright holder. One of those rights should be to decide which parts of the disc you want to watch, and which you don't.
Now, on top of the disc trailers, waiting for trailers to download, studio banners, etc, there are 20 - 40 additional seconds of FBI warnings?!

The answer is a class action suit by consumers, legally purchasing software, against all pirates.

Piracy is an important issue, but I don't see it as THIS issue.
The issue is that the studios feel that they can make purchasers a captive audience to whatever message they want to, be it their studio banner, marketing for other stuff they want you to buy, or messages on piracy and copyright law. At some point, they have to realize that the copy of the content is not their property anymore, and that the blu-ray player was NEVER their property. Beyond reasonable measures needed to prevent copyright infringement (which 20 - 40 seconds of forced FBI warnings do NOT qualify as such), they have no business putting artificial restrictions on how people make use of their purchases.
*edit: "do NOT qualify as such"

 

[cineMANIAC]

And yet, Criterion's discs all load up straight to the menu screen...

How does Criterion get a free pass? They're the only label that NEVER shows the various warnings, not even the legal disclaimers. It's one of the reasons I love them so much: No BS. I paid for the disc - let me watch the f**king movie without putting me through a wringer.

 

[Sam Posten]

I have tremendous respect for you Mr harris but I have no idea what you are asking of us as consumers on your first line. I am A-OK with consumers calling the feds on bootlegs, but how am I to start a class action suit against pirates, especially end users? how would that even work?

 

[Ruz-El]

Originally Posted by Sam Posten /t/320629/tonedeaf-government-dumbasses-now-make-you-watch-20-seconds-of-unskippable-warnings-in-front-of-every-dvd-and-bluray#post_3924428
I have tremendous respect for you Mr harris but I have no idea what you are asking of us as consumers on your first line. I am A-OK with consumers calling the feds on bootlegs, but how am I to start a class action suit against pirates, especially end users? how would that even work?

Consumers file a class action lawsuit against the pirates to protect the studios work that we are complaining about is how I read it. So no, I wont participate in that if that is the case.

 

[JoHud]

Every time I think of one of these adverts I think of that one with the psycho executioner-like guy blowing up home theaters with a fiery brand. Only saw it on a few of the UK DVDs I owned after the movie ends. Managed to find it online and relive the fun

If 10 or 20 seconds of quiet message screens infuriates you, what do you think about these 30 or 45 second unskippable and extremely loud anti-piracy spots on european and australian discs?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxtoaTF9hu8
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLHGec03skc

Region 1 Fox DVDs seemed to prefer this advert on all of their DVDs roughly around 2007. It was very annoying. I'm thinking the UK adverts resort more toward scare tactics than the American Adverts such as these

 

[Derrick King]

How does Criterion get a free pass? They're the only label that NEVER shows the various warnings, not even the legal disclaimers. It's one of the reasons I love them so much: No BS. I paid for the disc - let me watch the f**king movie without putting me through a wringer.

Because those warnings and disclaimers are not legally required (nor or they useful), Criterion does what other companies should do, they don't use them. Although, on their Godzilla disc, one of the rights holders required they put the "The following comments/interviews do not represent blah blah blah" disclaimer on the disc (I'm really surprised that the major studios don't ask/force Criterion to include that disclaimer.)

 

[Robert Harris]

The most salient point here is that pirates could not only care less about FBI warnings or messages, but will most likely, if ripping a Blu-ray replicate the warnings along with other content.

As an aside, the FBI is not in the business of protecting copyrights.

RAH