Warner Home Video Forgets To Copy Protect Harry Potter

from the what-does-this-mean? dept

Joe Schmoe writes "Warner Home Video has chosen not to copy-protect the home versions of its blockbuster movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in major markets, including the US and UK.... Industry eyes are all now on the next big video release, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, which is due in August. If this is also unprotected, Hollywood may have decided that it is cheaper to let a few people copy than spend money on protection." This is pretty interesting (and very surprising). Also, interesting in the article is that Warner at first denied they had forgotten to copy protect this movie, but later admitted that some copies are protected and some aren't (suggesting this is a test of some sort to see what happens if movies aren't copy protected). The response from Macrovision (who normally provides the copy protection for DVDs) also is interesting. They said they're changing their licensing model to require companies that use their technology to copy protect all copies of any movie they release with the technology. Unfortunately, it's unlikely that Warner will ever reveal the "results" of this test - but as the article suggests, we may learn about them via its actions with other movies.

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