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[Ripclawe]

http://www.nhregister.com/site/printerFriendly.cfm?brd=1281&dept_id=517515&newsid=13446112

WASHINGTON — Some people like to watch the previews, others don’t.
Since the advent of the VCR, and with the arrival of DVD players, those who want to get to the movie have been free to skip past the coming attractions.

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The entertainment industry, however, is exerting pressure in Congress with the hope of making it impossible to skip past previews and advertisements at the opening of DVDs.

Legislative language that would have done just that — make it illegal for DVDs to allow fast-forwarding — was struck at the last minute from a copyright bill that passed the Senate late Nov. 20.

The legislation, however, is headed for an uncertain fate in the House, which could reconvene Dec. 6 and 7 to consider, among other things, stalled intelligence reform legislation.

If the House passes the legislation as is, the matter could be rendered moot. But if it fails, Congress may be forced to revisit the issue of copyright reform next year in the 109th Congress, allowing the issue to re-emerge.

The entertainment industry asserts that revenue from the advertisements and publicity from the previews is central to its business plans, while opponents note that millions of VCR owners have been fast-forwarding past ads and coming attractions for nearly two decades.

Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee began final consideration of legislation backed by the Motion Picture Association of America and other industry interests to clamp down on piracy of DVDs.

The legislation included a number of clauses opposed by a growing number of technological freedom groups in Washington.

Along with the clause that would have forbidden skipping ads and previews was language that would have lowered the bar for enforcement of copyright infringement law, removing the requirement of willful intent for prosecution.

Another clause would have allowed the Justice Department to take civil, in addition to criminal action, against individuals or companies that violate copyright law.

 

[Boogie9IGN]

I hate those previews that take 5 minutes BEFORE you even get to the fucking menu

(Lost In Translation had this I believe)

 

[Mama Smurf]

You've got to be fucking kidding me.As someone who despises spoilers, am I going to have to leave the room for 5 minutes before the DVD is ready to play? Or maybe mute the TV and close my eyes?

 

[RiZ III]

Feed enuff money to these republican politicians, and anything will get passed.

 

[Dagless M.D.]

Why is it that Advertising agents seem to think they have the right to blast their product at you whether you want them to or not. If I pay $20 for a film, they have no right to try and sponge more money off me.

 

[Outlaw Pro Mod]

 

[mrklaw]

hang on, as much as I disagree with this, why does it need an act of congress? Surely they just need to put pressure on DVD / next gen DVD manufacturers to support some kind of bit field that = 'no skipping'. Then they just author the DVD with that bit set.

Course, then people don't buy their shitty DVD and they have to back down..

 

[yoshifumi]

the whole entertainment industry lost my respect awhile ago, and this really isn't helping much.

 

[Ecrofirt]

Hollywood sucks a fat cock, NEWS AT 11!

 

[SpoonyBard]

hang on, as much as I disagree with this, why does it need an act of congress? Surely they just need to put pressure on DVD / next gen DVD manufacturers to support some kind of bit field that = 'no skipping'. Then they just author the DVD with that bit set.

This is already happening, many DVD's have sections that cannot be skipped and/or fast-forwarded. Usually they are animated company logos etc. that show up when you insert the disc. Some DVD mod chips allow you to skip these, and for example switch audio track even if it's locked, but these are available only for some DVD players.

 

[Argyle]

hang on, as much as I disagree with this, why does it need an act of congress? Surely they just need to put pressure on DVD / next gen DVD manufacturers to support some kind of bit field that = 'no skipping'. Then they just author the DVD with that bit set.

Course, then people don't buy their shitty DVD and they have to back down..

They already have this ("prohibited operations") and can set this bit during mastering.

I haven't bought a new DVD player in a while but I noticed some cheapie DVD players that were being advertised on Black Friday claim to ignore this bit (sort of the same way that some DVD players ignore the region lock )...they're probably trying to make it illegal to sell DVD players that ignore the bit?

 

[Kon Tiki]

Just reburn them to dvdr/blueray enabling the skip along the way.

 

[mrklaw]

They already have this ("prohibited operations") and can set this bit during mastering.

I haven't bought a new DVD player in a while but I noticed some cheapie DVD players that were being advertised on Black Friday claim to ignore this bit (sort of the same way that some DVD players ignore the region lock )...they're probably trying to make it illegal to sell DVD players that ignore the bit?

OK, so what are they moaning about? They want to make it illegal to bypass it or something? Are they also going to make it illegal to leave the room while the previews are playing? Better take a leak before we start kids, or you're going to jail!

 

[snaildog]

Great idea, put people who actually buy the fucking DVDs at a disadvantage to the piraters.

 

[RevenantKioku]

Great idea, put people who actually buy the fucking DVDs at a disadvantage to the piraters.

Yeah, but these are the people who [generally] don't care about the previews.

 

[Flynn]

The best way to prevent this from happening is to not buy DVDs that have preview lockouts.

Sadly, the majority of people don't care enough to vote with their dollar.

 

[LakeEarth]

Damn, you should at least be allowed to fast forward through them.

 

[Manabanana]

If this passes, I can safely say I will no longer buy movies. I already gave up on television, TiVO is out with it's new banner ads, so right now I'm down to DVD, VHS, and whatever I download. Most VHS I rent are pirated anyway, so the entertainment industry is dangerously close to receiving nothing from me.

 

[Shin Johnpv]

thats just BS

I hate having 5 minutes of previews i just want to put a movie in and watch it

 

[DarienA]

There are already some DVD's out that you can't skip past the damn previews IIRC.

 

[Miburou]

If they're going to force me to watch some previews, they should at least lower the prices of DVDs to something more reasonable.

 

[Trakball]

...the entertainment industry is dangerously close to receiving nothing from me.

If you listen closely, you can hear the sound of civilization collapsing!

 

[ChrisReid]

You've got to be fucking kidding me.As someone who despises spoilers, am I going to have to leave the room for 5 minutes before the DVD is ready to play? Or maybe mute the TV and close my eyes?

What also sucks is that as the DVD ages.. the "coming attractions" become irritating reminders for random movies the company wants you to buy.

 

[Hitokage]

The best way to prevent this from happening is to not buy DVDs that have preview lockouts.

Sadly, the majority of people don't care enough to vote with their dollar.

What will you buy instead? Boycotts simply don't work when there isn't much competition to begin with.

 

[fart]

hooray for cartels and political corruption

 

[Pimpwerx]

Man On Fire (awesome movie btw) had this. I thought they had stopped doing this. I had to sit through a lot of previews wondering if someone had slipped in a really good bootleg of something. After finally FFing, the menu pops up, and I'm like, "this is the last time I watch this DVD." :lol Talk about a way to turn people off a movie. Bore them to tears with previews of movies that came out already...and sucked (AVP preview). PEACE.

 

[Gek54]

Is there a list of DVDs that dont let you ff?

 

[impirius]

FHUTA

 

[maharg]

It's absurd that this is even a remote possibility. Government is not responsible for weak business plans.

 

[Mainline]

Oh, I thought the topic was Hollywood wants me to buy even less DVDs...oh wait, it is!

 

[cvxfreak]

What happens if I wanna see a movie again? This is bullcrap.

 

[Late Stage Marxist]

Yeah this is complete garbage. It's bad enough having to watch warnings about piracy, and corporate logo animations as well as having to navigate through DVD menus. Now we have to watch trailers? Fuck off. I'd be more than happy to boycott this practice.

 

[Morbo]

Prescription medicine to be supplied with free (and compulsory) rectal exam.
^Seems just as reasonable to me.
If this goes ahead the next time I go shopping my purchases will include DVD-Rs, an eyepatch and a parrot.

 

[SickBoy]

I hate the DVDs I have with unskippable previews. My plan is when I put one in that's really bad, I'll back it up as movie-only. I know one of my wife's discs has about four (I think) unskippable previews. That will be the first to go through that treatment. Not thrilled about the cost, though.

Makes me appreciate the computer a lot more, and PowerDVD for its resume function.

 

[Zaptruder]

Yarrr. I endorse this plan; good reason to pirate DVDs!

 

[Flynn]

What will you buy instead? Boycotts simply don't work when there isn't much competition to begin with.

I also didn't buy the new Star Wars DVDs on principal. I guess that little plan kinda backfired.

 

[cubanb]

it's things like this that makes me want to punch hollywood right in the nose

 

[DDayton]

Drat drat drat. I was getting tired of having to use the Menu button to skip previews (when foward didn't work)...

 

[Vormund]

Fucking arseholes.

 

[mrklaw]

I kind of wouldn't mind it for rental DVDs, as the studio wants me to be interested in more stuff coming out soon. But if I'm buying it, they must realise I don't want to watch previews *every* time. They get out of date very quickly.

 

[Gattsu25]

Legislative language that would have done just that — make it illegal for DVDs to allow fast-forwarding — was struck at the last minute from a copyright bill that passed the Senate late Nov. 20.

Is it just me...or does this way of wording it sound odd...

 

[Warm Machine]

Why hasn't the DVD industry split up product between rentals and buyers. I imagined years ago that the Blockbuster video chains would recieve a "rental" only version of discs two weeks before the "for sale" ones would come out.

These rental ones would be completely bare bones and have trailers for other movies on them and all sorts of painful merchandise crap.

The for sale ones would be the deluxe editions / directors cuts and allow more user freedom. This way rental chains are happy and the buying public is happy.

Oh and for movie companies pissed off that the DVD of your film gets leaked onto the internet...stop sending out DVDs of your films long before retail release. A friend of mine had Shrek 2 on DVD, real menus and everything, less than a month after it hit theaters.

 

[Loki]

Prescription medicine to be supplied with free (and compulsory) rectal exam.
^Seems just as reasonable to me.
If this goes ahead the next time I go shopping my purchases will include DVD-Rs, an eyepatch and a parrot.

:lol

 

[impirius]

If this goes ahead the next time I go shopping my purchases will include DVD-Rs, an eyepatch and a parrot.

That would become a legendary internet video.

 

[maharg]

Why hasn't the DVD industry split up product between rentals and buyers. I imagined years ago that the Blockbuster video chains would recieve a "rental" only version of discs two weeks before the "for sale" ones would come out.

These rental ones would be completely bare bones and have trailers for other movies on them and all sorts of painful merchandise crap.

The for sale ones would be the deluxe editions / directors cuts and allow more user freedom. This way rental chains are happy and the buying public is happy.

Oh and for movie companies pissed off that the DVD of your film gets leaked onto the internet...stop sending out DVDs of your films long before retail release. A friend of mine had Shrek 2 on DVD, real menus and everything, less than a month after it hit theaters.

The rental places wouldn't be happy. They already have enough trouble competing against retail copies of movies at this point. Only Blockbuster could make this work, and they never would do it. The other rental places would never do it because Blockbuster wouldn't do it, so if they let it happen, they'd lose their level playing field.

 

[Minotauro]

I will never understand why marketers would want to piss off the same people they're trying to reach. I mean, with things like this and their recent attempts to wedge ads into movie theatres prior to the previews, don't they alienate far more people than they would ever be able to convince?

 

[tedtropy]

If Hollywood despises video piracy so much, why do they constantly make stupid desicions that sabotage their cause and make people sympathize with those that'd rather just go the DVD Shrink route. Hey Hollwood, I shouldn't have to sit through ads on a DVD I just paid 20 bucks for. Geez, it's the AOL-ification of the world...

 

[Bishman]

This will only lead to more downloading and pirating of movies.

 

[UltimateMarioMan]

I demand a ban on previews on DVD's!! Lets pool our money to sue Hollywood!

 

[Christoff Yurievich]

I will never understand why marketers would want to piss off the same people they're trying to reach. I mean, with things like this and their recent attempts to wedge ads into movie theatres prior to the previews, don't they alienate far more people than they would ever be able to convince?

take a marketing class, you'll understand.