Rudolf
17th-January-2008, 11:36 AM
This should be interesting, as to how long it will take the crackers to work out a system to bypass this new encryption program.
Screeners: There's a new player in town Cinea:
H'wood's new encrypt keeper?
By BEN FRITZ, TIMOTHY M. GRAYHOLLYWOOD -- Last week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and Cinea offered an antipiracy solution to awards voters and, as a bonus, a free DVD player.
The reaction has been hesitancy and suspicion. What, nobody wants solutions and gifts any more?
Anti-piracy firm Cinea, which is a subsid of Dolby, is committed to spend $5.5 million sending special DVD players to nearly 6,000 members of AMPAS and another 6,000 members of the British Academy. The S-View DVD players are the only machines that will allow viewing of screener DVDs encoded with Cinea protection (but they will also play regular consumer DVDs).
The hitch is that, so far, no one in Hollywood has committed to producing the Cinea-encrypted discs.
Some studios are ready to sign on for the program but, as is usual with awards matters, no one wants to say anything yet.
And, after the emotional battles last year, many awards participants are gun-shy about anything dealing with screeners.
The Acad and Cinea say there are no sinister motives: The Academy re-establishes its primacy in awards matters by being the first to offer a solution to members this year, and Cinea plants a flag as a leader in the burgeoning piracy battle.
But with Cinea spending millions on hardware, plus more for customer support, some in the tech industry wonder about the long-term strategy.
"In terms of internal use for the entertainment industry, this is not a huge market," notes Paul Kocher, prexy of content protection consulting firm Cryptography Research. "Anti-piracy applications that reach out to consumers like Internet download protection and prevention of camcordering in theaters is where the real money is."
There are various scenarios attributed to Cinea: It may hope to make its money back via the manufacture of the screeners (studio reps say the $5 per disc price is still cheaper than that of creating watermarked videotapes). Or it may be looking to start selling its technology for post houses, or the consumer side, or both.
Cinea also gets to show off its wares to the creme de la creme of showbiz, perhaps touting itself the way that Avid and Apple donate machines to schools in hopes that students will embrace their works.
San Francisco-based Dolby is said to be planning an IPO soon, and the Cinea move could make it more attractive.
Whatever they decide, the studios will have to take action within a month to get started on screeners for awards season. Though they've had ample time to think about it, this issue is not their first priority. (They've been dealing with more immediate matters such as production woes and release skeds.)
While most who have looked at the Cinea system think it's adequate, nobody wants to be first to get behind it publicly.
But because last year's screener court case prohibits studios from discussing the issue due to antitrust concerns, someone has to be first or everyone will remain paralyzed.
There are both emotional and technical reasons for the hesitancy. Gifts always make people nervous (Is this another one of those "Enjoy a trip to Orlando, Fla.," kind of come-ons?).
And though the antipiracy alarm has been ringing for years, it's still a relatively new concept in terms of awards campaigns. Given rapidly evolving tech progress, some awards strategists fear this could be a multi-year commitment they'll wish they could get out of soon.
Cinea will solve many of the Hollywood's problems with awards screeners, but the studios still want to find a system that solves all of their problems, if that exists.
No matter what happens, Academy members still end up with a free DVD player.
Screeners: There's a new player in town Cinea:
H'wood's new encrypt keeper?
By BEN FRITZ, TIMOTHY M. GRAYHOLLYWOOD -- Last week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and Cinea offered an antipiracy solution to awards voters and, as a bonus, a free DVD player.
The reaction has been hesitancy and suspicion. What, nobody wants solutions and gifts any more?
Anti-piracy firm Cinea, which is a subsid of Dolby, is committed to spend $5.5 million sending special DVD players to nearly 6,000 members of AMPAS and another 6,000 members of the British Academy. The S-View DVD players are the only machines that will allow viewing of screener DVDs encoded with Cinea protection (but they will also play regular consumer DVDs).
The hitch is that, so far, no one in Hollywood has committed to producing the Cinea-encrypted discs.
Some studios are ready to sign on for the program but, as is usual with awards matters, no one wants to say anything yet.
And, after the emotional battles last year, many awards participants are gun-shy about anything dealing with screeners.
The Acad and Cinea say there are no sinister motives: The Academy re-establishes its primacy in awards matters by being the first to offer a solution to members this year, and Cinea plants a flag as a leader in the burgeoning piracy battle.
But with Cinea spending millions on hardware, plus more for customer support, some in the tech industry wonder about the long-term strategy.
"In terms of internal use for the entertainment industry, this is not a huge market," notes Paul Kocher, prexy of content protection consulting firm Cryptography Research. "Anti-piracy applications that reach out to consumers like Internet download protection and prevention of camcordering in theaters is where the real money is."
There are various scenarios attributed to Cinea: It may hope to make its money back via the manufacture of the screeners (studio reps say the $5 per disc price is still cheaper than that of creating watermarked videotapes). Or it may be looking to start selling its technology for post houses, or the consumer side, or both.
Cinea also gets to show off its wares to the creme de la creme of showbiz, perhaps touting itself the way that Avid and Apple donate machines to schools in hopes that students will embrace their works.
San Francisco-based Dolby is said to be planning an IPO soon, and the Cinea move could make it more attractive.
Whatever they decide, the studios will have to take action within a month to get started on screeners for awards season. Though they've had ample time to think about it, this issue is not their first priority. (They've been dealing with more immediate matters such as production woes and release skeds.)
While most who have looked at the Cinea system think it's adequate, nobody wants to be first to get behind it publicly.
But because last year's screener court case prohibits studios from discussing the issue due to antitrust concerns, someone has to be first or everyone will remain paralyzed.
There are both emotional and technical reasons for the hesitancy. Gifts always make people nervous (Is this another one of those "Enjoy a trip to Orlando, Fla.," kind of come-ons?).
And though the antipiracy alarm has been ringing for years, it's still a relatively new concept in terms of awards campaigns. Given rapidly evolving tech progress, some awards strategists fear this could be a multi-year commitment they'll wish they could get out of soon.
Cinea will solve many of the Hollywood's problems with awards screeners, but the studios still want to find a system that solves all of their problems, if that exists.
No matter what happens, Academy members still end up with a free DVD player.