Hasta La Gadget!

So how do you catch a software pirate? Although the investigation is now more than two years old, Microsoft has provided some clues.

In 2007, Microsoft and the FBI, working with Chinese law enforcement, raided a software piracy organization suspected of copying software worth about $2 billion on the open market. “We estimate that one out of every three pieces of software in the world today is not genuine, ” said David Finn, Microsoft’s associate general counsel for worldwide anti-piracy and anti-counterfeiting, says in the video linked above.

But how do they catch them?  One technique, apparently, is to look for a “fingerprint” on the burned CD-ROMs. According to the video, CD (and, we assume DVD) burners leave a fingerprint, or unique identifying marks, that can be used to determine the source of a burned (and, in this case, pirated) disc.

Holograms, bar codes, and product ID numbers also provide additional protection.

EDIT: Apparently our publishing software is having some problems with the video’s iFrame. The video can be found on Microsoft’s site, here.

Oh sigh. We’d been hearing that Warner Brothers would be pushing for month-long rental delays for mail-order services in order to boost sales, and it looks like Netflix has been pushed into submission: under an agreement announced today, Warner Brother DVDs and Blu-rays won’t be available to Netflix subscribers for 28 days after they’re released for sale. What’s worse, Netflix says it expects to reach similar deals with the other major studios as time goes on. Why would Reed Hastings agree to a clear imposition on his company’s rights under the first-sale doctrine? We’re guessing this is the only way the studios would open up and allow more movies to hit Watch Instantly — and the AP says Netflix is also getting a discount on the actual discs. Yeah, it’s lame, but honestly we’d rather take more streaming content over new releases in the mail straight away, so let’s hope all this wheeling and dealing pays off.

Netflix bends over, agrees to delay renting Warner DVDs originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There was a lot of talk in the last year about the movie industry’s “recession proof” product. One has to wonder, however, if all of those box office returns came at the expense of movie ticket sales. 2009, after all, marked the first year since 2002 that US moviegoers spent more to see movies in theaters than at home.

In 2009, US consumers spent $9.87 billion in movie ticket sales–a 10 percent jump over the year before. Combined DVD and Blu-ray sales, meanwhile, dropped over that same time period by 13 percent, down to $8.73. The Wall Street Journal suggests that these numbers “underscor[e] the changing economics of Hollywood.”

Movie rentals rose, meanwhile–the amount of actual rentals was up 5.5 percent over last year. Thanks to plummeting prices, however, due to services like Redbox, actual spending on rentals increased by les than one percent.

We’ve got the first exclusive clip from Seth MacFarlane‘s second Family Guy Star Wars spoof. Since Empire Strikes Back is the best of the bunch, MacFarlane is really going to have to bring it… and so far, so good.

The official name for the Empire Strikes back spoof is Something Something Something Dark Side, and it’ll be on DVD & Blu-ray 12/22.

Every now and then tech companies will launch a product that’ll make you think, “Wait, why weren’t we doing this all along?” Universal Studio’s new “Flipper” disc is one of those: a two-in-one disc that’s Blu-ray on one side and DVD on the other.

Universal is rolling out the dual-format disc beginning with the Bourne trilogy (Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum). Each Flipper disc will cost about $30 — about the same as most Blu-ray titles cost brand new.

Why is this a good idea? Well, say you want to bring a movie over to a friend’s house, but it happens to be a Blu-ray disc — and alas, your friend doesn’t own a Blu-ray player. Or, say you have more than one television set, but one of them only has a DVD player plugged into it. Third, say you own a DVD player and are waiting to purchase a Blu-ray player in the not-too-distant future. Buying a Flipper would future proof your movie.

CNET notes that the now-discontinued HD DVD format tried the two-in-one format back in 2007, so this is hardly a new idea. Still, even if overdue, the Flipper is a welcome option with the rising popularity of Blu-ray players and high-definition TVs.

See Also:

• Netflix Subscribers See Red Over Cracked Blu-ray Discs
• Star Trek Blu-ray Box Comes With Virtual Admiral’s Uniform …
• Panasonic Announces Sexy, Pointless Portable Blu-ray Player …
• Blu-ray Sales Will Seriously Grow Over Next Four Years: Report …

Photo: Amazon