gemmapeter.co.uk

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6301301.stm

“A large-scale breach of AACS could be a threat to the $24bn DVD industry and dent hopes that high-definition discs would invigorate the market.”

There is usually increased spending on a new format after it’s released as people re-buy their collections (this is what they are referring to with the “invigorate the market”) but eventually this settles to a lower level because people then only buy the new titles they’re interested in.
The problem is that the DVD industry wants to keep people in the state of re-buying their collection by releasing new formats. Perhaps the DVD industry will reach the stage where the format is of such a high quality that there is no practical benefit to a new format, like with audio CDs.

I don’t think the home market is ready for a new format yet many of my relatives have only recently purchased DVD players, the quality is high enough for their needs, they don’t need or want massive televisions.

AACS has the ability to to revoke player keys to already released players, this technology is really consumer unfriendly. Imagine this, you buy a new AACS disk and come home to find it refuses to play on your player, if it’s anything like DVDs the store will refuse to refund you for the disk (it’s not defective, it’s working exactly the way it should) and any other new releases will also refuse to work on your player.

Sure the industry will say that it ‘had’ to put the restrictions on there to stop piracy but the truth is that despite DVDs having already been cracked (which isn’t necessary to copy a DVD) there is still a $24bn industry around them.

Next time you watch a DVD on Linux please spare a thought for the ‘poor’ executives.