I saw this post over on Microsoft’s Peter Torr’s blog titled “High Definition Facts” where he talks about the HD-DVD/Blu Ray content protection mechanism (called AACS)
Now, in my mind, AACS is the stupidest thing that has ever come out of hollywood (well, maybe not quite). All it does is take rights away from me – rights I’ve had since cassette tapes were invented in 1963.
But thing I really don’t get about AACS is that while the HD content is copy protected, you can still get unprotected content at a “reduced” resolution of 940x540. Forget about the fact that 940x540 is actually higher resolution than DVDs today, the thing you must remember about pirated DVDs is that people are willing to watch movies recorded with a Camcorder! (Although they’re even trying to foil that). So if people are willing to watch crappy camcorder-recorded movies, don’t you think that 940x540 would be a significant upgrade?
Sorry Hollywood, but until we all get digital chips planted in our brains, we’ll still be able to record your movies. Deal with it.