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Tear yourself away from the RIAA/Lawsuit story for just a moment, to check this out from Peter Henderson/Reuters:
Disney to Test Self-Destructing DVDs This Week (or here on CNN). For $6.99. Rather than rent, you can buy a copy that lasts 48 hours, so that you don't have to return it like a rental.
If Walt Disney Co. gets its wish, an experimental type of DVD will begin flying off store shelves on Tuesday -- and self-destructing 48 hours later.
Disney movies on disposable DVDs are set to arrive in convenience stores, pharmacies and other outlets in a four-city test of whether Americans will pick up a limited-life DVD rather than dropping by a video rental store.
But get this logic:
Although the disposable DVD format does not make it harder for digital pirates to make illegal copies, Blaustein said by making DVDs cheaper the effort would also undercut the incentive to make such bootleg copies.
Memo to the RIAA: you could work with your customers to provide market solutions to piracy, instead of suing them.
They're not making DVDs cheaper, they're making them self-destruct.
The fact that they're offering them for $6.99 tells us that -- at less than seven dollars -- they're still making money off of the disc even if each person just rents it once.
Now, imagine the profits if they'd just sell the movies for $7 a pop. That's the price of a movie ticket -- less, in some areas. Which may be the reason they'd be reluctant to sell DVDs so cheaply. Who'd bother going to the theatre when they could buy the movie for less than the ticket price?
Posted by: Zonker on September 9, 2003 09:17 AMI can only hope that these discs are harder to produce and therefore the drop in price further eats into their profit margin!
Posted by: joe on September 9, 2003 10:24 AMCan't wait for this to hit the gaming industry. Hardly anyone plays a game after beating it the first time and actual game self-destruction will help with an unbefore felt sense of urgency...Where are the tags for this site...
Posted by: Alex on September 9, 2003 04:21 PMThat's what I get for not previewing my comment... It seems the "sarcasm tags". I placed before the tag do not show in the post. Just so there is no confusion. my previous comment was sarcasm...
Posted by: Alex on September 9, 2003 04:26 PM