http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/10/05/ms_play-one_dvds/

The prospect of landfill sites pilled high with disposable DVDs has once again reared its ugly head on the shoulders of claims that Microsoft is touting just such a product to Hollywood as way to beat movie piracy.

So suggests UK newspaper The Business which this weekend told its readers Microsoft has "invented... a cheap, disposable pre-recorded DVD that consumers can play only once".
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Not quite, we're afraid - play-once DVDs already exist and have done for some time. In the US, Convex subsidiary Flexplay has has been touting its EZ-D play-once DVD for the last two years. Buena Vista Home Entertainment has experimented with the technology, and Convex recently signed a deal with Japanese disc maker Nippan to begin offering the technology in that country this autumn.

Last year, French company DVD-D launched its own disposable disc. Like EZ-D, DVD-D is a standard DVD with an added layer that oxidises when exposed to the air. The process last a pre-set time - 48 hours in EZ-D's case, or 8-24 hours for DVD-D - after which the oxidation layer is opaque and the disc can no longer be played.

Microsoft's interest in the technology - whether it has prepared its own version or licensed an existing technique - appears to be predicated on widening the reach of its proprietary DRM technology. According to the Business report, Microsoft is pushing the concept as a sell-through product that would be made available at rental prices. Unlike rentals, consumers wouldn't need to return the discs and would have complete freedom to watch whenever they choose.

By making movie-watching cheap and flexible, Hollywood could ensure consumers wouldn't need to download films from P2P networks or dodgy BitTorrent sites.

That appears to be Microsoft's logic, at least, but the business case is less clear, particularly with the emergence of Net-based download-on-demand services, and mail-back DVD rental programmes, not to mention pay-per-view TV. The attraction to Microsoft must be the opportunity to get its DRM technology onto even more boxes and discs, to encourage further the adoption of its proprietary technology as the de facto standard, at least until next-generation optical disc formats, with their much-tighter-than-DVD copy-protection systems become commonplace.

Meanwhile, ever-tighter regulation of rubbish means that disposable discs are unlikely to prove popular with legislators if not consumers. Flexplay touts partnerships with disc recyclers, but that only works if consumers make use of them and don't simply chuck dead discs in the bin. Since the costs of collecting unwanted items for recycling can carry an environmental cost higher than the saving made by recycling, even organised recovery programmes could prove problematic.

Say it ain't so. Are they bringing this back up again? How many times must they beat a dead horse or milk a dead cow?

"ever-tighter regulation of rubbish means that disposable discs are unlikely to prove popular with legislators if not consumers."

I thought we consumers already said "bleahh" to the idea a couple years ago.

ummm.... That article was supposidly a hoax that appears to be taking the internet by storm.
http://microsoft.weblogsinc.com/entry/1234000293061940/
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/

This weblog claims it's not a hoax, but a misunderstanding of a feature... http://www.hackingnetflix.com/2005/10/microsoft_devel.html

EZ-D tried this. And failed. Partially because of poor technology, but mostly because people just didn't want to buy it.

Microsoft DRM would allow for one-use DVDs on PCs. It would be possible for them to port the full DRM usage-rules system to CE equipment without too much difficulty - there are some hardware requirements (Secure clock, secure flash memory to store licences. Internet connection is not required, but makes things easier) but nothing impossible.

The full MS-DRM v2 usage rules can be made extremally complicated. It would not be difficult to specify, say, "User may play this disc on two PCs, for a period of one week starting at first play, but may not play the disc before 9pm. The one-week period may be extended by payment to a website. The disc shall not be usable outside of a specified country or region. These rules may be updated by the copyright-holder at any time."

How could they do this? It'd add so much trash!

"By making movie-watching cheap and flexible, Hollywood could ensure consumers wouldn't need to download films from P2P networks or dodgy BitTorrent sites."

Yeah but Hollywood nor the music industry is interested in passing the savings of making cheap disc's on to the customer. They wanna make a cheap disc and jack the price up higher to increase the size of their giant money mountian so then they will be able to go skiing down it.

"They wanna... increase the size of their giant money mountain so then they will be able to go skiing down it."

That's a clever way to put it.

The entertainment cartel is never satisfied, probably because unrestrained greed knows no bounds.
And if it's not the money they're after (in regard to a particular pursuit), then it's the power that they crave.

I know it....

"Alright boys..you all ready? Let's show them how rich we are off the backs of artists...."

swish swish swish...

"WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeee!"

Yep here in Arizona they tried those play once DVDs in select markets. Once word got out how they don't last people didn't want to buy them they ended up being a sales dud.

I got an Idea! buy the DVDs, use the DVD, and instead of throwing them in the garbage, mail them to Bill Gates house in Medina, WA! WITH the attached note for him to dispose of the spent DVD properly. It wouldn't hurt to send Paul Allen at his house in Mercer Island, WA a few spent DVD's too. Of course with a note to dispose of these properly.

After a few weeks of this they will get the point.

Actually...there aren't very many movies today that I would care to watch more than once...but the environmental problem is definitely a reason not to buy these. "Put out your recycling bins by 7 am....please sort them by type...paper in one, plastic & glass in another...and your really cheap one-use CDs in the last one." Right. We can't even get people to recycle things they use every day yet.

How recycleable are these? Plastic, aluminium, adhesive and bits of label. Very hard to seperate efficiently. Recycleing might be just a token to keep the enviromentalists happy.

Wasn't this rumor debunked a few days ago?

Be that as it may..a rumour per se heh...these kooky ideas are so believable because this is just the type of crap they would come up.

Greed is one element of the corporate mind...so gluttony and getting that product out regardless of who or what it destroys to get that revenue comes at no surprise!..("Revenue" I can just hear some big nosed suit and tie with strands of wire like hair sticking out of his drippy nostrils saying that word.)

Microsoft was very lucky to get their OS (ass?)as the main computing platform when everyone else was sitting back picking their teeth...but since then, that company hasn't been too bright.

The real technological and innovative minds are found in the indy community in all aspects of invention.

Corporations are doing the same thing as the church did in the dark ages..trying to keep control by inventing and pruchasing laws. That came crumbling down..and so will this. But it's going to take a revolution to do it and I see private inventors of P2P being just that.

We need to flood their asses with our own innovation so that they spend more resources trying to fight us off than what they bring in.

Then we can start over.

gahh, disposable DVDs again?
I thought this dumb idea died years ago. Guess MSFT has more money than brains to trot this idea out.

Of course, 24 hours is all you need to image the DVD & burn it to a DVD-R so you can have a permanant copy to watch at your leisure.

And lets not forget, when it comes to recycling, consumers want it EASY. If they have to trek a bag full of these crummy discs to a recycling center, they won't. They'll simply toss it in the garbage.

Just one more astoundingly BAD idea from the company that brought you Windows & IE.

This 1Play DVD is not the answer. Enviornmentalists will hollar back at Microsoft's Play Once DVDs, and they will listen to protect our earth from enviornmental disasters.

And for all consumers, don't try to buy these 1-play DVDs. If you have cable, use On-Demand. Disposable DVDs are insecure, and they do more harm to the enviornment.

I remind everyone the story was fake, Microsoft has no plans to produce play-once DVDs.

goldenpi,

"Microsoft DRM would allow for one-use DVDs on PCs. It would be possible for them to port the full DRM usage-rules system to CE equipment without too much difficulty - there are some hardware requirements (Secure clock, secure flash memory to store licences. Internet connection is not required, but makes things easier) but nothing impossible."

But as you well know, a computer only needs to read the dvd once to make as many dvd copies and/or divx/xvids as you would like.

Technology like this would only stop a casual person who doesn't know enough to try it with the computer first.

hehe