On 8 Aug 2001, at 12:02, Tim May wrote:
On Wednesday, August 8, 2001, at 11:44 AM, Ray Dillinger wrote:
They're sticking *trailers* on movies that people *pay for??*
Geez.. talk about destroying the value of the merchandise they're trying to sell.
Yes, we have heard here (or at a physical meeting, I forget which). I don't buy many DVDs, but this was discussed. Apparently the trailers and ads cannot be fast-forwarded through...something built into the DVD spec which allows this.
I can verify that. My copy of "O Brother, Where Art Thou" has 2 trailers that play _before the main menu_. Fortunately, chapter skip goes right by them, but it's still annoying. I've got one or two others with intrusive trailers, but their titles escape me. As I understand it, DVDs are controlled by a (reputedly powerful) script language that allows disabling arbitrary features of the player. (the FBI warning usually won't skip)
So an ad-buster which "circumvented" this would violate the DMCA, presumably.
I can always tell my player to go directly to a title/chapter. Unskippable trailers will probably just lead to my keeping a Sharpie near the player so I can make a note on the new discs as to where I want to start. Is that "circumvention"? Hmmm... The DMCA prohibits Sharpie markers? -- Roy M. Silvernail Proprietor, scytale.com roy@scytale.com