Sony should just get rid of everyone involved with DRM. They have generated so much bad publicity for Sony. Can't they just leave DVDs alone, all they are doing is screwing up legitimate users. It's stuff like this that makes me not want BR.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/16/sony-copy-protection-taking-heat-again-now-dvds-wont-play/ 

 Reports continue to filter in about DVDs that refuse to play on standard players from Toshiba, LG, Pioneer, Sony, and others. The culprit is titles that utilize Sony's ARccOS copy protection scheme, such as Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," The Weinstein Company's "Lucky Number Slevin," and Sony's "Casino Royale," "The Holiday," and "Stranger Than Fiction." ARccOS artificially scrambles sectors on the disc in an attempt to keep users from ripping the disc to a drive. Many older (or less sophisticated) players simply skip these corrupted areas as unreadable and continue on. Computers -- and unfortunately, some newer players -- try to perform error correction on these areas and fail playback. When contacted, Sony seems to deny the problem, much like Microsoft and the 360 disc scratching, and simply passes the buck onto the player manufacturers to upgrade their firmware. Meanwhile, many users have simply downloaded programs to bypass the protection and make copies without the "defect." So, is this a rootkit-like class action lawsuit in the making? Is it just overblown hype over a few players that don't follow standards? Another example of copy protection that bites legitimate users

Wow what a day never seen so many antisony posts dont stop the music :D

make copies without the "defect."

 As in defeating the purpose of this DRM attempt in the first place?

The beauty of this is that their copy protection still doesn't prevent ripped DVDs from being available for download prior to the movie's release. I think that when you're dealing with copy protection your only goal should be to prevent trivial copying of the product by the uninformed masses because most of the stronger methods hurt your legitimate users while doing nothing to prevent copying.

 QFT. Nintendo learned that. Pirating is still possible on their systems, but only for those who pirate anything.

You’d have to ask if these titles can still be referred to as “DVDs”.  With all the crap that is currently put on them, I seriously doubt they would even meet the DVD standard (just a hunch - I’m yet to check the official standard).

I share your sentiments FishyJoe, and am cautious about draconian protection schemes if BR becomes the dominant format.  I made a couple of posts on this earlier in page 3 of the format war thread http://vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?start=100&id=1133.

" titles that utilize Sony's ARccOS copy protection scheme" such as disney's.....

Why is sony being blamed for this? This is similar to blaming Joseph Wilbrand for suicide bombers. I guess if it has to be negative attach sony as the fault. It's every where and it is starting to get lame.

EDIT: and Ray007 Blu ray and HD DVD have the same exact DRM. BR has only one extra one that fox requested to be added yet have not used. DRM is here people and it is repeatedly being defeated.  It will probably pass eventually.

 Do you not know what the term "Sony's" means? That's a possesive noun. Futhermore, in these kinds of stories, it also implies being the creator, unless explicity stated otherwise, which the story did not. So Sony made it.

You may want to have a look here: http://www.sonydadc.com/products.copy.arccos.go

I don't know how they can claim the 4th dot point, since it is obviously BS - it's not compatible even on some of Sony's own DVD players!

I’ve read many of your posts and you strike me as fairly objective fellow. So let me ask you, if Sony is the creator of this copy protection scheme, and they are yet to release a compatible firmware for their OWN players – who should the blame fall on?

EDIT to adress your edit :  DRM may currently be the same on both HD formats, but given what we've seen from Sony in the past and what we're seeing now on DVD - what's to say it will remain that way if BR wins the format war?  I admit this is pure speculation on my part, but history should teach us something.

I was refering to the title " Will sony never learn" and I was including the quotations to show that even though it was created by sony it wasn't implemented by Sony.

Back when people were complaing about the CSS encryption on dvd's you wouldn't see articles going "Damn you DVD CSA" but it was more aimed at the movie companies who implemented the encryption.

It's not that I don't know how to read it is just that bias permeates alot of articles thrown about these days. When people witchhunt they are bound to find something. Take for instance the battery recalls. the batch which involved the recall actually had only 4 incidents of the ones that contained sony batteries but within the period of 2004 to 2005 150,000 hp computers 128,000 apple computers, 250,000 fujitsu computers also had recalls but you don't see as much as a fuss over those news articles or 3rd party companies because either they are not well known or they have not been caught up in a console war in which people of every creed and color mount a slander campaign of immense proportions.

Edit: Ray you are absolutely right they should be put to be responsible for thier claims and the performance of their machines but what I am trying to say is that the article may or not be about Sony persay but it is used to push an agenda.