"But if you want to insert a DVD in your PC and watch it on the TV, the PRISMIQ system doesn’t let you do it. It’s not that Prismiq overlooked the capability. Rather it’s because the encryption mechanism on copyrighted DVDs prevents you from transferring digital information from the PC to another device over a network. That’s where those 5C and DRM acronyms start playing a role."
Believe it or not, I only discovered this recently while traveling away from home. There’s a video out on my Toshiba Tecra notebook, so I had taken a couple DVDs with me to watch at my inlaws’ place (they don’t have a DVD player.) Imagine my wrath when, after much fumbling with cables and all (their TV didn’t have front connections) I was able to view the desktop on the TV, but the DVD wouldn’t play!
Message to Hollywood: you’re thieves, plain and simple. I have every legal right to use a $3,000 notebook to watch DVDs on a TV. You’re stealing that right from me by crippling your product. Since the French judicial system is already swamped with far more serious cases they take years to (mis)handle, forget about legal recourse, DVDs will be obsolete by then (I’m not joking, it can take two years to eject tenants who stopped paying the rent, and criminal cases drag on for 5+ years.)
There’s no honor among thieves, so don’t come whining at the 100+ divx movies I downloaded for free. If store owners were that rude in front of their customers, they’d probably get punched in the face. The movie and music industries can get away with it only because their executives are safely shielded from the actual customer by several channel layers.
12/19/02 update: Sony NetMD doesn’t let you move files to your PC. "Go Create. Then Stick it Up."