KindleReports are starting to pile up of unhappy encounters with a new copy-protection system that Sony is baking into commercial DVD release and which renders certain discs useless on older DVD players.DrmLink (Thanks, Nick!)Suspect titles include regular (not Blu-ray) releases of "Casino Royale,' "Stranger Than Fiction" and "The Holiday," all of which render nothing more than a brief title screen on certain DVD players (including some Sony models).
DRM snoops say it's the return of ARccOS, a somewhat discredited anti-copying system Sony toyed with a year ago. The technology was quickly subverted by makers of DVD-copying software, but is robust enough to flummox some DVD players made by RCA, Toshiba, Philips and others.
Update: Sony says that it has updated this DRM, but that presumably doesn't do you any good if you bought one of the discs with the un-updated DRMs on it -- Thanks, Victor!
I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.