Paramount Pictures sells DRM-tastic hard drives pre-loaded with movies, crippleware

paramountth.jpgParamount Pictures will sell 500-gig Seagate drives loaded with the 2009 movie "Star Trek" (and the option to load 20 other films) for $100. According to reports, that promotional pricing will only be available for a month, then prices jump.

Ah, but there's a catch! Windows, and a DRM system that presumably prevents you from doing stuff like moving the movie from that drive to other computers in your home.

The other movies distributed by Paramount, including "GI Joe," "Nacho Libre" and "Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius" come pre-loaded with a digital lock that requires a code that can be purchased online for $10 to $15 each. Even watching "Star Trek" requires registration. The pre-loaded movies come with a Windows-based digital rights management system that prevents file sharing. They take up about 50 GB of the drive itself.

(thanks, Cyrus)