Or so it seems from the more recent news I received through different channels these days. First, BluRay BD+ copy protection and DRM system appears to have been cracked. In the latest revision of AnyDVD (a quite well known DVD copying software), there is now an option to handle BD+. It means that even the slight advantage of BluRay against the other competing High Def DVD formats (mostly HD-DVD) is disappearing and you can expect that all BluRay discs will be found in the black market since they are now easy to copy.
Then, we learned that Paramount started selling DVDs at a bargain price (3 US$) in China in an attempt to reduce the impact of rampant piracy in this country. Cheap discs mean that consumers may buy more (you have to admit that pricing the discs at the same level as the bootleg copies easily available makes a good selling point).
It could be a marketers’ last attempt, but there is a near simultaneous announcement that has shed a significant light onto this issue: UK-based music store 7 Digital tells us that DRM-free MP3 tracks outsell their DRMed counterparts by a factor of four to one. This should help music producers understand that the market is requesting DRM-free products. But will they hear?
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