Fun with Hollywood
November 3, 2005 – 6:23 amSo, Hollywood is floating ideas about ways to protect their stream of crap important cultural contributions:
DVD Watermark for Next Gen Protection
What they’re proposing is mixing an inaudible-to-humans audio watermark into movie soundtracks. Now, when someone sneaks into a movie theater with a video camera to steal their precious, the camera picks up the watermark and, when it is eventually transfered onto a DVD and sold, the DVD players will “hear” the watermark and refuse to play the disk.
So, the fun I’m thinking of is carrying around an old style boom-box, you know, like one of these. Then, whenever you come across a film shoot in a public street, discretely point your boom-box in the direction of the action, crank up the volume, and play a recording of the watermark. They won’t hear it, but the mics used to record the action will.
Imagine the bemused laughter and shouts of “those darn pesky kids!” when studio executives discover that many of their blockbuster new DVDs are being returned because they won’t play.
(and before anyone writes, yes, I know most movie dialog gets re-recorded in a quiet studio and I’m really not advocating sabotage. But I’d like to make them a bit nervous about it. 
