UMD Not Over Yet Says Sony Boss

It brings me memories of Betamax, Mini-Disc, ATRAC-3, Sony's rootkit, etc.

It is still cheaper (and better) to have your full featured, cheaper DVDs in a much cheaper, less scratchable portable DVD player.

They need to sell UMD burners and blank media, for the format to ACTUALLY MAKE SENSE.

Sony should forget UMD for movies.

It's a great format for games.

But why would anyone with two braincells to rub together play MORe for a low-res UMD - that they can't play on their hom theatre system because it's krovvy low-res when they can just rip 4/5 DVDs to DivX and fit them on a single SD card.

(*GASP) Are you referring to p p p ppppiracy sir? Did you know that that is illegial and a punishable offense. It could go on your permanent record! Do not corrupt our corruptable youth sir!

Heh, well I thought it was funny.

Like Sony says UMD ain't over tillt hey say it is over! Just like they say the HD next gen consoles don't start until the PS3 is released...Minus ANY WAY to hook it up for and HD picture unless you pay for the cables. Eat it Sony.

It is funny.

But I reckon ripping DVDs that you own so you can watch them on the move is fair use - just as much as recording 12 vinyl albums you owned onto compact cassette to listen to on your Walkman was.

I've actually heard some people in the know speak of THAT act being illegial too. For the fact of infringing on profits of other formats or some stupid s**t like that. They'll say you're taking money away from profits of UMD or Memory Stick Movies or iTunes downloads or Money Making Proprietary Software X because you're homebrewing your own copy. Or maybe it was another reason. I don't know if it was complete black and white, but I've heard it from a few people and heard the opposite to.

These people aren't "in the know" they are "in the pay" of large corporations who just want to screw every penny out of us.

Of course they claim that it's illegal. But it is up to the consumer to ask, "Is that right and fair?" I've paid to watch a movie - the Studio, the Director, the actors have had their fair cut from me - now why should the publisher tell me how and where I can watch it?

I'm not suggesting that I be allowed to make and distribute copies of it. Just that I can place MY copy of the film onto a medium that is convenient for me, so that I can watch it while I'm stepping at the gym, or travelling by plane or train.

If they aren't going to let me do that, then I am not going to watch their movie at all, not at the cinema, not on pay-per-view and certainly not by "buying a copy".

Actors get paid $30,00,000 per f**king movie, producers live in a mountain of cocaine and whores, and still they want MORE money off us. F**k them, I say.

Don't give in to this s**t, resist it at every opportunity. They might win in court - they have the money for the best lawyers - - if they do, don't buy their products. It would only take a few months of movies tanking absolutely and completely for them to reconsider.

[swoon]Heh, your a stair master! Oooh, master those evenly spaced out gradually increasing in height pieces of small flat area!!![/swoon]

Gotta fight this flab somehow. And having a movie to watch makes all that climbing hard and getting nowhere less like pulling teeth.

well, its easy to put stuff on memory sticks and i think thats whats killing the format as a movie and especially music formats. if it was an open format, that people could pop into the computer and easly burn their own content onto, like a cd, it would be great. Also, if the movies were cheap like $5, i wouldnt hesitate to buy them.

No one is using it as a music format, are they?

But the point about it being easy to put things on Memory Sticks killing it is not the point. Why, if I've bought a movie on DVD would I want to pay for it AGAIN in lower res to watch on my PSP? We should reject the in principle.

All the kidz are watching over compressed, thumbnail-sized Angry Kid on their phones - how about some quality Angry Kid or Bikini Bandits on PSP?

I do agree that the only way Sony will really benefit from UMDs is to give the a recordable funtion. But they have the big fear of piracy and misuse. That fear might well consume them.

I don't own any UMD flicks and won't ever because dvd is cheaper and better. If I choose to rip a dvd in my collection that's my business, as its for my soul use. I won't have them dictate to me what I should do with my stuff.

I'm so surprised there's still no recordable function on UMD, especially so when these muppets also made the Minidisc that way, which only suffered because they wouldn't support the mp3 format. Same s**t, different day.

This is hilarious. I swear with each passing day Sony get more and more insane.

If UMDs aren't over then why the hell aren't your own studios supporting them, Sony?

The last time I checked I wasn't in any corporations pocket, but I'm damn sure in the UK at least, there is no fair use for recorded media.

The main reason compact cassette survived the lawsuits thrown at it by the record industry was because the cassette had "non-infringing purposes". Same goes for every recordable medium since from MD to VHS.

Now with the DMCA protecting any copy-protected media (and therefore pretty much every piece of entertainment), any circumvention is a violation of the copyright and therefore punishable by death.

The fair use argument doesn't really exist. What does exist however is my middle digit and since the big five started suing every John and Jane Doe into the ground, a healthy and empowering disrespect for their "property".

Oh, and for the record, UMD is over. It never started. Just like MD before it. Well done Sony. If you survive the financial fallout of the laptop battery fiasco you can always go into the miniature frisbee market.

There isn't.

But just because something isn't enshrined in law doesn't mean it's wrong, or that it should not be legally protected.

And just because something is illegal, doesn't (necessarily) make it wrong.


There is no moral imperative to obey bad laws. If there was, we'd still be living in fealty.

The DMCA is just big business seeing and jumping on an opportunity to screw is for larger revenues.


Of course, the ARGUMENT exists. DMCA, RIAA, MPAA they can all say what they like. It is down to us as consumers to make it clear what WE believe to be fair.


Power to you and your digitus medius.


It remains a perfectly successful video game format. As a "universal media" format though - it's an unmitigated washout.


I think overall, Sony will have seen a profit on MD. It was huge in Asia, and did "fair" in Europe.