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PS3 Video DRM also draconian?

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PS3 Movie Store

A lot has been said about the draconian DRM embedded in Spore at the moment but EA games are far from being the only company to try to thwart piracy.

It seems that the movies you download from the PSN have a similar feature.

The rentals are able to be kept for 24 hours which I think is perfectly fair and there is nothing wrong with that. However the movies that you actually buy and download have some DRM inside them as well.

But I am not talking about the DRM that stops you copying them onto other devices or burning them onto a DVD.

If you delete a movie that you have paid for and downloaded from the PSN you cannot get it back. Yes they have a record of you paying for it but that doesn’t matter. The token you get is for one download only. (well if you ask nicely they will let you download it again but then that’s it)

 

Granted this isn’t a major issue, unless you follow Sony’s instructions and upgrade your hard drive… or have your PS3 die on you.

So you’re not allowed to back up your movies and if something goes wrong it’s called tough.. You can see that Sony are not pushing for digital distribution anytime soon.

So how long do you think that 40 Gig drive is going to last you now that you are installing half your games and cannot delete the movies you purchased?

Source: Arstechnica

[Thanks Ewie for the tip]

Last Updated: September 22, 2008

10 Comments

  1. kab123

    September 22, 2008 at 16:18

    I don’t think I understand completely.

    “But I am not talking about the DRM that stops you copying them onto other devices or burning them onto a DVD.”

    So can you back it up to a DVD for exclusive use on a PS3 later on or can’t you?

    If you can then I don’t understand the issue with:

    “So how long do you think that 40 Gig drive is going to last you now that you are installing half your games and cannot delete the movies you purchased?”

    As for the rest, let’s face it, from a RSA perspective downloads will not happen soon for obvious reasons. Internationally digital downloads boxes will by far be more popular than both xbox or ps3 unless MS or Sony starts making 500GB HDD consoles.

    Our only hope is Multi Choice atm. Their new HDPVR sells for R2.5k, it has a 300GB HDD and it has a LNB port assigned for data exclusively which (hopefully) will be used my MC in future for VOD. Well that’s the plan…

    Reply

  2. LazySAGamer

    September 22, 2008 at 16:28

    No you are not allowed to back up the movies to DVD

    So you can’t back them up and if they get deleted or lost then you are lost

    Reply

  3. darthdad

    September 22, 2008 at 16:43

    Evil Sony! 😥

    Reply

  4. easy

    September 22, 2008 at 16:58

    you can backup your content on a ps3. obviously you’ll need a ext hdd, but its supported by the ps3.
    i stand corrected about dl’d movies, as i have not done that yet, but all other dl’d & game content is backed up.
    the use of ‘draconian’ is possibly a bit harsh

    Reply

  5. ewie

    September 22, 2008 at 17:56

    If i understand what the ars technca article say is you can buy the movie and download it to your ps3 but if you want to redownload it you can not. e.g. you donwload once and that is it, if you decide you now need a 300 gig HD on your ps3
    It is buy-buy video.

    Reply

  6. Milesh Bhana

    September 22, 2008 at 18:08

    how do the download prices compare to actually buying the DVD/Blue-Ray ? If the download price is more than 75% of the hard copy then you’re probably better off buying the disk anyway.

    Milesh Bhanas last blog post..Lego Star Wars : The Complete Saga [360]

    Reply

  7. Fudzy

    September 22, 2008 at 19:38

    Add to that the ridiculous price we pay for bandwidth in South Africa and purchasing movies/series online is not really an attractive offer.

    Reply

  8. kab123

    September 22, 2008 at 19:54

    Hang on if you want to re download the article says you can if you give customer care a call. Just like I had to call MS SA the other day to re-activate my windows after trying to install it on my PC with a upgraded motherboard.

    Face it people, DRM is a bitch. But it’s here to stay. Just like electric fencing and aggresive pit bulls in sunny SA.

    Reply

  9. abe

    September 22, 2008 at 21:27

    I like to hold things 😉

    Reply

  10. LazySAGamer

    September 22, 2008 at 22:13

    Customer care will allow you to download it once more (as I did say in the article).

    But you have paid for the movie, you should be able to download it as often as you like.

    I actually don’t have a major problem with DRM but I do have an issue with it when it gets in the way of day to day activities… If Sony are going to push the fact that you can upgrade the HDD yourself then they have to allow you to redownload content that you paid for.

    Reply

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