IBM wants commercials on DVD's

[Dr Mordrid]

Link....

IBM to shove ads onto DVDs

IBM hopes to slip commercials onto your DVDs. Big Blue has asked the US Patent Office for the exclusive rights to a "system and method of providing advertisements during DVD playback."

If this thing ever shows up in your DVD player, your discs won't be ad-free - unless you shell out some cash for some sort of digital certificate.

"Whenever a DVD is to be played, a certificate is consulted to determine whether the content of the DVD should be played with or without commercial interruptions," the patent reads. "If the certificates provide for commercial interruptions, then commercials can be obtained from an online service that renders commercials on demand, or from the DVD itself."

And, yes, those commercials would be littered throughout the DVD - television-style.
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[Umfriend]

I never, _never_, buy DVDs (nor copy them or anything) but if I would, this'd verily put me off.

[cjolley]

The first movie with this will be that Nicolas Cage story: "Cracked in Sixty Seconds"

[Gurm]

If it makes the DVD's cheaper, why not? I mean, $15 for the full version or $5 for the ad-based version?

It'll fail miserably, just like DIVX, but hey... I have no objection so long as my full-priced disc plays uninterrupted.

[Umfriend]

Guess it'll be closer to $14.95 for the ad-based version and $34.95 for the enhanced superdeluxe special edition uninterupted version. These companies, like any other sensible private company, aims for profit, not sale at cost.

[Kooldino]

Screw this.

[High_Jumbllama]

Never. Simply never.

[Elie]

I don't think this will fly, but lets say it does... I will never buy a DVD again.

[Fat Tone]

If it makes the DVD's cheaper, why not? I mean, $15 for the full version or $5 for the ad-based version?

Because some people still have a concentration span longer than the average goldfish?

[Umfriend]

But this isn't about some people, it's about most people.

I fear the day you get forced to read ads when reading a book is closing in on us.

[Fat Tone]

Cracking aside, I think the day a DVD contains ads mid-program (its bad enough having them at the start of a rental) will be the day people decide to wait a while and watch on TV instead.

I remember well the early days of ITV where the ads in the middle of the program were much shorter and far less intrusive than those between programs. Then suddenly the 'middle' ads started advertising other programs etc, really destroying any sense of continuity. And now any documentary or simillar program insists on recapping after every single break, such that a 1 hour program only has about 30 minutes content. ARGHHH!

[Chucky Cheese]

...can't someone then create a "plugin" for a "popular"...uhh...copying program to strip this crap out?...there are a lot of smart people out there

[Wulfman]

I fear the day you get forced to read ads when reading a book is closing in on us.

actually, the days are already beyond us: I have a few paperbacks from the .. dunno, 70's, 80's.. that feature one ad-page within the text. iirc, the beginning of the page is consistent with the one before, then the text drifts off to some ad-stuff. maggi or instant noodles or whatever.

mfg
wulfman

[UtwigMU]

At work we have paid for commercial network version of phonebook software. Never mind that I can get that info for free online with maps. There are blody banners in paid for app.

[Umfriend]

actually, the days are already beyond us: I have a few paperbacks from the .. dunno, 70's, 80's.. that feature one ad-page within the text. iirc, the beginning of the page is consistent with the one before, then the text drifts off to some ad-stuff. maggi or instant noodles or whatever.

mfg
wulfman

Oops. Hope you can turn those pages without finishing them but I get the picture.

wouldn't the ads on the DVD out date rather quickly?

If the certificates provide for commercial interruptions, then commercials can be obtained from an online service that renders commercials on demand

And in time they'll think of obliging the players only to play if connected.