Blu-ray's Mission Impossible: "Good morning Mr. Phelps ..."

The paranoia of the entertainment industry is finally getting to me. This month the Sony-led Blu-ray (www.blu-ray.com) consortium will be releasing next generation optical disk products destined over time to replace DVDs for HD TVs. The security impact is that Blu-ray also imposes security technologies into my living room to make sure I do not make any illegal copies of a movie. It is an amazingly personal statement that the entertainment people believe that I am a threat to their business. (Note: I am speaking as a consumer who has spent thousands of dollars on Sony products, even though I am clearly not a Blu-ray consumer today).

There are three technologies that are new to Blu-ray that I'll mention:

1. Advance Access Content System allows me to make copies for home use. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but since the industry got the government to author the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, I need a loophole to make copies for home use (so I can play a movie on a laptop when I'm traveling).

This is a pain in the neck. It means I have to give Blu-ray an Internet connection. The wireless hub for the Ogren family network is in the basement so this will require extra expense, cabling, and ugliness just so content providers can be sure I'm not ripping them off.

2. ROM Mark is an encoding in the disk to prevent mass production piracy. This requires special manufacturing equipment to embed authenticity secrets onto the disk that the reader will look for.

I am completely ok with this. Mass production of bootleg copies inflicts real financial harm to content providers and this is a completely rational way for them to protect themselves.

3. BD-Plus allows vendors to automatically download code into my Blu-ray player. This is marketed as allowing content providers to protect themselves by forcing a change in encryption algorithms if their ROM Mark code gets broken.

This is way too invasive for me. It means that a number of organizations can render my Blu-ray player unusable, or portions of my disk library unreadable. I can only imagine the frustration of hours spent on the telephone working with helpful customer support personnel.

By contrast, the Microsoft-led standard, HD-DVD, does not introduce BD+ capability and seems to be more consumer-friendly in its functionality to allow me to make copies for home use.

Blu-ray specifications are hard to come by. I suspect a hefty license fee is required. The entertainment folks must be big believers in security by obscurity. But this approach doesn't cut it when you are asking consumers like me to build in an Internet connection, ask permission before making private-use copies, and permit a multi-national corporation into my living room to modify my expensive entertainment system. Fighting with your best customers is never a good idea. I believe Blu-ray will follow the Betamax path due to over-zealous security.

Mission Impossible will indeed be one of the first 100 titles that will be released on Blu-ray. Will Blu-ray self-destruct after 60 seconds??