The world’s largest DVD manufacturer Ritek, and its subsidiary U-Tech, will make the discs. Ritek supplies discs for Warner Bros., Disney, Fox and others, and presses more than 500 million DVDs and CDs.
The idea behind the technology is that consumer DVD players will be able to read the RFID chip and refuse to play discs it’s identified as illegal copies. Ritek claims its technology also will work on next-generation Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs and players.
“This technology holds the potential to protect the intellectual property of music companies, film studios, gaming and software developers worldwide,” Ritek CEO Gordon Yeh said.
IPICO is making the RFID chips, and it announced that production has begun on “chipped” DVDs at Ritek’s main plant in Taiwan.
The company’s planned rollout of its new technology is a multistage process, beginning a large-scale rollout in Australia. The company did not announce a timetable for the launch.
“I have envisioned using RFID to improve product visibility and enhance security in the optical disc industry for some time,” Yeh said. “Launching the chip-on-disc system has made this dream a reality and holds the potential to protect the intellectual property of music companies, film studios, gaming and software developers worldwide.”
Ritek’s announcement comes at a time when hackers are making mincemeat out of Microsoft’s proprietary DRM technology that protects media files on PCs.
FairUse4WM recently debuted on the Internet that strips Microsoft’s DRM license from purchased media. The program was posted to Internet message boards, and has become popular while Microsoft attempts to develop a patch.
