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Ebistrade’s DVD Magic plans

The Japanese company Ebistrade found a new way to squeeze money (and personal data) out of customers with its soon-to-launch pay-per-week DVD Magic service. Yes, DVD Magic it is. This is how it will work:

  1. You buy one of their so called “Keitai DVDs” in an am/pm convenience store – currently you can choose between 5 (!) titles. Price is 525 Yen.
  2. You come home, insert the DVD in your DVD player and get a blue screen asking you to send them an empty mail with your mobile phone (why is not really clear – I guess they reply you with some information about how it works).
  3. Next step: send another mail to the same address, including the number that is displayed on the next screen. Within moments you receive a password to unlock the DVD. Of course, this password is not free. 315 Yen is charged on your next phonebill.
  4. Enter the password via the remote control of your DVD player.
  5. You can watch the movie.
  6. One week passes and you feel like seeing the movie again.
  7. You insert the DVD… only to see that you have to pay another 315 Yen to see your DVD again.
  8. And this happens again. And again.

And yep, this is not a joke. According to TechJapan, Ebistrade has even bigger plans:

Ebis Trade is planning a second lineup for September or October. After that, they plan o­n releasing titles o­n a weekly basis, and a shooting for sales of more than 6 million discs by 2007. They are also looking into expanding their market beyond just convenience stores, to include bookstores and gas stations.

Comments on “Ebistrade’s DVD Magic plans” (feed)

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  1. Ｔｈｉｓ　ｉｓ　ｉｎｔｒｅｓｕｔｉｎｇ article. I think It is suppose to change of notion that is right of posession.
    Well so
    Is there particuraly way or new one in the world?

    » JOHNY on July 31st, 2004 at 19:38

  2. Well, there is a difference between real property rights and intellectual property rights. In general, one can say that intellectual property rights are less absolute. James Boyle puts it like this: In personal or real property [...] one can at least point to a pair of sneakers or a house, say “I own that,” and have some sense of confidence that the statement means something. [...] In intellectual property, the response to the claim “I own that” might be “what do you mean?” (James Boyle, Shamans, software and spleens: law and the construction of the information society)
    So in that sense, it is indeed a bad idea to try to protect intellectual property too much, as that might do more harm than good.

    » Andreas on August 1st, 2004 at 10:14

  3. It’s already here.
    Last week I was in Yodobashi Camera and I noticed a 10 pack DVD-R for DATA from TDK. Included was an extra DVD about the movie “Van Helsing”, some sort of special “making of” feature. More interesting was the very small logo “Powered by DVD Magic” and the notice that the DVD contents would be playable until January 2005 (so probably after some kind of activation). If you are looking for some research material, now you know where to get it!

    » Niko on August 1st, 2004 at 18:17

  4. Thanks Niko :-)

    » Andreas on August 1st, 2004 at 19:03

  5. Interesting. I didn’t get the chance to look at renting DVDs when I was in Japan- how do the costs compare to this system, out of curiousity, at least for a “one time” use? In the US, a company tried to have “expiring” DVDs for sale at about $7.99. A person could watch the DVD a few times within the first couple of days, after which the DVD would become unplayable. My city was one of the test markets, and it was an utter failure. Cost was cited as one of the reasons it failed- it is far cheaper to rent a DVD and watch it for the same time period.

    » cjovalle on August 2nd, 2004 at 20:01

  6. &>it is far cheaper to rent a DVD and watch it for the same time period.

    Same in Japan. Renting DVDs is far cheaper than buying DVD Magic encumbered ones.
    Besides, if you want to rip DVDs, you’re better of with rented ones, as the tools for that are widely available on the net. The DVD Magic protection on the other hand is not circumvented yet and thus will Ebistrade’s copy protected DVDs be far less appealing. Ebistrade doesn’t seem to get this, though.

    » Andreas Bovens on August 4th, 2004 at 05:04