Scary new trends are taking hold in Scandinavia, France, Italy, and Germany. DVD movies are being placed on a new format, called DVD-D. What’s so special about this format? Well, it destroys the information on it after an allotted time slot has been used.
To be exact, for DVD-Ds with movies on them, the allotted time slot is 8 hours from the time the disk is inserted into a DVD player. Discs with software have a 48 hour time slot before erasing themselves. These discs cost less than regular DVDs and are sold at gas stations and kiosks.
This new format seems to be growing in popularity. Already, blank DVD-Ds are being made so that users can make their own self-erasing discs. The user can than specify when the information will be destroyed.
It is probable that this format will spread to other countries and become a popular medium for sensitive information that the content producer wants to be viewed only once. An even more scary possibility is that game developers and movie producers catch on to the idea, and use these disks to force buyers to pay for special "keys" to keep their products active, or suffer their content being destroyed, all in the spirit of generating greater revenue.
Game developers may also use this as a deterrent against piracy, making online purchases through clients such as Steam more preferable to the suicidal DVD-Ds. Or perhaps developers would want more money by forcing users to purchase of the game saving "keys".
Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that-God know games already cost too much as it is.
