Land of Whimsy

A taste of things to come if Blu-ray wins

Want to know why I’m so against Blu-ray winning the format war? Stories like this. Okay, I know, dodgy low-rate porn movies - who cares - but this is merely a foretaste to the sort of control Sony could have over the industry if they emerge triumphant from this shambles. Basically, none of their copying facilities agreed to cooperate with porn producers Digital Playground, and Sony even went so far as to threaten to revoke the company’s Blu-ray licenses if porn appeared on the format. As a result, Digital Playground have defected to HD DVD - hopefully they are just the first of many.

So, the question now is, what other titles will Sony decide are not “appropriate” for release on Blu-ray? We already know that Synapse Films were told that they couldn’t release Thriller: A Cruel Picture, among other titles. This is the sort of nightmare situation we could be faced with if the industry takes the Blue Pill, and I’m sure I speak for every movie fan with any sense when I say that the last thing we want is a future in which a company with its own films to sell can dictate what others can and cannot release.

Posted: Thursday, January 11, 2007 at 8:45 PM | Comments: 4
Categories: Blu-ray | Cinema | HD DVD

Comments

1.

This sounds so typical of Sony. Trying to shut out what the public likes and wants and forcing them to get what Sony wants them to get instead.
But I guess this will make for another big plus for the HDDVD-camp since porn is such a big share of the market. As soon as the porn starts coming out on HDDVD their software sales will skyrocket :)

Posted by: Andreas Svalås, January 12, 2007 10:30 AM

2.

Yeah, I wonder how long it is until Sony tells Disney they can’t press the BD of Pirates of the Caribbean XII because they want to market to themselves while they release Spiderman LVII. Such is the situation you find yourself in when a format is controlled by a company that also owns film studios.

Posted by: Whiggles, January 12, 2007 10:57 AM

3.

Thankfully this was all a huge misunderstanding. As it turns out Sony has absolutely no control over content it's the BDA that has the control and even then it's tenuous.

What Sony do control is a number of duplication plants who are refusing to duplicate porn (they refused with DVD too). However companies are free to use independent duplicators although they neglect to mention that!

Thank god, I say, I think censorship, especially corporate censorship is a dangerous thing. I'm sure some of you are looking forward to Vivid's first BD release this february

Posted by: Camaj, January 21, 2007 3:14 PM

4.

This sounds suspiciously similar to the MPAA’s “we don’t censor” mantra. The issue may not be one of Sony saying “You can’t release that”, but it certainly sounds as if they (in conjunction with their partners at the BDA) are intent on making things as difficult as possible for those who would like to release “dirty” content on Blu-ray. Yes, independent plants can be used to release material that Sony don’t want to tarnish their squeaky-clean (LOL) image with, but how many of them are there, and how many plants are going to consider pressing Blu-ray discs given the added cost and technical wrangling required?

Posted by: Whiggles, January 21, 2007 3:26 PM

Comments on this entry and all entries up to and including June 31st 2009 have been closed. The discussion continues on the new Land of Whimsy blog:

http://www.landofwhimsy.com

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A taste of things to come if Blu-ray wins

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