What The Hell Is This, Fox?!

I know I’ve got other things on my plate that I want to talk about, but this is something I need to discuss.  See this image?  I encountered this as soon as I started playing my copy of Independence Day: Resurgence on Blu-Ray.  Apparently, the reason this shows up, is because of Fox Studios’ new copy protection scheme for their Blu-Rays.  This only shows up when you play the Blu-Ray on a computer that has issues connecting to the internet.  If the player can’t play the disc, it asks you to obtain an access code, which is available on the Play My Blu-Ray site.

THIS image is where you are supposed to enter the access code that you get from either the website I mentioned or Twitter.  For those of us who play games on PCs, this is familiar as the product activation screen for some games.  I understand the need to protect your IP.  I do.  But this is counter-productive.  These companies don’t seem to understand that you can’t prevent piracy, and yet they continue to try, much to the inconvenience of the people trying to watch the movie.  It seems like you don’t get this screen when you watch the film on a regular Blu-Ray player or PS3/PS4.  Going by what the website says, it says that this for Blu-Rays that were released on or before 10/19/2016.  If that’s the case, why didn’t I have to use this code for X-Men: Apocalypse, another Fox Blu-Ray that I bought?  It’s very strange.  Now, it seems like it’s a one-and-done kind of deal, meaning that you only have to enter the code once, and then you’re free to watch the disc whenever you want.  Now, I got the message and the images above while I was using PowerDVD 13, Cyberlink’s proprietary software Blu-Ray player.  I haven’t encountered anything like this with any other Blu-Ray from any other company, so……what’s the deal?  The harder you try to prevent piracy, the more determined that pirates are going to be in order to crack your protection scheme.  You shouldn’t have to take extra steps to watch a movie that you purchased legitimately, and that’s who these protection schemes hurt the most:  The consumer.  You don’t see pirates bitching about these kinds of things, because they work their way around them.  The consumer is going to be frustrated at the extra hoops that they have to jump through, just to watch a two-hour movie.  Who really wants to do that?  I’m not saying I advocate piracy.  I do not.  I don’t believe in it.  But I do understand why people do it, and this is going to push more consumers to pirate Fox’s movies.  You’re shooting yourself in the foot by punishing the consumers.  Some might say I’m overreacting to the whole thing, but I don’t think I am.  I’ve seen this crap pushed on gamers for years, but now Fox is starting to push this fucking shit onto audiences that prefer to watch movies at home.  No.  Fuck this shit, and fuck you Fox Studios for pushing this shit on us.