The PR work for the marketing department at Sony will never be done - not when they have to explain why Sony DVDs won't play in Sony DVD players:

In their zeal to make their DVD movies copyproof (yeah right) they have in fact made their latest releases unplayable on some DVD players, including my Sony DVP-CX995V DVD player. I recently rented “Stranger than Fiction” (2 copies) and “The Holiday” ( please no comments on my choice of movies) both by Sony Pictures. Both load up to the splash title screen and then load no further, then after about 60 secs the player turns itself off!

ALL my other DVD’s and new releases from other movie companies play perfectly

Looks like I won't be buying - or even renting - any Sony DVDs anytime soon - especially given this kind of "tech support":

Sony Tech: We know about this problem. Its our new copy protection that’s making these discs unplayable in some players including our own, we do not intend to change the copy protection. The only correction to this problem is a firmware update to your player. The electronics division know about this and should have given you this information.

Me: OK send me the firmware update.

Sony Tech: We do not have one as yet.

So here's a question for the bright guys at Sony: Will this even slow down the dedicated pirates - you know, the ones who rip off movies and sell knock-off DVDs on the street? Not one bit, no. Will it irritate the crap out of your paying customers who are buying your hardware and software, and then finding out that they don't work together? Furthermore, will their first thought be something like "gee, my Sony DVD player must be broken - better run down and buy a new (non-Sony) player"?

You just have to marvel at the thought process that brings this kind of thing to market.

Technorati Tags: stupidity, PR, marketing