I wonder how long it will take to crack.
Sony's Japan unit has figured out a way to let people watch movies that will self-destruct after its over. The company's So-net Internet service provider will soon trial the service in Japan. So-net's new service allows people to download the content from its Web site to their hard drives--but those hoping to add the file to a permanent collection or to copy it could have their attempts frustrated. The company has incorporated a digital rights management (DRM) technology from software maker Japan Wave into its service, which should make copying impossible, the report said. Instead of saving a video to a single file and location, Japan Wave's technology splits the data into numerous directories on a hard disk. People need to download special software to play back the various pieces as a continuous movie. There's a second layer of protection: Those who manage to join up the files won't be able to use them for very long. Software embedded in the file is designed to cause it to self-destruct after a given time, quoted Cnet.