Here's an Idea: Make Them Edible

I hope DVD-D Germany Ltd. has a nice big landfill out behind its corporate offices, because it’s going to need it if its new disposable DVD technology takes off.

Produced with a chemical coating that renders them unreadable after 48 hours or so, the company’s Einmal (German for “once”) discs posit a play-once-and-toss model that, at a reasonably low price-point, could be a piracy-limiting means of distribution (the discs include no DRM, but why bother ripping them if they’re so cheap).

So it’s an interesting idea (though not a new one; Flexplay and SpectraDisc both tried something similar a few years back). Certainly the prospect of not ever having to worry about returning your latest Netflix (NFLX) or Inmotion Pictures airport rental could be quite appealing to some. But isn’t that an annoyance that video-on-demand is already doing away with? And really, who wants to increase their carbon footprint like this anyway?