Nate Anderson, writing for Ars Technica:

The idea isn’t to deter current pirates, apparently (the new scheme requires all legal purchasers to sit through 20 seconds of warnings each time they pop in a film, but will be totally absent from pirated downloads and bootlegs). It’s to educate everyone else. As ICE Director John Morton announced in a statement yesterday, “Law enforcement must continue to expand how it combats criminal activity; public awareness and education are a critical part of that effort.”

Unskippable garbage before the movie is one of the many reasons why I’ve ripped every DVD I own. I have a feeling that making movies easier to watch will discourage pirates far more than forcing them to sit through annoying government warnings.

(Via Daring Fireball.)