Android application developer Alex Holmes is creating a simple and powerful new way to get your pirated videos: an application that uses your cellphone's built in camera to scan a DVD bar code, then starts the movie downloading onto your home computer.
Called "Torrent Droid," the program means consumers who spot a DVD they like at the local Walmart will no longer have to choose between the instant gratification of buying it on the spot, and the frugal -- albeit illegal -- alternative of grabbing it from BitTorrent.
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I've always been fascinated with the rate at which technology evolves. You buy a new gadget and less than 6 months later it's obsolete.
This, on the other hand, is something that I find both interesting and rather unsettling at the same time.
Granted, piracy is seen as a problem in the entertianment industry, I'm cusious as to what the actual dollar value is, per year, that is lost when someone snags a movie or song(s) online instead of paying for it at your local "big box" store.
Any piece of technology that is developed for a certain purpose can be manipulated in order to perform another task. This can be something as mundane as reducing the time you spend in the grocery store or something as sinister as identity theft. Seeing as how this piece of tech was intended for stealing films ( by scanning the UPC code from a DVD ) it stands to reason that anything with a bar-code can be scanned and information appropriated.
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