Part of the hidden system of the two new DVD formats has been the copy protection systems, or Digital Rights Management (DRM).  DRM is the name for systems that enable distributors of media to set, via technological means, the way the media will be used, e.g. what device it can be played on, if it can be copied and so on. DRM can be both hardware, software or a mixture of both.   It is estimated that millions of dollars in research went into both Blu-Ray and HD DVD to ensure their DRM was hack-proof - only to have it cracked within a day of each format's release.  Blu-Ray, however, had an ace up it's sleeve; an added additional layer of DRM protection called BD+ , unfortunately for Sony, that has now been hacked as well .  So is all this energy poured into DRM worth it?  DRM now finds itself under attack again, not from hackers this time, but from economics, here one writer argues ;

"...for a new business model to make sense, it needs to provide more value. Providing more value than people can get elsewhere is the reason why a business model succeeds....DRM is fundamentally opposed to this concept. It is not increasing value for the consumer in any way, but about limiting it...[it] holds back that value and prevents it from being realized. It shrinks the pie -- and no successful business models come out of providing less value and shrinking the overall pie. Fundamentally, DRM cannot create a successful new business model. It can only contain one."

The experience of customers would seem to support this view, for example, people who brought videos with DRM, only to be locked out .  It also seems that some media companies are getting wise to the general dissatisfaction with DRM; the iTunes store originally sold music with DRM, then offered music without but with an increased price tag, and now offers both DRM and non-DRM music at the same price .