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The original DIVX was an attempt by Circuit City to circumvent DVD rental stores. The idea was that you bought a DIVX DVD for about $4, and you played it on your DIVX-enabled DVD player (that you bought from Circuit City) which was connected to a telephone line, and 48 hours after you started playing it, it quit playing. If you wanted to buy extra hours, you could do that, and you could pay a fee that converted the DIVX to "gold" status that would let you play it whenever you wanted.
The idea went down in flames in record time, maybe 8 months or so, costing Circuit City over $100 million.
The self-destructing DVDs were air-activated. They came in an airtight pack and they started self-destructing upon opening. I don't know exactly how long they could be played before they became unreadable. I have one that I bought SOLELY as a collector's item for, as I recall, about $8. They were sold at grocery stores and other mass market outlets, had major backing from Disney and other studios, and died the death of a rabid dog on a playground.
Let's face it, folks: This sh*t don't work. Get over it. Sell a product at a reasonable price, make it easy to obtain legally, face the fact that some people will steal it no matter what you do, and make your money from the honest people who compose most of society.
IMHO, of course!
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