Screen grab of the new US government copyright notice (Courtesy of IPR Center via Ars Technica, http://aka.ms/IPR)

FBI shows who's boss, forces us to view more DVD warnings

5/10/2012

DVD and Blu-ray watchers have just gained a few extra seconds to add butter to their popcorn. The FBI has teamed up with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and a slew of other government agencies to put out two new unskippable messages on the front end of discs. The warnings are designed to serve as a friendly reminder that piracy isn't a victimless crime and can get you five years in the slammer, along with a $250,000 fine. You won't be able to fast-forward through each 10-second segment -- they'll pop up automatically after the previews when you hit "Play" for the main feature. So take that eye patch off, kids, and sit back and enjoy the reprimand, er, show.

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How will you spend that extra 20 seconds?