[R2P2 @ May 10th 2007 9:24AM]

Unless the packaging on the disc says in big, bold letters, "THIS DISC WILL NOT WORK IF YOU STEAL IT", "minor thieves" will still steal the discs. Heck, the label probably wouldn't even stop them, since they wouldn't believe it. The disc won't work when they get it home, so they might think twice about stealing more discs, but if they're "minor" they probably don't steal on a regular basis to begin with, right? This won't really reduce losses at retail, so much as piss off the people causing the losses.

[Kamokazi @ May 10th 2007 10:00AM]

I worked for 2 years at a major electronics retailer, half of which was spent in loss prevention...I'm not just making uneducated guesses here.

Yes, they will steal some initially just like they always have because they don't know the technology is there. But what will happen is if the technology is successful, it will become common knowledge that the discs have this technology in them so they can't be played unless activated, which in the long term will cause theft to drop by quite a bit.

It's the same way with the security tags on everything that are designed to set off door alarms...even if you don't see the tag you know it's probably there somewhere. Additionally, the tags on the outside are almost always redundant; they're there to give a sense of security, as most products have them placed inside the box by the manufacturer as well (usually near the barcode).

But that is entirely too easy to get around...line your coat with tin foil and it wont pick up the tag to reflect back the RF signal...we had trouble with console games walking out the door this way. Ultimately we had to lock the games up in the back, but then our sales dropped (a lot more than you'd think...some people are impatient or cant be bothered to ask someone to get the game they wanted). We generally lost money in console games, because we'd get them in at $47 as new releases and end up having to sell them 6 months later at clearance prices. This kind of theft prevention would help that tremendously.