A few days ago, we reported on how Google"s new Movie service was deliberately being blocked if your device was rooted and now the plot seems to have thickened somewhat. A new application was recently released by Blockbuster and Droid Life are reporting that this, too, is detecting if your device has been rooted or not and blocking access if it is.
This is particularly interesting for two reasons. For one, the application refers to it as "Tamper detection", implying that you"re being locked out specifically to avoid some kind unauthorised access, but the most interesting thing is that bit about "Widevine encrypted content".
Many people speculated that the reason Google Movies was locked out on Android devices was due to some sort of pressure or licensing agreement from the movie studios and that still may be the case, however Widevine are a DRM software company and, crucially, owned by Google themselves. It could just be coincidence that the Blockbuster application happens to use DRM that is owned by Google and the movie studios are still responsible, or it could be a hint that Google is attempting to prove to content providers that its own DRM service is secure and part of that security is enforced by refusing to work on rooted devices.
As always, someone will likely find a way around this in short order, but how long will it take before legitimate consumers get fed up of jumping through hoops and being restricted for the sake of the movie studios?