NXP Semiconductors, the independent company founded by Philips, and Kestrel Wireless today joined forces on a solution to solve the problem of DVD theft throughout the supply chain. Using NXP's leading RFID chip technology and Kestrel's RFA (Radio Frequency Activation) solution it is possible to disable DVDs at the point of manufacture and enable them at the point of sale, making goods stolen at any point during the supply chain worthless, thus eliminating the incentive for theft. The first application of NXP and Kestrel's RFA/RFID solution will be integrated into optical media. The solution, however, is applicable to all consumer electronics products, such as MP3 players, electric shavers, toothbrushes, flat screen TVs, ink jet cartridges and flash memory. Of course, we can already envision the complaints that are sure to arise from legitimate buyers bringing home a coaster if the activation process happens to fail, but apparently, both companies are already hard at work persuading studios to write 'em a check and get these things into stores.

In other news, DigiTimes reports that OEM prices of CD-R and DVD+R/-R discs will rise in the third quarter of this year. Time to stock up?