With a nickname like "The Father of DVD," I guess Warren Lieberfarb can say pretty much anything he wants about the format these days. And yesterday, he gave a surprising speech in which he blasted Blu-ray. Taking the next-generation DVD battle another step into uglytown, Lieberfarb said Hollywood is acting like a bunch of lemmings, following blindly into Blu-ray's camp because of console battles rather than following their best interests. Accusing Sony of strong-arming the industry, he had this to say:

If you ever read "The Art of War," you will see all of Sony's moves, including taking all its enemies in the same tent and then leaving them empty-handed, are things that they have done historically. They did the same thing to Matsushita and Betamax, they did the same thing to Matsushita on compact disc, they did the same thing to Matsushita on the digital video camcorder.

Those are some strong words, Dad. Of course, it's interesting to note that Lieberfarb is working with Toshiba and Microsoft as a consultant, so best take this with a grain of salt.

"Father of DVD" blasts Sony's Blu-Ray plans [Arstechnica]

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